Bobby Lashley Quotes

I was a writer before I was a wrestler when I was in the WWE.

Early, when I first started wrestling, I wanted to be a combination of Sting and the Ultimate Warrior: The Ultimate Warrior's craziness and weird personality and Sting's coolness and the way he carried himself to the ring. But then later on, when it came to physicality and athleticism, Shawn Michaels topped the cake.

I was really confident when I left WWE. I was confident that I would have a good time, and I was confident that I could wrestle differently than perhaps people saw me in the last few years with WWE, but I definitely wasn't prepared for this level of everything.

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.

I think I had a really hard-working and authentic wrestling style, so people liked the way I was - that I was a 'no-quit' kind of wrestler - and I was very realistic and credible in my style.

Brock Lesnar was a big guy: he's at 280 when he fights. When fighting him, you can have a bit of that extra muscle because you don't want to be thrown around like you're nothing.

I do wrestle a really high-risk and high-flying style.

Johnny Wrestling, to me, isn't just a cool nickname or a fun thing for the crowd to chant. To me, it's a state of mind, and it's just who I am. I first stepped foot in a wrestling ring when I was 8 years old.

Part of me wants to stay involved in wrestling, because I love it. But the thing I loved most about it was the wrestling part of it. I didn't get into it to be famous or to be a TV star: I got into it because I loved the act of wrestling.

I don't like to have gimmicks. I don't like to have gadgets and stuff. I just like to go out there and entertain the fans by wrestling.

Wrestlers are a little more dedicated than, and are different from, the other people, which may be strange.

I don't want to be the kind of wrestler that has to do it because he needs the money.

A lot of people who've been athletes have come here and not been able to just pick it up right away. I hate using this example, and I love her to death, but Eva Marie. She was an amazing soccer player and athlete, but coming to WWE and getting in the ring was a whole different ball game for her.

Everything about me is favored towards wrestling.

You don't have to like me as a person - I understand that I can get on people's nerves with the antics I do in the ring. This is not a popularity contest. I'm trying to do whatever I can to win the fight.

Being in the wrestling business, it was a whole lot to deal with in a short amount of time. I went from amateur wrestling one minute to, the next minute, I'm traveling the world, and I'm on the road 250 days a year.

You can teach anybody wrestling moves, hopefully, if they have an athletic bone in their body. However, the ones that are going to make money and be different are the ones with personality.

I took a huge risk. At the time, I was an Orlando Magic dancer, and I was going on my third year. It was then when wrestling was introduced to me. I took a chance, packed up all my stuff, and moved away from home.

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.

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.

When I walked down the ramp and stood in the ring, I made other big guys look small.

There have always been extraordinarily tough men in the business of sports-entertainment. My view is that one can't be in the sports-entertainment business successfully and long term without being tough.

My favorite wrestler growing up was Dean Malenko. He was a very technical wrestler, and when I trained with Shawn Michaels, he wasn't that kind of a technical wrestler. So, when I finally met Regal in 2001, he was that kind of a wrestler, and all of a sudden, I could ask him things, and he would know what I was talking about and how to do it.

It's very hard when you start working as a wrestler to try and stop doing things that are second nature. For me, when I take a move and start selling, that is second nature for me.

When I was first started, when I was eighteen, I wrestled for a company that had a very hardcore fanbase and demanded a lot from its wrestlers. So, every single match, I would do every move possible. I would land on the concrete floor; I would land really high on my head just to try to impress the fans.