“F—k that bulls—t. Paying your dues to me is an old-timer’s way of intimidating and bullying and f—king with the younger talent for no goddamn reason. If a talent comes in respectful with a good attitude — don’t come in like you own the place, don’t have an attitude — but why should you take heat because your athleticism, your look, or what opportunities you’ve been given, you’ve been successful on? Why should somebody hold that against you, because you didn’t drive for $35 a night and you didn’t set up some broken torn ass down ring and you didn’t struggle for all this stuff? Okay. Why punish somebody for that?
“My thing is when I came in everybody was so mad at me because my first match was against Hulk Hogan. I was 22-years-old. Is that my fault? Should I have gone to independents? Should I have learned how people lie, manipulate and bulls—t in smaller leagues and promoters don’t pay you and all these other stories that all these other old-timers went through that made them seasoned? To me, that’s bitter sauce. I don’t like that punishing a younger talent because that’s not what our business is about. Our business should be about inspiring younger talent, helping them so they don’t make mistakes, helping them avoid pitfalls.”
