Wrestling Industry Quotes

I think the reality of the situation is if you're WWE and you're looking for talent, you're going to want the best guys out there, and you're gonna look at Ring Of Honor, because that's where the best talent is.

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

Something happened in 1997 that changed the whole industry, at least for the next five, six, or seven years. It wasn't about the 24-inch arms and the cartoon characters anymore. It was about the wrestling and what we were doing in the ring physically.

Professional wrestling was almost like a secret society when I started, like a Mafia, and it would destroy the Sheik to see how much that has changed.

I remember when I was a kid that the only way to see Hulk Hogan wrestle was you'd have to go to the live shows. He was never on TV. So I thought "Why not do the same thing?"

People who are not in the wrestling business don't understand the struggles that all of us have to go through to really try to make it.

As far as the path of [Bill] Goldberg and all his ultimate success, I don't think any of that was planned. It was all organic. All of it was so different.

That is something I try to stress to the wrestlers nowadays - there is an epidemic of spot monkeys in the business. They often are so concerned with the fans' reactions that they're willing to kill themselves, while I am trying to help them move past that. It is not about the move, it's about the moment you create, and that's what I'm doing through my broken brilliance.

I think the wrestling world needs TNA. I think the wrestlers need TNA. I think the fans need TNA.

With the success of the TNA Knockouts, that's when they started having their girls wrestle a lot more in WWE. I thought, 'This is a perfect time for me to come in. They care about women's wrestling.' Sadly it was just not the case.

Without question, Jerry 'The King' Lawler is my most recognizable partner and my favorite to work with over the years. We endured several things together that reach far beyond merely signing on and subsequently saying 'good night everybody' at the end of the show.

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?

ECW stands for Extremely Crappy Wrestling.

I worked with Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt. Those guys have come along and are doing very well now.

Man, it was a great ride back in the day. Obviously, I started out in WCW, and I was a good mechanic back in the day. Got fired from that gig, made a turn for ECW.

In North America, there aren't too many big places to go, so you find that pretty much all of the best talent in the world ends up filtering through WWE.

I'd love to teach Roman Reigns how to work. Just kidding.

I think the reason that I've been able to succeed is that I was a fan of sports entertainment when I was a kid - that's what I wanted to do.

When I was coming through as a professional wrestler, as a young man in 2003 and 2004, there really wasn't much of a wrestling scene in the U.K. to take advantage of or make a living in, so I was forced to have to go to the U.S. and kinda make a living from it out there.

When I signed with WWE I was really happy that they had the PG thing going on. I thought, 'Yes! No more bra and panties matches, no bikini contests.'

The fact remains, in the wrestling industry there is a very high occurrence of untimely deaths for a lot of different reasons. I feel it's the industry's fault. I don't think these guys and women, but mostly guys are the ones dying inordinately young, I don't think that they are told all the risks of what they're getting into.

You've gotta realize this - you could be working at Burger King or working for the biggest wrestling company in the world.

I owe my career to Paul Heyman.

There's not as many passive wrestling fans as people would think. There are a lot of fans who just can't get enough, and they're almost more interested in what's going on behind the scenes and the business of wrestling then they are, necessarily, of what's going on inside of the ring.

Jake Roberts has a hard enough time being Jake Roberts. The truth is a brutal thing, I just hope that the kids take the time to learn about each of the wrestlers in the game, and if the kids can learn from our mistakes, that would make me a happy man.