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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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'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.

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

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!'

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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'll always be a wrestling fan.

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.