The heart of the sport is about the top guys fighting each other. This isn't WWE; this is fighting.
You have to look like an athlete and you have to look like you could whip somebody. And let's face it, unfortunately Shawn Michaels couldn't whip anybody in a real fight as proven with every single fight he's ever gotten into with everybody in the business.
MMA and the UFC have taken all of the pro wrestling fans because it's pro wrestling from 30 years ago, just in an Octagon and the fights happen to be real. But they're marketed exactly the same way.
You see me. What you see is what you get. You get real martial arts, you get real fighting, you get a real warrior mentality. Some people aren't mature enough to handle it.
I can tell you this, and I'm 100 percent sure: 90 percent of the people working for WWE have never been in a real fight in their lives.
My father didn't compete ever in martial arts tournaments because they were not real. They were tag tournaments or touch tournaments, which he thought was bizarre and not really what the martial arts is about.
Of course, fighting is not going to be as graceful as movie fighting. I don't like it to be ugly and I don't like it to be one big brawl or people clobbering each other.
I like to throw my own punches when I can, as would any guy. You can always tell when it's somebody in a wig. It's cool when it comes up to your face and it's still you in the fight.
People ask me about fighting in real life and, honestly, it wouldn't look as graceful as it does in film and TV.
