Brock Lesnar was basically eye candy for MMA. He came in there, he was big, he was strong, he won a few matches, he captured the title, and then he was out. Not much of a career.
— Ken Shamrock
The fans are the ones that really tell the tale, and I think they speak very loudly about where I stand in pro wrestling. I don't think that there are too many people who would tell you that I don't deserve to be there.
No matter how tough you are or how much willpower or determination you have, if there's something wrong with your body, it's going to shut down and stop. It's good to have those qualities, but it's important to know what you're pushing against.
Because of who I am and what I've accomplished, everything is pretty much given to me. People cater to me all the time. It's almost like I've lost that edge - lost the ability to want something and then put in the work necessary to get it.
I started out with Buzz Sawyer in Sacramento. He had me shoot on guys and beat them up. They tossed me a few bones here and there. But, after Buzz passed away, I started seeking training elsewhere.
You can't tell me to stop being me. As long as there's something out there for me, or somebody offers me something that's reasonable, people that I want to fight, not just anybody, it's gotta make sense... but as long as those fights come around, I will continue to keep being me.
I grew up on the street, and I found a way to vent my frustrations through fighting.
WWE is something I'm looking at. Definitely have been throwing little feelers out there to get an opportunity. Because I have achieved everything that I have set out to do in every organization except the WWE. I didn't get the world title. I got everything else but that.
My passion's always been about helping the youth, and this is no different, except the issue are 21, 22, 23 years old and maybe even older than that, but they're very young in MMA World.
I was in all the Pay Per Views and all the house shows, and I thought I made a pretty good impact and helped change pro wrestling - not by myself, but definitely, I was a part of it in the Attitude Era. There is no recognition towards me or about me, and I'm kind of disappointed.
'Ring of Honor' is extreme... probably one of my favorite matches I ever saw. I don't remember the name of the guys, but it was unbelievable... it was almost like Stone Cold and Bret Hart when they had their 'I Quit' match.
Especially watching him struggle, cause I was with him when he was struggling - changed his name to The Rock, all of a sudden he has the attitude a little bit, he started getting the mic, started cutting promos. His character just developed.
I'm gonna write a book. I'm going to explain over the past 30 years of my life of things that I endured and what I went through. And when I do, I promise you with everything that I am that people will not believe me. But I have factual proof of everything that has happened to me, and I have been able to overcome.
It is not easy to go away and come back. One year out of MMA is like five years out of MMA. When you leave and go do something else, like pro wrestling, you're so far behind the times.
Promoters do bigger numbers when Ken Shamrock's name is on the card.
When I was scheduled to fight in Japan, and then I would come back to the United States, I would have to train, but there was nobody to train here. There was no such thing as a striker going with a grappler, or a striker going to the ground with a grappler, or a grappler standing up and fighting with a boxer.
After several different marriages and failures, my mom started turning to the Lord. So she brought us to church. We got involved with the youth programs, and I got on fire a couple months in, like, 'Wow, this feels good.' At 10 years old, you don't know. It felt good.
In my professional career, every time I jumped into an organization, I always reached the top and the title. I know with NWA with Jeff Jarrett, TNA, I was their first heavyweight champion, so I was able to reach that pinnacle. With Pancrase, I was their first champion and was also able to bring it to the U.S. using my character.
The fans are most important... when it comes to the entertainment industry. They are the ones that matter most, and they should be heard.
My whole thing was getting in there with these guys and really pushing their limits. Testing their toughness and their desire.
I will tell you what, the Rock was my nemesis. We did enough for each other; we put each other over to be famous. If we didn't have that feud with each other, we wouldn't have had the success we both had in pro wrestling. We really did build each other. I'm very thankful we had those opportunities and those matches.
If the fights that I take make sense, and there is not a 27-year-old number one contender in the world, then I'll probably be interested in doing fights that make sense and fights that are marketable.
How you find out who somebody is, whether or not they are a true warrior, a true competitor all the way through... is people that don't know how to walk away or say, 'I'm retired.' Those are the ones that are purebred warriors. They don't know anything else.
I would love to see Bellator come up and offer an opportunity for competition. Then, fighters could negotiate contracts, and they would not be limited to having only one opportunity, one option, where you have to take what's given to you.
