I did my thesis on clowns. It's a powerful thing when you've got this little red nose on. It's a mask, the smallest in the world, but it unveils you. You stand up there and do these exercises that free you, let you play, and see what comes out. What comes out is the truth.
— Becky Lynch
If you can believe it, I had no intentions of being a wrestler.
McGregor is a businessman through and through. He's obviously a wrestling fan.
I wasn't born to be champion - I fought to be champion.
For a while, I was a flight attendant. I lived in New York, and I was a bartender. I took cooking classes, martial arts classes. I taught a foreign language. I went back to college and studied acting, which I love. I was doing stunt work as well.
The first thing I do when I get to any town is find a gym and a breakfast place, because I love breakfast.
When I started wrestling, I started only to get in shape. I found out that a wrestling school had opened in Ireland, and I wanted to go because I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and I wanted to turn my life around.
I think when you've got a passion for something, it comes out of you, and people can feel it. Then your mind is so geared towards that and how you can improve on it, and you're so excited about performing that it comes together.
I want to make 'Smackdown' the brand to watch, but beyond that main-eventing, 'WrestleMania' is the next step.
I was 19, and I thought I should settle down and get a real job, and what was I doing living this dream world?
Ronda Rousey changing the game for MMA, you know? Dana White said he'd never have a girl in the Octagon. Ronda Rousey comes along, and she's the main event any time she's on. The women, I feel, in the UFC are stealing the show.
I'm the champ that puns the camp! That's what I always wanted. I wanted to be seen as a main eventer, and it's a lot of responsibility now. I feel like I'm gonna deliver on this opportunity. I want to take it and make sure everybody knows that this is why I'm the champ.
You can be going through hardships sometimes, and you're struggling, and then you're wondering if you're ever gonna make it.
When I was drafted to Smackdown, I was like, 'Hell yes, I'm going to captain this ship.' Then I was like, 'Oh, wait, you're losing your best friend and travel partner and the person you enjoy having matches with the absolute most.' That's Charlotte. We travel together, and she is my best friend.
Ember Moon is extremely talented, and Daria, from Tough Enough, she's very unique and cool. The fans are going to get behind her. As for Asuka, she is phenomenal.
My brother was going to go to England to wrestle, but then we found out they were opening a wrestling school in Bray, County Wicklow. I thought, 'I'll go along and try that.'
I'd like there to be consistently more women's storylines going on at the same time.
I remember I did a boxing class. I remember sparring one time, and the guy smacked me right in the nose, and I was just like, 'What is this? No. No. None of that.
Would you believe I never went to a hockey game when I was living in Canada?
When I came into WWE, what I said to myself was, I wanted to change the term from 'divas' to 'women.'
When I was younger, I didn't want to come to WWE because I didn't fit into the mold. I couldn't identify myself with the term 'diva.' The divas brand was meant to put a spotlight on the women, but the term, to me, felt more glamorous than me.
When I was a little kid, I used to watch with my brother when there was Macho Man and Hulk Hogan. But then I fell out of it for a few years.
I'd read Stone Cold's biography about how he lived on, like, raw potatoes, and I thought, this is all part of it. This is what wrestlers do, and this is what I'm going to do.
Being the leader of a division is a pressure, but it's one that I feel I am ready for.
I started working out, eating a good diet, and just did everything I could that I thought would benefit me. I also started studying a lot harder in school. It matured me a remarkable amount and made me completely focused.
We're changing the way people are going to look at wrestling, women's wrestling, forever. Forever. And we're at the start of it? That's unbelievable. That's unbelievable! Unbelievable.
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.
My whole 'WWE' career has been rebuilding myself and finding the confidence that I once had. It's been one hell of a journey. There have been times I felt like the prodigal son because I left wrestling and abandoned this thing that I loved.
Someone told me, 'When you go see Pearl Jam, it's going to be a spiritual experience,' and it was. It was my first time seeing them live, and I've been a lifelong fan. Eddie Vedder's voice is a million times better live, and I couldn't believe the passion he put into every single song.
Peyton Royce and Billie Kay are two phenomenal workers; I would love to see them up here on Smackdown. They're great girls with great talent. A bit of momentum, and we're going to see amazing things from them.
There were no wrestling schools in Ireland. It was completely unheard of.
Sometimes the storyline is as simple as, 'We're just going to be the best, and we're going for the championships.
What I loved about wrestling was just being foolish, so I studied clown. I studied clown. I studied the art of clown. I actually did my thesis on clown.
My first time coming over to North America was to New York around Christmastime when I was 7. My mom was a flight attendant, and she got put on to the Trans-Atlantic route over Christmastime, so she brought the whole family.
I think we have the best women's division on Smackdown Live. But, I miss Charlotte like a son of a gun. She's my favorite person to be in the ring with. She's the most incredible talent, and she keeps improving. When you've got a talent like that who's always stepping up their game, it always keeps you stepping up your game.
I quit wrestling in 2006 because I just got lost. My mom didn't want me wrestling. I was wondering if I was going to make it in wrestling; I got injured in a match. I was 19. I was away from home, living in Florida, and I just got lost. I couldn't face it, so I stepped away.
Everybody has that thing about them that makes them special, and sometimes we try to dull it down or we don't always want to expose it, and maybe we've been taught that way or whatever. It's just a matter of letting it out and letting it go and letting people in on it.
When things are scary, or there's a struggle, I always think, 'How is this going to sound in my biography?' Sometimes I would just be living on protein shakes or the cheapest food that I could afford because I didn't have a lot of money.
It was all encompassing and so hard for me to do any classes or take up any hobbies - I'd wake up with this gnawing feeling in my stomach that I wasn't doing what I was meant to do.
With women empowerment and women coming together, it's not about being better than the guys or whatever. It's just about collaboration; it's about being equal people and having more of a highlight on women's athletics and just women being equal in every aspect.
This was something I always dreamed and wanted to be part of, when women's wrestling was freakin' cool, and now it is.
My life changed completely. It's crazy now. It's kind of gone from striving and wondering and being confused and being lost to just feeling like the most blessed person in the world - just happy to wake up every day, happy to get on a plane every time. Just couldn't be happier with life, really.
Everybody that's employed by 'WWE' - the biggest wrestling company in the world - should be good wrestlers able to tell good stories.
Mostly for social media, Twitter or Instagram becomes so much more fun when you can be boastful and say whatever you want. You can be so full of yourself and ridiculous when you're a heel.
I love 'Pac-man', 'Mortal Kombat', and 'Street Fighter'. 'Ryu' is my favourite-ever character - I'd love to leapfrog the Hadouken. I never really evolved too far beyond that, but I have played '2K17'.
