“[Regal is] a teacher. He loves this business and wants everyone to understand this business is special. He was one of the guys I wanted to be like growing up because of his style. You would watch him on WCW and you would really think he was beating the crap out of somebody. It was really cool to be in there with a legend of this business”
On planning out matches:
“[I prefer] to see where a match takes you. Thats the fun part of it. You know if the fans are in to it, you can give them more. If not, its like, “I guess we’re done”.”
Who he would have liked to have faced:
“There’s a bunch. Again, as a fan, anyone would want to work [with] The Undertaker. He’s a big athletic guy who can still go, and he proved that at Wrestlemania 30 that he can still go. Triple H definitely. But my ultimate would have been The Rock. I was a Rock fan. I think I could have good matches with anybody given the opportunity. If you have two guys who love the business and love to fight, you are going to get great matches.”
Wrestling after coming back from an injury:
“It was on my mind, especially when the first thing I had to do was get clotheslined over the top rope by The Big Show and I had to land on my quad. But my doctor was phenomenal. He said “What’s in your leg [now] – nothing can break that”. Once I landed on my leg and I was like “oh, okay, I’m good” and I was ready to go.”
On Vince McMahon’s quad tear:
“His injury was the same as mine but both quads. He was out for 5 months but the guy [Vince] was a monster.”
Where he rates the Intercontinental and ECW titles against each other:
“It’s like having two kids. You can’t say you like one more than the other. I am a father of two kids and they are special to me in their own way. I could never compare the two and say one was better than the other.”
On winning the Intercontinental belt:
“I only found out on the day. That day was special to me as it was fathers day and I was thinking about my dad [who passed away). It was on the East coast and I saw my mum the night before. My mum saw me perform in the ring for the first night in New Jersey the night before. I was wearing the championship on fathers day and that was really exciting.”
On pitching ideas:
“Its always good to pitch ideas but whatever ideas they [creative] have, they are going to run with whether you are ready or not. You can submit ideas but you have to wait your turn and that’s what I was willing to do. “
On feedback from Vince McMahon:
“I remember from my first night on TV with Brian Kendrick his [Vince’s] reaction was that he liked what I did. The first physical thing I did was with Stevie Richards. I snatched him up and torture racked him for the first time and Vince said “I like that. I was ecstatic. This as my second or third week on TV and I was impressing the boss which is what you are supposed to do – impress the boss. So I was excited from the get go.”
On being released:
“I knew my contract was coming to an end but I was still hoping that I might get the call [to renew] but it never happened that way. I got to live my dream for 7 years, so I am not unhappy with the way things happened.”
On working with other promotions:
“I just love wrestling. I am open to work with any promotion, whether that be WWE, TNA, ROH or any other promotion.”
