Wade Barrett Quotes

The fact is, there's a ton of opportunities out there now for professional wrestlers which, when I was coming through, weren't really there. The only game in town realistically was WWE, and it was very, very difficult to see yourself working anywhere outside of that.

My career path is the best I could have hoped for, and that's thanks to independent wrestling and territories across the world.

Now I think a lot of wrestlers want to get signed so that way they can be with a company where they can learn, but they're really kind of looking for a contract, and I do think that makes sense.

If you're not in the WWE and bouncing around in the Indy shows, you're not with the best.

I've been talking to certain wrestlers on the phone lately, and certain female wrestlers that were huge stars ten years ago, and the first thing I ask them is 'do you still want to work?' Do they want to talk, or do they want to wrestle or do something else in the business?

For special wrestlers, there's somewhere else to go - as long as you're not brainwashed by that WWE mentality. There's other worlds out there; it's OK to switch around.

The fact that I'm still able to wrestle on the indies and yet still do my stuff in NXT, and the fact that I wrestled in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center at TakeOver, and then, the following weekend, I was still doing indie shows, is wild.

I do not see Dean Ambrose leaving WWE to go somewhere else.

I had the greatest deal in the history of professional wrestling. I could work for WWE, anybody else that I wanted to, and collect income from every one of those companies, including merchandise. It was a really good deal.

When you're an independent wrestler, committing a lot of time and effort into honing your craft as much as possible in as many different places as possible will catch the WWE's interest as far as the independent level goes.

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.

The WWE have told me that if I ever want to become a wrestler, all I need to do is walk through the door, and they'll give me a job straight away.

I remember when I had just left WWE and I was wrestling in England and Germany, I could just tell that this influx of this new wave of wrestling was coming much like it felt when I began wrestling back in '99.

I trained at All Pro Wrestling in the U.S. Later, I signed up with the New Japan Pro Wrestling. Then WWE noticed me.

I think NXT has opened up the doors for a lot of guys to come in and create different opportunities.

I try to keep my own career in check, but when I came to America there were very few people wrestling.

I spent a few years cutting my teeth in the Midwest; I worked for Ring of Honor, then I went down to Florida and relearned everything there.

I always knew that in the U.S., if you wanted to be a wrestler, Ring of Honor was the place to be.

I obviously wanted to keep wrestling and stay in the business. The opportunity came up with WWE, and it's been an incredible experience.

I don't think I'd be in WWE, and I wouldn't be in NXT, if it wasn't for my time in EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA and things like that.

I really appreciate ROH for letting me wrestle in the United States. American fans get to see me and get to see New Japan. Ring of Honor lets us do that.

For me, I've been very lucky because of my relationship with Ring of Honor. I'm very close with everyone there, and that includes the guys that negotiate the contracts.

There's a lot of talent out there that miss their opportunities, and I just hope that AJ Styles doesn't waste his life in TNA.

Coming up the ranks, I've got to see those who were sons of professional wrestlers get in the ring when they were five years old. I would wrestle around with them. Guys like The Rock and Randy Orton.

I am super happy and super proud that Candice LeRae is in the WWE Performance Center.