Kazuchika Okada Quotes

Ultimate Warrior had a hell of a gimmick, but wrestling is about so much more than that. You have to be consistent, work main events every night and have matches that people really believe in and want to see.

That's what my specialty's always been in the wrestling business - going out there and making my opponent look better than he can make himself look.

The old school in me knows how to get over and get other guys over. I'm going to continue to do it.

'Heel Turn 2' is about a person who's in a match, and he's playing as though the match were real. But it is real! If you're standing in the middle of a ring, and you're playing the villain, and everyone is booing and throwing things at you, that's real.

Drama is action, sir, action and not confounded philosophy.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

Wrestling needs to be about the art form again. It needs to be about painting a picture and having a really good match.

The movies I like to make are very rich and full of passion. Some people see me as an action director, but action is not the only thing in my movies. I always like to show human nature - something deep inside the heart.

I loved my time in Deep South Wrestling. We trained so hard and I got a crash course into the world of sports entertainment and pro wrestling.

It doesn't matter if you're the best wrestler in the world and can do every move perfectly; if you don't connect with the crowd or sell well or have good promos, nobody cares.

I heard many times that they want the Divas to be girly. They didn't care about the heel girls getting any heat. We just didn't understand. They did everything in their power, it seemed, to take everything to give us a good match, for the heels to get any heat. It was no kicking one week, or no punching the next. No this, no that.

I think Finn Balor is more about confidence, a smarter version of Prince Devitt. Otherwise, they have the same core values, same techniques, and the same heart.

I'm one of those wrestlers that leaves everything to the audience and to the fans. I never plan anything, and you will never see Alberto Patron planning in the back what he is going to do in the match.

'Lucha Underground' is a combination of new psychology, new moves, and a new take on wrestling: an evolution of wrestling. In my opinion, it is entertaining. It is the kind of wrestling I want to watch. It is the kind of stories I want to tell, which is why I intend to be part of it.

Wrestling is to go out there and perform and make people believe that either of the performers in the ring can win - either the bad guy or the good guy.

The Hardys were a huge influence on me becoming a wrestler. Not so much the moves themselves, but the concepts behind the moves: trying to be innovative and just being exciting.

The feud with Jerry Lawler was one of the best feuds I ever had. He was the perfect heel and kept his heat. People hated him.

Do you want to talk about matches that matter? Randy Orton can go out there, John Cena can go out there, AJ Styles can go out there and put together matches that matter and not have to do silly dives because they don't know how to work.

I like to lean on making wrestling the most believable, realistic form of entertainment as possible for the most part.

When I was in England, I did a lot of wrestling and moves. Over here, they were like, 'You don't need to do that much. Save your body. Become an entertainer rather than a wrestler.' And I wasn't used to wrestling on TV and in front of huge crowds, so it was a big adjustment.

This isn't a competitive sport. Wrestling is not the NFL or the NHL. It's not really sports. It's entertainment. And in order to be entertaining, you have to create emotion. And you can't create emotion by simply having a wrestling match.

So, wrestling, being strong, having good matches? I learned that in New Japan. But as a TV character? TNA was good.

If you look at wrestling when I started to get my big break back in 1992, I changed wrestling from the cartoons of Hulk Hogan and Iron Sheik and the matches with the leg drop and the hand behind the ear and the playing to the crowd. They were just cartoon characters if you ask me.

I started wrestling in Mexico, and then I came to New Japan.

New Japan is far superior to WWE when it comes to the quality of the roster and the quality of the matches.