Technical Wrestling Quotes

There are so many role models who I watched and idolised growing up, mainly guys with a similar athletic style to myself. I loved Dynamite Kid, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio, as well as Japanese juniors like Jushin Liger, Ultimo Dragon, and Tiger Mask.

I was a huge fan of Raven because of the way he redefined how a champion should wrestle.

I remember, the first times watching WWF, Bret Hart was kind of the man, winning King of the Ring, technical master, and he could go for an hour. He had a million different moves he could beat anyone with. Just rugged, dynamic champion. He was so cool.

Some guys can do more talking in the ring, other guys do posing, body building, whatever the hell they do in the ring. But I don't have the big body, and I'm not the big smooth talker, but I can get in the ring and wrestle.

People at WWE would say, 'It doesn't matter if you're the best wrestler,' but I would think about Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio. They weren't necessarily the greatest talkers, but they were great wrestlers. I wanted to be that person.

I hear you guys all the time talking about Daniel Bryan, trained by Shawn Michaels. One curious thing to me is, how come you guys never mention William Regal? William Regal did the real work with this young man. Shawn Michaels took $3,000 from him, that's all he ever did.

So I don't think one type of wrestling is right and one type of wrestling is wrong, and I've used that ability to unlearn what I've done and really go back and get back in touch with that Dragon Gate style since now there's a lot of guys that can work with that.

If you look at wrestling when I started to get my big break back in 1992, I changed wrestling from the cartoons of Hulk Hogan and Iron Sheik and the matches with the leg drop and the hand behind the ear and the playing to the crowd. They were just cartoon characters if you ask me.

Cena is awesome on the mic. When it comes to wrestling in the ring and the technical aspect, I feel as if I blow him away. I feel like I'm more of an athlete.

I'll be honest, when I first started pro wrestling, everybody else did clotheslines better than me. They did everything about pro wrestling better than me. But when it comes to fighting, getting nitty and gritty, I'm the man.

I love wrestling, but to wrestle just one style for the rest of my life seems like it would really hold me down creatively.

I was a big fan of the more Mexican-based wrestlers when I started watching WCW, and I saw guys like Silver King, Eddie Guerrero, and Rey Mysterio. And where I come from, we have this European heritage with World of Sport with guys like Johnny Saint, Johnny Kidd, 'Rollerball' Mark Rocco, Robbie Brookside.

I always believe there's a place in wrestling for a little bit of everything.

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.

The Cruiserweight Classic was a fantastic platform for people of my size, people who are similar stylistically to the way that I am, to show the world what we're capable of.

Smaller wrestlers are built for more exciting matches.

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.

If you watch the Cruiserweight Classic, you want different professional wrestling. You want guys who are going to go out there, put their bodies on the line, and show you passion.

At times, I'll watch a cruiserweight match, and I'm very impressed at how they limit themselves with all of the acrobatics, but every once in a while, you'll see a match where they're doing things I couldn't dream of doing, but you get lost because there's so much.

When you get down to it, wrestling is wrestling, and when you get in the ring and start performing, it's up to you and the guy you're in there with to do it and perform it.

A lot of U.K. wrestlers are very good at chain wrestling, telling a story through holds, while American wrestling is a little more flashy, with lots of high-spots.

I probably had the most fun ever in the ring with Christian. And it was because he could just pick stuff up out of thin air and make it something. Neither of us were these big high-fliers; none of us were power guys doing these big, crazy moves. But the finesse and the things were smooth with me and him.

Lucha libre culture was part of my wrestling upbringing. I'm Filipino, so it wasn't a part of my normal upbringing, but it's what gave me my start. I get a lot of my technical and high-flying wrestling from that.

Strong style is a philosophy for Japanese wrestling fans that was created by New Japan Pro Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki. He wanted you to show every motion and show real technique in the ring. It's important to use real techniques from real life and real martial arts. The detail is important.

Before going to developmental, I had next to no fundamentals and that was sort of, doing cool chain wrestling and using a lot of holds and stuff.