Quotes About Authenticity

Okada and Tanahashi, they don't mind being the wrestler that approaches everything day-of in the ring. I like to go in-depth, to tell the human side of Cody Rhodes, the human side of Kenny Omega. That's why Being The Elite exists.

I just love sneakers. When I first started wrestling, I was wrestling in boots, and I felt like I was trying too hard to play a wrestler. I just wanted to be myself. So when I started wearing sneakers, I felt so much better.

For me, the only way I know how to do this is to be myself. I actually learned that from 'The Dream' Dusty Rhodes. I was trying to be this wrestler, and I was trying to be cool, and Dusty literally told me, 'You've got to be yourself.' That's really how Bayley started, and that is what brought me this far.

I consider myself more of a wrestler than a sports entertainer.

Ric, I feel like he hasn't changed up for no one. He's been the same since Day 1, since he was in the limelight as a pro wrestler. Even now, just his mentality and who he is: Find who you are and just be that. He's always being him. That's what I admire the most about Ric Flair.

I'm not a pro wrestler. I don't have what I'm supposed to say written for me.

I'm not a WWE wrestler and that's how it feels sometimes out on the court.

I'm one of those wrestlers that leaves everything to the audience and to the fans. I never plan anything, and you will never see Alberto Patron planning in the back what he is going to do in the match.

That is the thing that wrestling is, we are who we are. Even when we are established we are not actors. We are wrestlers.

I always tell young, up and coming professional wrestlers, when you're trying to play a character that's not really you, it's going to be difficult and fans can register that. Sometimes it's not even consciously, it's subconsciously they pick up on it.

There's a pressure to be the wrestler that you are, that character that you've created 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It's tough for wrestlers sometimes to sort of have that separation between person and character.

Johnny Valentine's the one who said, 'I can't make them believe that wrestling is real, but I can make them believe I'm real.' It would take him forever because he was just stinkingly boring for 30 minutes of the 40-minute match, but he would let people hit him as hard as they could, and he would hit people as hard as he could.

It's so important just to be true to yourself and to own your own character and take responsibility for it, and speak up and say, This isn't right; this isn't me.' It's a great lesson, not just in wrestling but in life. If you're not feeling something that's true to your heart... everybody's gotta be true.

I still believe in old school values, I still believe in hard work, I still believe in wrestling, and people have showed that's what they want to see.

I know AEW will be welcomed by wrestling fans here in the U.S. and throughout the world who are ready for something new and authentic. AEW will work hard to deliver on that promise.

I never want to hide my wrestling background.

I knew how to upset the people, and I did it in such a way that it was believable. That's how I made a living at it for 20 years. I don't regret a thing I done or said in wrestling. Nothing.

From a backstage perspective, one of the things I always tried to do in wrestling was maintain that I was Adam. Edge was a character.

I think I had a really hard-working and authentic wrestling style, so people liked the way I was - that I was a 'no-quit' kind of wrestler - and I was very realistic and credible in my style.

With wrestling, everybody always asks what they can do to get signed or how can they get over. There's no right or wrong answers. That's why I think the best thing you can do is be yourself.

I think it's hard to differentiate between your wrestling character and your real character - you kind of end up being both. I've always been my wrestling character in and out of the ring and in and out of the dressing room, and I was always really respected in the dressing room by the other wrestlers.

All the things I talk about are true, but some of them I may tweak a little bit. A lot of it is the way I feel about wrestling. When you have a character like mine, you can push the envelope and go far with some of the issues.

When I was in school, if I was talking as myself and I was presenting something as myself or having to answer a question, I was so nervous. I would get red in the face; I would feel sweaty. I hated it. But anytime I was performing, like, if it was a talent show, or if it's through wrestling, I'm portraying or being someone else, I'm so comfortable.

If anybody dared say wrestling was fake, you'd punch 'em. And you never used the word show. If you used the word show it was an insult.