Once you're an amateur wrestler, you're always an amateur wrestler.

Pro wrestling is all about staying fresh.

Pro wrestling fans love surprises, so let's surprise them, and not just give them the old stuff.

Let's come together, let the people stop fighting each other, but let them fight in the octagon.

In this world, I feel like we all need to be nicer to each other.

We The People' is public domain, any American can use that.

I feel like being a professional wrestling has definitely made me a better MMA fighter.

I would say to the critics that they don't have a black belt in time management like I do.

I think it's surprising for a lot of people to see Jack Swagger crossover to MMA because they know Jack Swagger more than they know Jake Hager.

MMA fans and pro wrestling fans are similar in that they care about their sports very much. They want to see that you're serious and not making fun of them or the sport that they love.

I grew up with two cousins from North Dakota who were junior national champions. They're a lot older than me and I looked up to them as my older brothers.

The nerves with WWE performance is more the live television angles because we have time limits and have storylines we want to get through in that time. You're going to forget a lot about the spots.

I was never the best athlete, but I knew how to be coached and I knew how to work hard at it.

MMA is very difficult; you can't just be good at wrestling. You need striking, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and countless other things.

Growing up in Perry, Oklahoma, there's not a lot going on, so we would go wrestle anywhere and anyplace we could. It really is who I am.

Yes, pro wrestling is damaging on your body. It hurts.

Luckily, I feel like I was a late bloomer as far as my body developing. I really didn't start developing until I was like 18, 19, 20 years old.

I'm a competitor. I had that reputation in my time at the WWE. I would walk into a locker room, start wrestling with someone, and all I'd hear is, 'There goes Swagger again.'

I need to wrestle, I need to compete.

My junior and senior year in college is when I first realized what MMA is and really started liking it. I went the other route - I went into the entertainment field and started wrestling professionally, and I did that for about 11 years.

All I want to do is go out there and win. That's all that is important to me.

As a fighter, I'm not one of those people that wants to prove I can go out and throw strikes.

From the beginning, make no mistakes, I'm a prizefighter and doing this for the money. Money first. And then championships.

I grew up in one of the most prolific high-school-wrestling programs in the country, and MMA fighters are more successful when they have that amateur-wrestling background.