When I left WWE, I always knew that I wanted to come back when the time was right.

With The Brood, it was cool because it had the music, it had the different look and at the time reality-based characters were really starting to take the forefront as opposed to the cartoon character stuff that you'd seen in the past. We were already into the Attitude era. It was kind of a gimmick, but it was a cool gimmick. It wasn't corny.

I'll always be a wrestling fan.

When I was a kid, the guy who was Intercontinental champion was the guy who was next in line for the World Heavyweight championship.

I always said to myself when I walked into the arena 'today they're going to know how good I am' and that was the attitude I carried with me every single time and just felt like at the end, you can't hold talent down. If you have it, eventually it's going to shine through and you just have to keep pushing.

I lived my dream and I was able to accomplish my goals.

We all get into wrestling to go out and perform for our fans.

WWE was great to me. I felt like I gave the company everything I had. And they allowed me to live my dream, which was wrestle in WWE.

I have talked about this before, I have always been bad at saving memorabilia.

First time I met Hulk Hogan, I had a life-sized poster of him in my room and I idolized him as a kid.

When I moved to Tampa, Florida I remember going to a Kid Rock concert and I was in one of those sky-boxes. When I walked into the sky-box I didn't know he was there, but I hear a, 'Hi, brother!' I turn around and it's Hulk Hogan. I just got 'brothered!'

You look at a guy like Drew McIntyre, right? He was released and it actually helped him.

I'm definitely a veteran. No question. And it always makes me laugh when the younger guys tell me they remember where they were when I contested a certain match. It makes me feel old, but it's cool to hear that.

It's funny, I do think I've been somewhat overlooked, but I've always viewed that as a challenge. Everyone else seems to get more upset about it than I do.

I never doubted that my talent would shine through in the end, no matter what.

I believe I am one of the best and I work to prove that every night I go out there.

You have to look at your situation, and 'how do I make the best of my situation every single night?' That's what I looked to do.

I never looked at being second banana to anybody, I never felt that way, ever. If other people did, that's the way they looked at it, but I never did.

I think one of the things that the people, the fans, know about me is that every time I step in the ring, I give everything I have to entertain everyone that's spent their hard-earned dollars on a ticket for a WWE event. I think that's apparent.

We dreamt of that as kids growing up. Like, main eventing, being world champion, walking down that aisle at WrestleMania as the last match, as the main event, as the headliner.

When you're working with somebody, you work to their strengths. Do you know what I mean? It doesn't matter who it is, whoever you're in the ring with.

If you're in the ring with somebody that doesn't throw good punches, guess what. Don't have him throw any punches. You work to their strengths. It's really not that difficult. You don't try to get them to do things that are out of their realm or whatever. It's not hard. It's not rocket science.

I never got a chance to participate in one, but I wanted to be in an iron man match. I really just wanted to go in there and I remember pitching a couple of times too, and it wasn't necessarily for an iron man match, but I wanted to just go out there for a full hour and just do a match.

There's very few people that ever have a chance to become World Heavyweight Champion.

I think people know that every time I go out there, I leave it all in the ring, regardless. So I think there's a certain respect with that and I think that's just grown over the years because I feel like over the course of my career... people know that I never take a night off.

I'm out there every night working my butt off trying to do what I do, and that is entertain every single person that paid their hard earned money for a ticket. So I think people realize that and I think over time, I feel like that's grown, definitely.

Obviously, there's nothing like being in front of a live crowd. That's what makes a wrestling show - getting that instant feedback and taking them on an emotional journey through what you're doing in a ring. Nothing will ever replicate that.

I think the free agent process is a little bit different because other major pro sports like the NBA or NHL, you're looking at 30 teams. You have 30 options. You don't really have that in this industry. There is one name that stands above all else, and that's WWE. So to really be on top, that's where you have to apply your trade.

To be recognized as one of the best, you need to win that WWE title or the World Heavyweight Championship.

No matter how tired you get, when you get in that ring and hear that crowd road, everything will go away.

I think I would have liked to have experienced the whole NXT thing.

For sure, competition is healthy. It is! It keeps everybody on their toes. It keeps everybody sharp.

Yeah, it's also a huge jump for NXT to come off the WWE Network and come onto cable television. That's huge.

I mean, you can't just stop WWE. It is an entertainment company. It puts on a live show every week and prides itself for being out there and working.

All three teams will always be linked. If you think of the Dudleys, you think of Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz, and vice versa with all those other teams.

When I started in WWE, I was a 24-year-old kid and it was all kind of a whirlwind. I never had the chance to step back and look at it from the outside and assess things from a different level.

Having a long career with real lasting power has always been a goal.

I've always liked being on the performance end of it. I've come up with different ideas, but as far as being a creative writer, I'm not sure about that. I've always liked the performance end of it and wrestling, getting in the ring in front of a live crowd.

With WWE, you're live every single week. You're in an arena, and there can be anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 people watching you perform.

WWE is live. There is no second take.

Me, personally, I thrive under pressure.

With Edge and Christian, we were like 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,' the Bill & Ted of WWE. We were kind of goofy, kind of funny, humorous, but then when we had to be serious in the ring, we would get serious.

Growing up, we were pretty much focused on becoming WWE superstars.

WWE definitely gives you the forum, the stage to do different things and see what works. That's the cool thing about being in front of a live audience every single week in WWE. You get instant feedback.

The cool thing about WWE is it's like entertainment boot camp. You're performing in front of a live audience, a different audience every night. You're doing promos in the ring. You're doing talking segments in the back. You're wrestling. You're performing. It's everything all rolled into one.

It's hard to shock people, especially when people want to know, like, spoilers and stuff like that.

People seem to want to know stuff that's going to happen before it happens sometimes instead of just enjoying it and following the ride and just seeing where it takes you.

I think the knock TNA had is they seemed to worry too much about what WWE was doing instead of focusing on their own.

I'm completely fine with my career. I feel like I accomplished everything I ever set out to accomplish.

There's just some times when you need a change and you need to do different things.