David Otunga appeared on TMZ’s Inside The Ring and pulled back the curtain on the grueling WWE travel schedule, explaining how it led to insomnia and created a “catch 22” for his diet.
Otunga noted that the schedule is relentless and all-consuming. “It is really hard on your body, yeah? And it’s hard to have a life outside of wrestling, because the travel schedule consumes you so much,” he said.
36 Hours Home
Otunga explained how difficult the schedule was while his son was young.“My son was born when I was at FCW… So then I’m on the road with Nexus, and then when we were tag champs, I remember I was only home for about 36 hours every week… You would get home on a Wednesday, and I’d be lucky if I got home before noon, but I’m exhausted… Thursday is the only day I really have, because early Friday morning I’m on the flight… that’s 52 weeks a year”.
He continued, “There’s just too many demands, and I haven’t slept… I started developing insomnia a little bit. You think about it like we would finish the show… at 11pm… get back to the hotel, say it’s midnight… my flight’s probably going to be at 6am to go home… that’s four hours to sleep. But mind you, we just finished wrestling. I’m wound up, and there’s no way I can try to go to sleep at midnight… it started catching up to me. Yeah, it’s tough”.
The “Catch 22” Diet
Otunga also explained the difficulty of balancing his physique with his in-ring energy needs. “I was low carb, like my whole time there, and which is tough, because it’s an athletic performance, so I need energy to perform, but also it’s a very cosmetic performance, so I need to be lean, so it’s kind of a catch 22 for me there, where I need to find the balance where I’m lean but still have enough energy”.
He added that the production crew often has it even worse. “They have to be there before us and after us, which is wild… she has the same schedule as I do, but yeah, that’s exactly nobody knows who she is or what she does. And yeah, none of the glory. But yeah, they’re traveling with us”.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit TMZ’s Inside The Ring with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can find the podcast on all major podcast platforms.
