Quotes About TNA

TNA didn't use me, but I got hungrier to wrestle. The struggle made me better.

When I was just a strong wrestler, TNA didn't use me. I didn't have a character, so I knew I needed one.

In terms of being honored at the TNA Hall of Fame, I think that's something that every pro wrestler dreams about.

I don't think I'll go a day as a professional wrestler without remembering the good parts of my TNA career. That really is the bulk of my career that people are aware and familiar with.

I've had experience in management and TV and hope to be able to lend some of that to TNA and maybe persuade some wrestlers to come in this direction because of the influence I've had on their careers in the past.

And you know what - and I don't mean this in tongue in cheek way - but it's like deja vu. When I walked in to WCW they were producing wrestling on a little teeny sound stage at Disney, okay? I'm walking into TNA and they're producing wrestling in a little teeny sound stage at Universal.

I think TNA has been an excellent locker room. They have a good mentality, they have a good work ethic, and they try really hard. They're obviously really passionate about wrestling, and there's a huge amount of talent.

I think the wrestling world needs TNA. I think the wrestlers need TNA. I think the fans need TNA.

Our product, our brand of wrestling fits a videogame better than any other form of wrestling. From our X-Division to our signature matches, just the whole gaming nation, a whole generation of people out there are going to experience TNA for the first time, so we're really looking to do some creative, innovative things with our game.

I don't want to go back to WWE and burn out within four or five months, and having another run as TNA world champion would feel just as good.

Everybody in wrestling is looking at the information coming in on concussions. Everyone from the NFL to the WWE to TNA to the youth soccer groups around the country are realizing that there are dangers that weren't previously known.

A lot of fans don't accept me because I became a star in the WWE, but that adds credibility and equity to the TNA title.

I love wrestling, and of course WWE is the main stage, but I'm happy to be with TNA.

I was in TNA for over a dozen years. I had a great run there - I had a great career - but obviously, WWE has always been the be-all, end-all of sports entertainment. Until you get there and experience it on a personal level, you just don't know.

The WWE is the big company and the one the mainstream audience is watching, but I feel like if you were a hardcore wrestling fan, you were watching TNA.

With the success of the TNA Knockouts, that's when they started having their girls wrestle a lot more in WWE. I thought, 'This is a perfect time for me to come in. They care about women's wrestling.' Sadly it was just not the case.

WWE can say they don't watch Impact and TNA but I know that's a lie.

To look back and reflect on the career and sort of look at the seasons of it before I got to the WWF, working the territories and Japan and Texas, Puerto Rico, and then the WWF and WCW, then obviously the TNA years - it's been quite a journey, I'll say that.

When I left WWE, TNA offered me a deal. It was a sweet deal: ya sit at home the majority of the year. Just show up every now and then and make some money. That was a sweet deal for me; that was like a vacation.

Of course I wanted to main-event wrestling matches in TNA, but in their eyes, no, that would not happen. So I went back to New Japan.

So, wrestling, being strong, having good matches? I learned that in New Japan. But as a TV character? TNA was good.

I was actually in Japan when I had the conversation with the TNA brass about my situation coming to an end with them.

I thought when Samoa Joe won the World Title was a special night. That was an instance where TNA sort of got out of it's own way and let the competitors speak for themselves.

I was at an autograph show, and there were a lot of people from TNA there doing meet and greets. One of the girls from TNA there asked me why I hadn't joined yet and I said I'd tried and it didn't work out. She asked me to give her a video and pictures, and a few days later I got asked to do a tryout.