I'm not Ken Shamrock the MMA World Champion No Holds Barred fighter. I'm Ken Shamrock, The World's Most Dangerous Man. Professional wrestling and MMA champion.
I've been very fortunate to be at the startup of a lot of different things. I was the startup of the Pancrase organization in Japan. Became a big figure over there. Then I was in the UFC and was at the startup of that, and I was a big figure in that. Twice. Not only in the beginning but also when it was taken over.
I feel for the guys in UFC who helped open the UFC up. Obviously, I'm getting blackballed there by the UFC, so I'm kind of feeling on both sides. If a promotion or somebody in that promotion decides they don't like an individual, then they get to make up the rules, and the fans don't get a say in it at all.
I want the ankle match with Kurt Angle... or I want Brock to see who is the best from MMA and pro wrestling.
Traveling around, being able to see all those cities, being with all the fans. Different people, different ways of life - it was exciting.
I just found at a young age that I really wanted to be more competitive.
Mark Hunt is a formidable opponent, but his style gives Brock Lesnar the best chance to win. Mark Hunt may not be the best-skilled athlete, but when he gets in the ring, you're going to get everything he's got.
I think a lot of people miss what I've done in the MMA world. How I was able to market and control the industry so that people wanted to watch my fights. If you look at the fights I've been involved in - in the SEG UFC, in Japan, for Zuffa and today, they have been fights that have turned companies around.
From early on in my career, I was always challenged to create things. Early in my career, I created 'ground and pound.' When I fought Royce Grace the second time, I developed that: stay on guard, follow the hips, press the legs down, press the hips down. When he rested, I ground and pounded him.
I've never really gone out and told people, 'I'm a Christian. I believe in God, and that is the reason why I'm successful. That is the reason why I'm still here doing what I'm doing.'
In my career, if you follow my career and watched everything that I've ever done from the time I was in high school to where I'm at now, I've always been able to reach the pinnacle. In football, I was able to win championships and go to bowl games in college, be an All-American linebacker, and there were a lot of things I was able to accomplish.
A lot of times, the fans aren't listened to, or their opinions are overlooked a lot.
If you stay in the guard and control the hips and flatten him out, you can control him. And that was the start of ground-and-pound.
I learned a long time ago that you need to bury the hatchet. No need to hold grudges. That only weighs you down.
People go fishing and hunting and playing basketball and hiking and skydiving and all kinds of things that can hurt you seriously, and they don't have to stop doing that when they get older.
I'm a warrior at heart. A lot of other people do it for money, or they want stardom and fame because they want to be famous or they just want to be on TV, and they just happen to have the skills to be a good fighter.
Bellator offered me a job. UFC never offered me an opportunity to fight. There's no question that UFC is the top. It's a machine. A lot of people, including myself, have helped build the UFC to where it is today.
Don't let people make you afraid of taking chances in life. And if you fail, it's no big deal. Get back up and fight through it and be successful again. If you did it once, you can do it again.
There's probably a hundred more submission holds in the WWE because of me training to bring in those submissions so people could look at them a legitimize them for pro wrestling. You look at it before I was there and after I was there: it's different matches.
Dana White hides behind a microphone and behind a TV camera and spouts off and calls people names because he doesn't like their opinion.
In the WWF, or the WWE as they call it now, the one thing that I was not able to capture was that heavyweight belt. I'm telling you, I want a chance to be able to go after that belt, but only if Brock Lesnar has it, or The Rock has it, or Kurt Angle has it.
I would have to say probably some of my favorite highlights in the ring would have to be with The Rock. Because at that time, me and him were number one guys, both of us on the rise, and just the matches we had were good times.
Everybody knows how to get prepared for an MMA fight. Everybody knows what the other person is going to do. Whereas when I did it, MMA was really style against style. Things you hadn't seen before, you'd see for the first time. People didn't know how to train properly for it, and the coaching wasn't there yet, either.
Brock Lesnar's stand-up sucks. He doesn't have a chin. Brock has got to take him to the ground, because Mark Hunt will knock him back to pro wrestling if he hits him.
Me, my heart and my soul will always be a fighter. I'm not comfortable with saying, 'I'm done. I quit. I give up.' That's the way I am, and that's the way I always will be. From the day I was born to the day I die, I am a fighter!
Jesus is my life, my Savior. You've got to be saved by God no matter what you do in life. If you try and go the wrong direction, He will guide you back.
