I had a very hard-working father and a very hard-working mother. My dad was someone that would get up at 5 in the morning and work 'til 4 in the afternoon and then had a hobby he made money with. After he'd get home, he'd have a meal and have a drink and then flow right into that, trying to provide.Collection: Morning
I had paralyzing fear as a kid. I couldn't watch horror movies, nothing. The funny thing is I got so sick of being afraid that I started doing it deliberately and instead of being afraid in my bed I would sit up on my bed and say, 'ok, come on, show yourself, do it.'Collection: Funny
I'm an atheist. I don't have a religion.Collection: Religion
To a lot of MMA fighters, pro wrestling is a very popular thing and I'm very thankful for them to try and make the transition into professional wrestling. But then they figure out its not as easy as a lot of people think.Collection: Thankful
I got into wrestling at the age of 4 or 5. I didn't watch WWE until later.
I was born in Amsterdam.
I watched Japanese style wrestling, European style wrestling, and WCW.
I like being by myself a lot.
I understand that people think that because there is a certain element of me that has stepped over to the dark side, but there is only one Undertaker and I can never fill that void. And there is only one Aleister Black, and I am the first one, and there will never be a second one.
The legacy that The Undertaker has had, I can't even put into words. He changed the landscape.
My social media is very strict to my character and I've disabled comments on a lot of things because why would the Aleister Black character care about comments?
I always feel fear, even just in daily life I feel fear.
I'm frightened a lot. I feel like it's caused me a lot of obstacles.
I was a big fan of hardcore music growing up, black metal.
There is a considerable amount of content to what made Tommy End Tommy End and what makes Aleister Black Aleister Black, but there are a lot of similarities. I sometimes feel like Tommy End shed his skin and became Aleister Black. I truly feel that in WWE Tommy End could become Aleister Black.
Skeptical doesn't have to necessarily be a negative thing. I think if you allow yourself to second guess things and look at things from a distance you don't immediately run into things blindfolded, so that's a positive.
I had a vast interest in ghosts and stuff and cryptozoology and every topic that was not normal... if you're reading that stuff at 8 or 9 it has a big impact on you.
When I started out in wrestling, you have to start somewhere and you either start being the good guy or the bad guy. There is several cliches that follow that.
I never felt like the nine to five mentality is for me.
Like, the idea that I had to spend the rest of my life behind a desk and not be able to express myself the way I wanted to express myself. To me, that is torture. I mean if people out there that do love that then more love to them, but it just wasn't for me.
Professional wrestling in Europe is more of a sub-culture. It is not as popular as it is here in the United States. The people that were drawn to it were also people that were into sub-culture, hardcore sub-culture. It is basically an alternative scene that is sub-culture.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason for Aleister Black and Bobby Lashley to collide, because the world teaches us that sometimes there is no reason or rhyme for conflict.
I think that there are always these opponents that you circle back to that you have made some sort of legacy with and I feel Buddy Murphy is that for me.
I watched professional wrestling at a very early age.
As a 4-year-old, I saw two men competing in the ring, and I thought it was martial arts. I asked my parents if I could do martial arts. So, I was 5 or 6-years-old, and I was doing karate and jiu-jitsu. Later on, I started kickboxing. Then, it just progressed. I did a little bit of everything, but predominantly, I did kickboxing.
At 15-years-old, I always wanted to do professional wrestling, and at 15, I started training as a professional wrestler. It was always the plan to become an entertainer, a sports entertainer.
If I look at who I am as a person and where my interests lie, I figured that going from Tommy End to Aleister Black was almost like a possession. So, one entity to the other.
Even when you come towards the end of your career, I mean professional wrestling covers such a vast ball of knowledge it is impossible to obtain everything.
I mean, proud of myself, I always say that everything that I do is a work in progress.
I try not to stop too long and look at the things that I am doing or have done because I feel like there is still a lot more work that I have to do.
I look at sports entertainment/professional wrestling, whichever you want to call it, I look at it as never done. You're never done learning or getting better or listening, and never done honing your skill.
Never in a million years did I think some kid from Amsterdam would be in a position not only would he be in the Money in the Bank and a fan favorite, but be informed and led by people like Paul Heyman.
I have no interest in having my wife as my manager and I don't think she has to because it would be kind of cliche. It's almost in the line of expectations where it's like, oh of course you're going to put them together, and I don't want that.
I never get complacent with anything.
Just because you have a good athletic background doesn't make you necessarily a good wrestler. Because it takes a lot to be a good professional wrestler.
I feel like in order for something to connect to an audience there needs to be a form of authenticity.
I think professional wrestling will always be a reflection of how society is.
The transition to WWE has been an incredible road. It's been great, it's been difficult, it's been motivating, and it has allowed me as a person to just completely see myself differently and allowed me to grow in a different perspective with their input.
The whole Aleister Black character is a creation of my influences, Triple H and NXT, and everyone combined.
I think Aleister Black is the most Tommy End name you will get within WWE and NXT.
Was I a fan of WWE? Yeah, of course, but I knew it was not going to be a thing for me, until NXT came to the foreground and a lot of my friends who I was competing against on the independent scene were getting signed.
I think the outside world is more fascinated by the fact that me and my wife are competing against each other than we are ourselves.
My mom was Roman Catholic, my dad was part of.
The occult stuff, I grew up having a fascination about world religion and that fascination grew into other religions and other things and I kind of dabbled my way into the occult and started reading about the occult.
I've never had like many friends, I've had a few. It's just something that's in my character, in my personality.
I'm covered in tattoos head to toe, I have this striking style, I'm smaller than most competitors, and people are like, 'Yeah. That's my guy.' Why? Because they can see part of themselves in me.
Everyone's an individual and individuality is such a strong thing in our society so that translates into wrestling.
I only thought I'd get one arm done at first. One arm turned into the other arm. Then I started tattooing my lower arms. I remember saying, 'Mom, don't worry, I'm never going to do anything on my neck.' Then I went to my neck and my chest and my legs, and I kept on progressing from there.
I was a big fan of the more Mexican-based wrestlers when I started watching WCW, and I saw guys like Silver King, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio. And where I come from, we have this European heritage with World of Sport with guys like Johnny Saint, Johnny Kidd, 'Rollerball' Mark Rocco, Robbie Brookside.
I'm lanky and I've always been lanky, but I was a really good athlete. Everything I've ever done in sports, I've done at a high level. I had a passion for what I was doing, and I had to be the best at everything.