I never thought, as a kid, that I'd have an action figure, much less an action figure sold in a two-pack with Jake The Snake.
Whether I was The Legend Killer, The Viper, The Apex Predator, nothing's really changed.
I had a couple rough patches early in my career. I think I might have made some bad choices here and there.
I definitely had a big head, and I'll be the first to admit that I made some bad decisions. But back when I was making those decisions, in my head I was doing no wrong.
Cena, one-hundred percent, bleeds WWE, and he always will. I know that much about him.
I graduated boot camp with meritorious promotion.
Having a campfire and roasted marshmallows, to me that sounds like Heaven.
The older I get and the harder it is to maintain a six pack, the more I wish I wore a tactical vest and cargo pants like Roman Reigns.
Doing these movies I've done with WWE, it's a different pace. It's a lot of hurry up and wait, a lot of sitting around and like the day of the pay-per-view, when you're thinking about what you can do, and then you get the payoff, the reward, that night. It's just a different animal.
Growing up, my dad would be gone a lot. But I knew what he was doing, and I wanted to one day enjoy that. When I saw how tired he was when he got home, that, in a direct way, prepared me and made me realize what a tough business this is.
I got a bad conduct discharge, was at home for a few months in late '99, and basically said, 'Dad, I want to give wrestling a shot. I sure as hell don't wanna go to college, and the Marine Corps wasn't for me. And I need to make some money, so let's see if I can do it.'
I probably had the most fun ever in the ring with Christian. And it was because he could just pick stuff up out of thin air and make it something. Neither of us were these big high-fliers; none of us were power guys doing these big, crazy moves. But the finesse and the things were smooth with me and him.
I want to go out there and try as hard as I can to be the best in that ring. And for me, that doesn't mean cutting flips and cartwheels and not selling punches.
Jake 'The Snake,' getting the chance to talk to him all day and just picking his brain - you know, he has his demons, but he's an intelligent person, and he knows the business like no other.
If anything, I'm overacting in the ring because of the facials and the body language. I want the guy in the cheap seats to be able to see what I'm thinking, the expression on my face. But when you're filming a movie, it could be a two- or three-camera shot, and you're doing it over and over and over again. It's not live TV; it's a lot different.
All the fans that are aware that I'm a family man and I have five kids and the newborn, and they send messages on social media or a sign in the audience, or they just say it to me person-to-person on the street, I appreciate all of that.
I just loved Jake The Snake because of that character and how he cut a promo. That dark nature of his character was amazing.
If the Big Show lands on you when you're on the ground, you're not getting back up. He'll pick you up like a sack of crap and toss you over the top rope.
Even though the 'Shooter' character on TV is so close to the real-life me, I'm still playing with ways to creatively portray that character.
I was even more of a fan of Jake The Snake than I was of my dad when I was a kid, and that's because of the snake. Jake used to have his snake, Damien, out in the locker room slithering around the showers. In the locker room, they would actually block off one of the showers just so Damien could roll around, and I'd sit there and watch him.
