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In Canada, I had wrestling on TV all weekend. You couldn't get me away from wrestling at our house. There was Stampede Wrestling from Calgary, with the British Bulldog, Bret "Hit Man" Hart, Brian Pillman, Owen Hart, Chris Benoit was just starting his career, so I watched him grow up. And we had international wrestling from Montreal. Sweet Daddy Siki wrestled there; that's the guy who ended up training me. Now little kids will come to our front door and give me cookies. You see that smile on their face, they're looking at me the same way I used to look at Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart, and that's pretty cool.
I played hockey from early on, and soccer, baseball and basketball. But I knew it was wrestling for me. I told my mom that when I was young, and the cool thing about her, through thick and thin, all the way, she always said, "Yeah, go for it, go for it." When I was 17 and still saying it and everyone else was probably snickering behind my back, she was still saying "Go for it." My mom got pregnant with me - she was under 20 - and before I was born, my dad took off. So from day one, it's been her and me.
The Toronto Star ran a wrestling column, and one week there was an item about a contest for free lessons at wrestling school. You needed to write an essay on why you wanted to be a wrestler. Then they submitted the essays to Sully's Gymnasium, to Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutshison. So I wrote my essay, and Sweet Daddy Siki called me and said it was down to me and a few other people, and they wanted me to come in and meet them. I went in, and they chose me, and that was the beginning. I was 17 years old, 6'2" or 6'3", about 180 pounds. I guess they saw what I could mature into, thankfully. I was tall and had shoulders; there was just no muscle on the shoulders yet.
I wish I had kept a copy of the essay. I just remember not trying to embarrass myself. I knew enough at that point not to make a compete idiot of myself, not to say, "I'm a huge Hulkamaniac, yada, yada, yada." I knew enough to say, "I realize I'm probably not going to make money at first, if ever but this is truly what I want to do." When they met me, they told me "We have eaten out of dumpsters, we have struggled to get by. Do you want to do this?" I didn't even hesitate. I went, "Hell, yeah."
Wrestling drew me in as a kid when I first saw Hulk Hogan on TV. I was 8 or 9, flipping through the channels, and there he was, and I went, "Whoa, what's this? This is so cool." Just so much energy and charisma. I remember thinking, "Wow! The comics I'm reading are real life. I'm reading about Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk and Thor. And there's Hulk Hogan, and he's flesh and blood, and he's larger than life."
Probably one of the toughest parts to handle is after the show. You get the adrenaline going so much. When you're out there, you're so amped up, everything is intense and full throttle. And all of a sudden, it's like, "I got to go to bed in an hour?" It doesn't work. Generally what I do, if I'm riding alone, which I do quite a bit just to give myself some me-time, is go for a bite to eat, then go to my room. I'll turn on SportsCenter and catch up on the hockey scores and the football scores - football has become a big deal to me now that I'm down here in the states - and then I'll read. I like anything by John Grisham, Stephen King, and Chuck Palahniuk. Steven Brust wrote a book I really enjoyed, To Reign In Hell. Henry Rollings, who was the lead singer of Blackflag, has written journals that he calls the "Black Coffee Blues," which are chronicles of his life on the road. I'm kind of doing the same thing, keeping a journal of the cool things that happen for me, like singing onstage with Rob Zombie, teaming up with Hulk Hogan to win the tag belts and then sitting at his house watching it with him on TV. Anything that I never envisioned I might get to do, I like to write down. That way, if I get too punch, I can refresh my memory when I'm done wresting. In addition to everything else, I'm a comic-book reader. If I have a pile I haven't gotten to I bring those with me on the road.
I also love to draw. I love drawing comic-book characters. On independent tours before I got to WWE, I would bring a sketchbook and a pencil with me on the road, and I'd draw. Then I'd go over everything with India ink, and it really jumped everything out. I had time for that on the indy circuit; on the tours, we might have a 24-hour drive, or be sleeping in a gym on blue mats. Instead of playing basketball in my free time, I'd just go draw. But I didn't have the time to do it when I got to WWE.
Backstage, getting ready for a show, I kind of goof around. Some guys get real serious, but I love to joke around with everybody. You can't be too serious about this; you gotta remember that what we're doing is fun, I've always tried to take from what Owen Hart was like backstage; he was just so much fun to be around, always had a smile on his face. Kurt Angle is a lot the same way, a class act through and through. I'm getting to the point where I think I'm being looked at as a leader, and I don't want to be all surly and miserable. I'd rather have younger guys look at me and say, "OK, when I get to that position, that's who I want to try to be." But when it gets close to game-time, it's a coffee and thinking about what I'm going to do out there. But the game eyes, or face, don't come on until that music hits. As soon as that happens, look out. As soon as I hear "You think you know me," get out of my way.
Wrestling pretty much consumes my thoughts. I'll go to bed thinking of ideas; I'll wake up thinking of ideas. When I'm doing cardio, I'm picturing in my mind - just like when I was still a little kid - winning the world title. I'll picture what I'll do when I win that, where it will be, how the crowd will react, and me looking down and seeing my mom and wife in the front row. Even while I'm watching a hockey game I'm thinking about wrestling. It's always floating there in my mind. I think for the people that are really successful in this business, that's the way it is.
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