I was obsessed with it, and then I learned more about professional wrestling and how the beauty that does exist in it is truly an art form.
I really hate my hair when it's not braided because it's so big when it dries. When it's wet, it looks cool, but when it dries, it gets all in my mouth during a match, and I hate it.
Whether I ever become WWE champion in my career, I'm proud of what I've done.
When you commit to a WWE contract, you're committing to some serious time away from home.
I don't want to go back to WWE and burn out within four or five months, and having another run as TNA world champion would feel just as good.
Thank God for TNA: we've had the creative freedom to do what we want to do.
I've learned that I can still be loved if I perform well, and I learned that from the broken brilliance of Matt Hardy.
I just want to go out there and have the best matches I possibly can.
Once I established myself doing crazy things and being extreme, people want to see it all the time.
It's good to establish moves that fans are always going to recognize and scream for.
I never view myself as a leader.
I compliment people when I see something I really like and tell them, 'That was good. Keep doing what you're doing.' That's as much as advice as you will get out of me.
Sting was one of my first and biggest influences. One night in North Carolina, when I reached out and touched his shoulder, he had the face paint on, and I didn't know why, but I loved it. I wanted to be just like him, and I was only 11 years old.
I'm still a fan at heart.
To me, wrestling is just as cool as it ever was.
Shawn Michaels was the guy to study and watch.
TNA is great about going out of their way to interact with the fans.
I'm good at professional wrestling, and I always will be good, but what's always been different about me is that I can't completely focus on professional wrestling.
I started wrestling professionally, I did my first television match at 16, but I was wrestling at country fairs and national armories when I was 14.
When I was a kid, I wrestled my high school amateur wrestling in junior year.
