John Layfield Quotes

I had a very bad torn groin, my abdomen right through my legs. I was finding it really hard to get in the ring and run around and function at a decent rate. Then they had the idea that it might be better to do a retirement thing.

My dad was a roofer when I was young. I believe he owned his own roofing company in Florida. And then he fell through a roof, broke his back. Permanently. I mean, he's not paralyzed or anything, but he's had to deal with pain for all of his life since then.

I joined the Army at 19 as a soldier and spent about four and a half years with them. Then I broke my back in a freefall parachuting accident and spent a year in rehabilitation back in the U.K.

Then I got a bad back injury, and they thought I wasn't going to have any feeling in my legs.

My spine healed incorrectly. There were long periods when I'd be perfectly all right, and then there were many other times when I wasn't, when my back would give out and throw me down to the floor amid waves of nauseating pain.

I got injuries already from fighting from guys that have been cheating. And you're never the same when you get injured like that. I mean, look at my hand. It's broken, it's got 16 screws in it. I'm not as strong in this hand. It just affects you, especially this body being my livelihood.

It's tough to play with an injury.

Any athlete will tell you that it's the most difficult thing in the world being injured.

I had a wreck during a race in Michigan, which led to the hyperextension of my left leg and subsequent amputation.

When you get injured for a long time, it's not nice because you are out of the team and not involved anymore.

I've played with a lot of injuries.

First and foremost, that was always my passion: I wanted to wrestle, but unfortunately, it took me down a road that I can't do that anymore.

I wrestled for 14 or 15 years. I've got a bunch of injuries, I'm tired, I'm getting old, I'm getting some grey hair now.

When you have an injury, you are hindered a little bit.

If I put wrestling boots and wrestling trunks on one last time - and I'm going to - it's going to be done by me and me only.

I've broken fifty-six bones, broke my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth.

I played with a herniated disk that I didn't find out was herniated until I tore my meniscus.

I got hurt when I was 19. They thought I broke my neck. I couldn't move my hands or feet, and I had a very bad experience.

It's never fun to be injured; it's always boring being on the side. You want to go back to help the team and to be able to play.

The doctors said I might not be able to walk again. Today, I can almost run, but back then, I couldn't even stand up. I was bed-ridden. If I wanted to turn over in bed, I had to move my legs with my hands. I was in and out of the hospital for months.

I can't say that I never will or would go back to the WWE. I honestly never intended on leaving until I retired. However we don't choose our destiny. We just live it.

I quit wrestling in 2006 because I just got lost. My mom didn't want me wrestling. I was wondering if I was going to make it in wrestling; I got injured in a match. I was 19. I was away from home, living in Florida, and I just got lost. I couldn't face it, so I stepped away.

A lot of my career I'm out of the gym, I'm injured and I'm blown up.

I played with high ankle sprains.

The truth is my dad was a lovely man who had to retire early from his job as an engineer because he had osteoporosis. It meant he was forced to wear a harness and could hardly breathe.