I was thankful that TNA saw the potential in me and put me in a position to fulfill something like winning the World Heavyweight Championship.Collection: Thankful
We live in a world with fake news being put out there. You don't really know what to trust, and it's a real danger to society.Collection: Trust
The more you control where your food comes from instead of relying on restaurants, fast food joints, convenience stores and other processed sources, the better off you're going to be.
In my opinion nobody owns the patent on the art form of professional wrestling and the way it does its business.
I love pizza hands down.
I like nice food. Some people like cars, nice clothes, a nice house, and I like that stuff, but I like nice foods.
As long as I can get Bobby Heenan in my corner, then I'm a happy man because, to me, Bobby Heenan is one of the most underrated performers of all time. He's in my top five of all time performers because I don't think people realize just how good he was.
At the end of the day, you can change coaches and managers and players, but if there's something intrinsic, something wrong, then you have to look at what the common denominator is, and, usually, you've got to look at the ownership because everything runs from there.
I'm kind of a skeptic at heart.
You always have to keep evolving. You're always trying to improve. If you're at a standstill, you're falling behind.
I think that once I started connecting dots of where my food was coming from and the reality of that, as opposed to maybe what you think it is as a little kid, and the realities of how my food was getting to my plate and what the real effects of that are. When I started connecting those dots, I couldn't disconnect them.
From the moment I became a free agent, the WWE opportunity was the one I wanted. Obviously, there were strong plays made by some other companies, but in the end, when WWE offered me an opportunity, I could not turn it down.
I competed at 'WrestleMania 33,' and I'm telling you, leading up to what should have been the biggest moment of my life, I couldn't find an ounce of joy.
I think that weight divisions in wrestling is a little silly as we never adhere to them.
The perception is if you are not 206lbs then you can't be considered main event talent, which is foolish.
As far as being the longest-reigning X Division champion, it's a pretty remarkable achievement, due to all the men who have held it over the years.
Right before I came back to TNA, I had made the decision to just sort of step away from wrestling. Therefore I really walked into TNA holding nothing back and let the chips fall where they fell.
I've been Austin almost half my life. In almost every public setting, that's why I'm there - to be Austin Aries.
I was a choir boy my whole life.
Sometimes it can be easy to forget where your roots are or where you came from.
Wisconsin will always be home to me in a nostalgic kind of way.
I always say men's facial hair is kind of like women's makeup. We know how to contour our face real nice and give ourselves nice angles and make our nose look not quite as crooked as it is.
The connector part of the mustache to the beard wasn't always really strong for me. That's kind of how it morphed, and that's kind of how my beard comes in.
Obviously, you'd like your titles to be defended at major pay-per-views. I think most fans would agree with that although it doesn't mean that always has to be the case.
I think it's funny, if you look at Brian Cage, the guy calls himself 'The Machine.' 265 lbs and spends a lot of time in the gym and eating chicken breasts. The guy comes in Impact Wrestling and instead of going after a guy like Moose or Killer Kross, who is he beating up? A bunch of guys half his size? Walking around like he's a big man.
I was the X-Division champion and competing against guys mostly my size, and I dominated them.
I battle with things like depression in my life, I battle with things like anxiety, I battle with things like attention deficit disorder, and I ignored them all.
I just want to be the greatest man that I can be while I'm alive, and in that, you have to find the truth. Find the hard truth about yourself.
I have a backbone; that doesn't make me a heel. That makes me the biggest babyface there is.
I've been trying to make it my own way in an industry full of heels walking around in babyface costumes, and that brought out the worst in me.
Every time Samoa Joe and myself have stepped in the ring, we've always created a little bit of magic.
WWE is the biggest entity in professional wrestling and if you want to prove yourself to be one of the greatest or one of the best, then that's the only place you can do it.
I think it's always good to have realistic short term goals and then lofty longer term goals.
I've always felt that wherever I go, I have to carry myself like I'm a main event guy and like I'm a star.
Chris Jericho is a guy who I grew up really appreciating what he did in the ring.
When I first started training, I guess the fact that I was undersized, it just didn't register initially. Obviously, I knew I wasn't huge and there were some bigger guys in the territories at the time, but I guess I never looked at it as a hinderance.
Is it supposed to be a championship for a certain style of wrestlers? For wrestlers under a certain weight limit? I think over the years the one thing that has held the X-Division from being in a certain spot is that it doesn't have a definition.
I'm not going to lie. I'd love to have the mic in my hand opposite of Dixie Carter in the ring and say my piece, say what's on my mind. And if she's willing to sit there and listen to it, I think it could make for some great television.
What the general public doesn't always understand is that wrestlers often only have hours to put things together, not days or weeks, except in certain cases.
At the end of the day everyone has different goals. Some people, like myself, are trying to keep size on. Some people might come in and have the opposite. So, one size doesn't fit all for nutrition.
There's nothing more I hate than a wrestling snob.
Go fail or succeed on your own merits, be your own man.
I always wanted facial hair as soon as I could get it.
Sometimes the best thing to do is to take a step back and get a little bit of a different perspective and re-evaluate things.
I've accomplished every goal I've set out to. I've traveled the world, I've competed in just about every promotion there is.
I'm very stubborn and I don't like to lose.
For me, from day one, I don't think I realized that I was considered undersized, but I knew I was good. I had certain tools in my toolbox that other guys didn't have, like agility, quickness and explosiveness.
It was always important for me not to be pigeonholed as a cruiserweight-style wrestler.
I figure no matter what interview I do, the real good 'journalists' are going to find the completely irrelevant quotes that will drum up some controversy and stick it on their page to get some clicks and completely miss the real context of what the interview is about. That's what we do nowadays and call it 'journalism.'
One of the things people always ask me is, isn't it expensive to eat healthy or vegan? It can be, but isn't it expensive to live in a nice house or drive a nice car or wear nice clothes?