When I was 19 or 20 years old, I wasn't making a living wrestling. I needed a full-time income.
When I signed with Ring of Honor, looking back now, I don't think I deserved it.
My life did a 180 when I joined Bullet Club. Joining Bullet Club opened the door to New Japan for me. It made me more valuable.
I was a high school teacher when I joined Bullet Club and started going to Japan.
Part of what I've tried to do since I became 'Hangman' is try to give back to the world because I know I can make people feel a little more uncomfortable than maybe most wrestlers do.
That first year I was in Ring of Honor, maybe it wasn't even a year, I was wearing the trucker hat thing and wearing John Deere stuff because I felt like part of what made me different from a lot of guys was that I was kind of a good ol' boy and a southern type of guy.
When you're a chill, laid back guy, you maybe have more pent-up frustration, anger, bitterness, than maybe somebody a little wilder would have.
I guess when I talk to friends and family back home they don't know anything about wrestling, but when they bring it up they bring up the things they may used to watch and love.
There are a lot of guys who have never had to go to a commercial break during their match.
As a wrestler, sometimes I'm fortunate with some free time.
When I left teaching, I don't think anyone I worked with necessarily understood what I did or the level at which I did it but I think they all do now. I think its Bullet Club stuff and what we're doing now in wrestling is, honestly, such a big part of pop culture that it's kind of hard to avoid, even if you don't follow wrestling.
I had an interest in film, but I didn't want to go to Hollywood and make movies.
I moved back home after graduating from Virginia Tech. And that's when reality hit. I knew I had to do something. I guess it doesn't click when you're that young. I was 19 and had finished college. I got home and had to figure out what I was going to do.
I feel like everything in my life has somehow just fallen into perfect place at the perfect time. I don't know how it happened. It's always like right at the point of my life about to fall apart, and then something amazing happens. I don't know how, but it happens.
I really don't feel like just going to WWE is the absolute end-all, be-all in wrestling.
When I was a little kid, WWF was all I had access to. After a year or two when I found the indies and could watch wrestling live, it was just as big a deal to me as WWF.
I had a cousin who dated someone in CWF, so I was traveling to shows by age 10 or 11. I got to work with them later after I started wrestling, and it was awesome.
I always knew that in the U.S., if you wanted to be a wrestler, Ring of Honor was the place to be.
Being in the Bullet Club is definitely a huge opportunity and guarantees more eyes on my work.
My number one goal has always been to try to tell interesting, cohesive, long-term stories.
