In wrestling, I'll lay on my back for anybody 1-2-3.
— Enzo Amore
Me and Cass both hooped when we were youngsters. When I met him, he was not nearly as big as he is now. As a matter of fact, I think I was about the same size.
Most people say when they get on screen, the most successful acts are people who are just themselves and turn the volume up. But in my situation, I gotta turn the volume down.
If you watching remember The Miz at the time when he was on 'Real World,' he was a character known as The Miz. He always wanted to get into sports entertainment, as did I. In a very similar likeness, I was EA All Day.
I wasn't trying to be the next Hulk Hogan. I was trying to be the next Vince McMahon.
One of my favorite rappers of all time, if not my favorite rapper of all time, is Nas.
It is a fine line to be this PG superstar and also a role model and a bad guy and playing off our personality.
More than anything, I prided myself when it was all set and done; the faith the company had in me to have seven segments on a television show - you have to tune in to see what can happen next.
I wear Jordans when I'm in the ring, alright? This isn't ballet, you know?
Diesel coming down with shades, being seven feet tall with an all-black outfit on and the gloves; The Rock when he was wearing $800 Versace shirts; and Stone Cold, obviously, with the way he carried himself and the way he spoke and holding the microphone - these are the things that made me want to become a pro wrestler.
It's not for everybody, and some of the toughest people I've ever met in my lifetime, I met in the wrestling ring.
As a kid growing up, I did idolize Chris Jericho at one point.
Neville is one of my favorite pros in the business.
I've been picked up by Big Cass and thrown down the ramp onto metal. Have you ever seen that before in this business? No, no, that's a mighty big fall from the top of the ramp, straight down to the bottom onto concrete. He picked me up over his head and thrown me 14 feet to the ground.
I've never worn the same pair of shoes twice, ever. That's a fact.
I grew up a block away from Hell, and my pop-pop was a chef in Hell's Kitchen.
I was different. I wasn't like anyone else. The business has never seen the likes of me, ever, and probably never will.
I have tattooed on my hand the silver throwback mics from back in the day. My father used to have one of those when he'd lead people at the YMCA doing the cha-cha slide.
I've had an affinity for Michael Jordan. He's probably the greatest athlete in my generation.
A classroom setting for me was an audience.
As a writer for six years, I wrote my own TV, which, I was the only person in the WWE that could probably honestly say, since day one in NXT, they wrote their own material.
If you look back at my six-year run in the WWE, I never cursed on TV once, never cursed once.
I've been heavily, heavily tuned into the DJ Khaled album, 'Major Key,' which has some major, major plays on it, up and down the line.
Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Shawn Michaels, The NWO, The Invasion, the wild stories, and the Attitude Era. All the crazy stories - you love them, and you get addicted to them and the lifestyle. But you have to separate them and toe the line and separate yourself from what is real and what is not.
You can call us what you want, but at the end of the day, we're entertainers.
The squared circle's no pretty place to be, and there's nothin' sweet about it.
I've been fortunate enough to be given the blessing by Triple H down at NXT to start coming out to the ring with a microphone in my hand.
I'm just one of those guys that, when I'm going in, I'm going all-in. That's kind of the way you've got to be in this business that I'm in.
I travel on my own and try to - I float along to music.
Listen: women lie, men lie, but numbers don't lie, guy.
Me and Cass don't talk anymore. I wish him nothing but the best, honestly.
I'm a walking, talking hypebeast, okay? Fresh Js on my feet every single week.
I was focused as a writer and marketing and a character. I was like Jim Carrey.
Adrian Neville, who's my best friend, I rode with him on the road. He was the most crisp, athletic, poignant guy - never missed a step. It was insane. I had never seen anybody who could move in a wrestling ring like him; it was like second-nature to him. Flips - name it - agile jumping in and out of the ring effortlessly to the top rope like crazy.
My microphone skills were developed at a young age watching my dad on the microphone. My dad DJ'ed bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, things of that nature.
I take that stage, and I'm the same guy backstage as I am on the stage. And you know what that guy is. That guy is a star. That guy is a champion. That guy is the guy that put '205 Live' on the map.
I spent most of my days in school being a class clown. I never shut up. By the time I was in middle school, I had myself a personal aide.
I was a writer before I was a wrestler when I was in the WWE.
Kofi Kingston is a big sneakerhead like me, and I love wearing Jordans.
Music and the WWE go hand-in-hand.
I'm hoping Big Cass gets a great singles' run and vice versa. We pull for each other in that regard.
That used to be what I grew up on - which is the Attitude Era, because you never knew what was going to happen next.
I loved all the wrestling going on in the ring - I wouldn't be into it as much if I didn't care about that - but I always had an infatuation with the performers and the entertainers.
When I was young, a lot of the guys could sell themselves to me on the way to the ring with the way they acted and their mannerisms. Guys like Shawn Michaels, who I loved growing up. They were just loud. They didn't even need to say a word because they came out and had this crazy ring gear on.
Kevin Owens? He couldn't rock with me. It just wouldn't happen.
I travelled with Neville; he is my road dog. We travelled on NXT and FCW before that. He opened my eyes to a whole genre of music in reggae.
You finish the damn match, point blank, period. That's it, and I always finish, even if I'm finishing on my back.
Nobody ever wants to see a guy get hurt, because this is how we feed our families.
Hell's Kitchen is open 24/7, and I'm cooking on the stove all day.
I would be up until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning on nights I was facing a wall. Because when I walked into WWE, I was told I was going to be fired ten times because I'm the smallest guy around.
