When guys leave - whether they decide to leave or they're forced out - there's usually this period of time we see them around the world, and they can ride that WWE wave and use it, and then it goes away. It loses its luster after a few months.

All you need to do is look down at my boots. My pro wrestling boots that I've worn for the past year have the Triforce symbol from 'Legend of Zelda' on them.

Sometimes I just revert back to Dusty's kid. I'm trying to chase his ghost, and it's a pretty hard ghost to chase.

I was really confident when I left WWE. I was confident that I would have a good time, and I was confident that I could wrestle differently than perhaps people saw me in the last few years with WWE, but I definitely wasn't prepared for this level of everything.

A lot of the work I did with WWE had very strong comic book ties that were more than just a wink at the audience. There was a period of time when I had a clear protective face mask and a hood over my head that correlated with Doctor Doom.

When I wasn't wrestling, I got back into school a little bit. In Dallas, there was VIP Wrestling, and in Atlanta, AR Fox has a great school, so it's good to get back in there and continue to learn.

I put my confidence in Ring of Honor because they put their confidence in me.

It's damn exciting that without the biggest wrestling company in the world, I'm able to build a brand and be successful. It's hard to stay on top of it. I had to hire a staff. It sounds so silly. I had to hire a kid to do social media work for me. It's really cool.

Some kids like books, some kids like movies, but for me, every year I still go back and play 'Legend of Zelda.' So to me, when I got up to the big time, I thought that Zelda was my thing. CM Punk has a Pepsi tattoo, so why can't I have the Triforce? Gaming is huge to me; it's all I do.

I believe in hard work, but I believe in vindication as well. You have a few nightmares, I imagine, before you reach your dream.

I don't have the same knack for the business end that my old man did. Recruiting people has been tough. I don't envy anyone in that spot, especially some of the great non-WWE promoters like 'Evolves' Gabe Sapolsky, Beyond Wrestling's Drew Cordeiro, or Markus Mac at All Pro Wrestling.

I was a Shawn Michaels fan, so that's a sad memory for me. I'm proud to add a happier memory in that building, even though Christopher Daniels also lost his smile.

There is an honor to what we do, and there are no shortcuts.

When you get a record attendance for What Culture Pro Wrestling - or just recently with Matt Cross, we did a record attendance for Next Gen in Tennessee. These are various brands. They're not rinky-dink. They're small - they're not WWE - but their soul is there.

I'm a huge fan of anything Ed Brubaker does. A lot of his 'Daredevil' stuff. A lot of his creator-owned stuff, too. His 'Criminal stuff,' I'm really into.

Any praise goes to my coaches and my teammates. I have the easy part of waking up and going to the gym. They're the ones that have to break my bad habits and teach me new things. They're literally my everything. In my personal life, it's my wife, and in my professional life, it's my coaches and my teammates.

I'm a hopeless romantic.

What I do on international flights is watch crappy, sappy love movies... Sometimes they're so bad, it's laughable. It kills time.

I know people who are wealthy and they're miserable.

I'm not a money guy.

The Shield was my idea.

I think anything you do on your own, so to speak, I think, is worth more than something that is maybe looked upon as gifted to you or handed to you.

My life used to be governed by that. I would know what day it was because I would be at 'Monday Night Raw' or 'SmackDown' on Tuesday.

Passive-aggressive is the worst thing in the world to me!