Coming from the NFL and your Golden Gloves, boxing background to WWE,
I'm an athlete, I can do this.
Talk a little bit more from your perspective.
I remember it obviously from my perspective, and our perspective.
When the new guy showed up,
tell me a little bit more about about your transition in there.
>> I mean, it was funny, because you say that I'm athlete.
That quote got me in trouble actually on my tryout,
because we- >> Really?
>> Yeah, and it's a funny story.
Because I always when I see I tell him I like, hey, do you remember this?
And he's like, yeah, for sure.
So it's like my second day on a tryout, they brought me in for
like a week long trial.
And there were guys like Bray Wyatt in the ring and stuff like that.
And he's like, hey, do you think you could do like a drop down and a leapfrog?
And I was like, well, yeah, I'm an athlete, it's easy.
He was, okay.
>> [LAUGH] >> And he had somebody start running,
I'm doing drop downs leapfrogs, and after about ten of them,
I'm like looking over between each one, like is he gonna tell me to stop?
I was also 325, 30 pounds on my trial.
>> [LAUGH] >> I'm at like 14 gone, this is bad,
I regret.
Okay, and then I'll suddenly clip my foot, my face planted, he's laughing, he goes,
I thought you said you were an athlete?
>> [LAUGH] >> I just did like 18 dropped down
to 18 leapfrogs.
I was blown sky high.
So it's always just funny when I think about that.
But no, walking in the door was, it was eye opening, and I've known, I mean,
I've been a part of athletics my whole life,
from boxing to Jiu Jitsu to football, to playing golf on my high school team.
Every locker room is different and has an atmosphere, and
nobody wants somebody new walking in.
So if you're a good high level competitor, you know that walking in the door,
nobody's gonna want you there, because you're there to take a spot.
In reality, that's what you're doing, FCW was the very small funnel into WWE.
So if one guy got called up,
that's one less guy that that's going to get that opportunity.
So walking in, I knew that I spoke with Johnny Stamboli, he's actually in Arizona,
and when I knew I was getting the tryout, and I knew I was getting signed,
I wanted to kinda figure out the culture a little bit,
because you don't want to disrespect him.
But you mean you walk into a football locker room and you do something stupid,
you're going to get slapped.
>> Right. >> It's just the way it goes.
And I know that this has the kinda same attitude, like there's a respect here and
a level of respect that's expected.
And so I met with Johnny, and
he kind of walked me through, from shaking hands to let everybody get their spots,
their lockers, then put your bag down where it fits, and that kind of thing.
So you learn to do that, but I'm also the kind of guy I like to ruffle,
a little bit of feathers.
I don't ever wanna disrespect anybody, but
I kinda wanna push those boundaries, and I think I did that walking in the door.
I irritated a few people, just with some arrogance,
I guess, not disrespect like I'm not shaking your hand kind of thing.
But just that arrogance of the way I carried myself and
my expectations of how much success I wanted when I walked in the door.
And I think you saw it from a few guys, and you saw it from the guys who mattered,
because those are the guys that know, they go, they look at somebody go, okay, yeah,
he can be successful, he can help us.
>> Right. >> But also like, yeah,
not everybody's gonna like you, that's okay.
So I mean that, but the transition for me, the physicality,
I dropped 65 pounds coming in.
That stuff was relatively easy, to kind of understand the ring movement and
the balance, and just all of that in ring was fairly simple to learn for me.
It was the, hand me a microphone, make me believe it, that's where I'm going, woah.
>> Right [LAUGH] never had to do that before.
>> This is really hard, because I'm used to just doing an interview,
we're sitting here, talking, and it is what it is.
But now I'm having to take this emotion that I've been taught to hide for so
many years, because in sports, you don't want your opponents to know you're hurt,
you're tired, angry, frustrated, but now we want to take those emotions and
we want to convey it.
>> To amplify.
[CROSSTALK] >> To millions of people around the world,
but you want them to understand every bit of it,
things that are going through your mind.
And you want them to feel what you're feeling, if you're hurt or
if you're angry, or if you're embarrassed,
you want these people to understand that and you have to amplify it by ten.
Because there's people that are up in the nosebleed sections.
I want to understand that, and then people around the world, so that was the most
difficult part of the transition for me, of becoming a WWE superstar.
And then, there were just a little things like, hey, here's a bunch of posters.
>> [LAUGH] >> Go hang these up on some posts, and
you're like, wait, what?
You want me to do what?
And they're like, yeah, it's also illegal.
So if you get caught, you're gonna have to pay the ticket, and
I was like, wait, what?
And then, hey, hold this sign on the corner of the street for
four hours before Stark.
>> My God, yeah. >> So we get people to going, wait, what?
>> Yeah.
>> You know I came from the NFL, right?
>> [LAUGH] >> But they didn't care.
>> It didn't matter.
>> So it's starting back at the bottom.
>> Yeah. >> And that's good for
everybody, it's humbling.
It's good for you to have to pay your dues in a sense, I mean,
in here, this world, everybody's paid their dues in different ways right now,
whether it's coming from independence for 10 years grinding it out, or what I did.
Going to training camp 110 degrees, so
it gets very different, everybody's paying their dues, but
then when you actually get in the door, you still have to kind of start over.
Nobody's just handed the golden ticket.
>> Right? You kind of relive the same growth
over and over every tear you- >> Yeah.
100% >> Yeah, I remember the general consensus
when you arrived was, yeah, there's this arrogant guy that came from the NFL and
screw him, and we don't have time for that.
>> I hear he's making all this money.
>> Yeah, that was the best.
>> Yeah, that's what I brought, like 10 grand into it.
I'm not using the microphones.
>> [LAUGH] >> You all right with this?
Yeah, the rumor went around.
I was making all this money, more than everybody else.
So I was like, okay, well, let's add fuel to fire, and I think about 10 or
20 grand in cash to promos is like.
I'm going on a date tonight, maybe 2000 for, just the worst thing ever,
just trying to irritate everybody.
>> [LAUGH] Well, it succeeded.
[MUSIC]
>> Like what you hear?
Catch full episodes of After The Bell on Apple podcasts.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode.