When I graduated from Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, I made my way back to San Diego, which is where I was born. And I saw WWE Divas on television, and I thought to myself, 'Oh my goodness, that is our calling.'
Fortunately for me, I discovered Ring of Honor. And I saw guys who were much smaller in stature but were putting on these amazing matches that I had never seen in WWE before. So I thought, at the very least, I'd love the chance to be able to wrestle in a company like that someday.
Growing up, my wildest dream was always to be part of the WWE, and I'd been in NXT by that time for two and a half years, so I felt very, very ready to go.
I told my mom: I said, 'Mom, I'm going to try out for WWE.' Her response was, 'The heck you are!' She was like, 'You are not doing that!' So I had to try out without her knowing, but now she's, like, the biggest supporter and so proud of me.
I always knew I wanted to be a pro wrestler for as long as I can remember.
When I first went up to WWE in 2003, they asked me who I wanted to wrestle, and I said, 'I wanna go against The Rock.'
When I was a kid, I said this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a wrestler.
Once upon a time if you go back to the early 2000s all the way to 2014 all I cared about in life was being a wrestler, going on the road, performing in front of crowds, getting big, climbing the ladder.
I think I have done everything I can here in NXT, and I do want to test myself on the main roster.
One day, I happened to see a WWE match and thought I could easily do all of that.
I may look like the stereotypical, prototypical wrestler, but I've always wanted this my whole life.
I remember looking up wrestling schools at the age of 10, and I emailed so many people. The responses were that I had to be 16 or 18 to train, and that was a bummer.
My first time being inside the Performance Center was for the WWE Tough Enough tryouts, and although I knew hardly anything about sports-entertainment, I knew I wanted to be a part of this place.
If you're an aspiring wrestler, Bret Hart is usually at the top of the list for inspiration.
Obviously, it was a dream to get signed by WWE, and that, by itself, was huge for me.
The best way to describe 'Tough Enough' is to just call it an opportunity. In my opinion, it's best opportunity any aspiring wrestler could possibly have.
I did two matches for WCW, for 'Saturday Night' and for 'WorldWide.' Scott D'Amore was booking the extra talent. I remember I was really torn about it. I was like, 'Hmm... I don't want to do that. I don't want to just be an extra guy. I want so much more than that,' but I was flat broke, and it was 500 bucks.
