Even though I wrestled Ric Flair very early on in my career, it was a short match, so getting to wrestle him later on in my career was a benchmark. Wrestling Hulk Hogan was a benchmark for me.
If you have 100 acres worth of food, and you've got 500 animals out there, the young ones and the old ones are going to starve to death because they can't compete. When they starve, they start to eat things they shouldn't be eating and spread disease not only to them but to us.
The life of a WWE superstar is awesome, but I want my kids to have a life balanced by more traditional ideas about what our life and our country used to be. And still can be if we want it to be.
My years in the WWE, a lot of stuff came out that you're not even aware of because they come out with it so fast, and there's so much of it. It's tough, certainly, to have any hands-on association with it, so I was happy to be able to have some input into the 'Deuce Brand' watch.
It's one of the things, certainly for me, anyway: I'm learning to take a bigger role in the things that I'm associated with.
Confidence is one of those things that no one ever wants to talk about in this industry because confidence and ego run neck and neck. But you have to understand, those are things that you have to have in order to make it to where Edge has made it. You've got to have a certain amount of ego and confidence in yourself to get there.
The entrance is important, but it's the in-ring performance that fans truly remember. My zipline entrance has become so much bigger over time, but I still think fans remember the match more than anything.
In all the years with WWE, I never really got to really establish the branding of The Showstopper as well as I would have liked to.
When I returned to wrestling, I went back a changed man. I had adopted a new way of thinking. All I wanted was for God to help me be a good witness on the platform He had brought me back to.
In every aspect of my life, I live under the protection of and in accordance to the laws of this nation. At the end of the day, it's a wildlife biological fact and a conservation fact that the game must be managed. There's only so much habitat, i.e. food, out there.
You do your best with the realization that nothing gets you in ring-shape better than being in the ring.
I think I was given a gift to wrestle. And I think when I came back, I had a much better appreciation of that. And I believe the way I went about doing it made me better at it. I didn't identify myself with the job as I did so much in the '90s. In the '90s, I didn't know who I was other than 'the wrestler.'
As badly as everybody feels like I'm a sellout for one thing or another, I guess, ultimately, when it came to wrestling, I just wanted to wrestle where I want to wrestle. And something had to be bigger and more important than the money, and for me, it was the time inside that ring.
If we're not a good steward of what God gives us, he takes it away. I think that's what happened. I wasn't a good steward of the gift that he gave me in this line of work. I abused it, so he took it away.
I am to wrestling what Elvis was to rock n' roll!
I look at Samoa Joe, and I've told him a number of times that I see his stuff at 'NXT' and think to myself, 'Man, I could have a great deal of fun with you.' He's a guy I have sort of enjoyed, and one of those sleeper guys that no one talks about.
It wasn't until 2002 when I returned to WWE and until I had physically been out there - it was during the match when Kevin Nash blew his quad. That next morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading my Bible and the Book of Joshua, and this feeling came over me that I was back here for a reason. God built me to be a wrestler.
There's no one of us that's perfect; there's no one of us that can't do just a little better.
Over the years, with hunting, I think what's become my favorite part of hunting is how self-sufficient I'm becoming.
You've got to be able to go 100 miles per hour in the ring, out of the ring, partying, and you've still got to make all your commitments.
When I started, you didn't focus so much on production, certainly not - gosh - down to the finest little detail of how you shifted your eyes or how you turned to somebody. A lot of the shots were far away from a still camera. There weren't as many close-ups and intimacy.
I was raised Catholic, and I knew of Him and certainly what He did, but I never truly experienced knowing Him.
'WrestleMania' is pressure-filled anyway, and more so when you're going for the first time in what might be the main event. If you are being dubbed, or people seeing you as the next guy, those things mount up.
I would love to have gotten into it with Harley Race. He was such a good wrestler and rough and tough. We wrestled at the same time but never each other. And wrestling Sting would have been something I would have enjoyed.
My faith is sort of where I got my confidence. And it was the confidence of, 'It's going to be what it's going to be.'
I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Howard Finkel does not get a lot of chicks!
For me, being in retirement, it was just having the opportunity to watch other stuff and do different things.
The wrestling world is unique. There are things that happened, and there are things that didn't happen, but in wrestling, you just say they all happened. Some of it's fun to let stay out there - it adds to the mystique and wrestling lore.
If I'm appearing on 'Raw,' then I'm usually there to help sell tickets to something, and that's when you see the 'HBK' Shawn Michaels come out. At panels, I can be more open and honest and show some more humility. They don't want me talking about my family on TV, but I can in a panel setting.
There are Christians who think there were seven actual days, or that creation was over time. They have answers for dinosaurs and things of that nature. And I don't claim to have any of those answers. And I understand people wanting to have discussions about it.
I'm the 'Showstoppa', the Main Event, the icon!
The whole thing about me being The Showstopper - and Mr. WrestleMania - is that it was something I said once, and it took on a life of its own from there. Truthfully, I think the idea of going out and stealing the show is something you ought to do every time you wrestle. But if you focus only on that element, you end up doing almost too much.
As long as I did the good things associated with religion, I thought I was in good shape spiritually, too.
I learned very early that you don't get time back. I'd miss my children growing up, so that's the reason I retired.
No, I don't want to go back and wrestle again... But some big bubble could break, and I might need money like everybody else.
I live in a constant state of gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciation for the second chance I was given, so anytime in any film, when that is given to someone, I always appreciate it.
My life now is about my heart going pitter-patter for my children.
I talked a bunch of crap for years and then went out and worked hard. That's the extent of it. There's no magical genius to it, as much as I'd like to think there is. I'm just a guy who works hard - and I hope guys are challenged by that.
I'll go out there and give you a show like you've never seen. Why... Because I can!
The only thing you have to have is patience and an attitude that you aren't ever going to give up.
As a wrestling fan, I can remember years ago seeing my first Street Fight between Wahoo McDaniel and Tully Blanchard, and I remember thinking to myself that I will really think I've made it when I can come to the ring in jeans and cowboy boots with my hands taped and stuff like that.
Tully was the first young, handsome, cocky, well-dressed bad guy. He was our version of Ric Flair before I knew who Ric Flair was. This was before cable TV or any of that, and Tully was our Ric Flair.
I wasn't great at a lot of stuff, but I was good at not worrying about being a wrestler.
I'm one of those people who would be OK with fading back into the background a little bit.
I have no doubt that LeBron James would've loved to have played against Michael Jordan, but that simply is not going to happen.
I don't pass myself off as a Bible scholar or a pastor or someone who knows all the biblical facts cover-to-cover. I'm just a guy whose life was changed by it. And that's about the extent of it. So I'm not easily offended when people struggle about where they're at with their faith at all.
Sometimes - and I don't mean it disrespectfully - the easiest people to work in the wrestling business are the people in the locker room.
When you're just in there with the same guys on a regular basis, I think there's a chance to become a little - I don't want to say lazy, but I'll say complacent. So to get a chance to go in there and mix it up with these other guys is exciting.
Being a good husband and father... that's the most important thing I'm going to do on this earth.
