It was a very real thing, not a storyline thing when Randy Orton didn't want me to get to a certain point in WWE.

I'm just so proud to be champion and to have the support of my peers and my fans.

For me personally, I'm going to continue to do what I do in the ring.

With Punk, I consider him to be like a brother to me. He's one of the guys who took me under his wing when I first came. So we've been able to maintain a good relationship. And there are very few people in the business that you can call true friends, so I consider Punk to be that and more. So yes, 'road wife' is the term we used to sum that all up.

People always say, 'Oh, there haven't been many black champions,' but on the other hand, there are a whole lot of white people that never won a belt either.

I honestly believe that if you are able to entertain and interact with the crowd, it doesn't matter what ethnicity you may be.

It is one thing to tell people in theory that you can be whatever you want to be, but it is another thing to tell someone that they can be whatever they wanted to be because somebody that is just like you did it.

Myself, I always tell people that if you're not getting better you're only getting worse, and every day I try and be better than yesterday.

One of the matches that is pretty dear to my heart is when I took on Chris Jericho at Night of Champions in 2008.

The performance centre is unbelievable, I've had a chance to go there on a couple of occasions in Orlando as it's only about two hours from my house, and I was completely blown away.

Even before I became a WWE Superstar, I was told I was never going to make it because I wasn't big enough. You know what I mean? I wasn't strong enough, I wasn't 6 foot 8.

My goal is to be the best champion possible and to do that I have to go against the best.

I take a lot of pride being a beacon of hope for people who haven't achieved what they wanted to achieve even though they've had to wait a very long time to do it.

It's always important for people to be able to watch WWE, especially because it's a global product, it's important for people all over the world to be able to look at the screen and see somebody who looks like them doing great things. And in turn, that inspires them to do great things.

I know how it feels to sit on the sideline and watch a spot that is supposed to be yours taken.

I've been on the other side where I know that a bad day at WWE beats the best day at Staples.

There's a lot of people who think that I am happy all the time.

Anytime somebody shares a personal story with me during autograph signings and someone comes up to me and shakes my hand and says thank you and I'm just like, wow. The fact that I can have an influence over somebody; it is heartwarming, it is the goal.

Don't let the reasons why you don't accomplish your dreams be because of you or a decision that you made. Do everything that you can possibly do to achieve that dream.

The Wyatts in general are just really entertaining, in a strange type of way.

A lot of people always say, 'Oh, people down there in NXT' or 'Down there' as if it's... yeah, it's like a farming system for WWE, but they've done such a great job over the years making their own brand.

Fox is huge and for WWE to be on Fox, it's an honor for us to be there.

I want to be the true champion of the people, and I take a lot of pride in having that role.

It's so important to have representation for all races on TV. All people, from all walks of life. So when other people look at the television screen they can see and identify with that person doing great things.