I've had some of my best matches in front of 50 people in bingo halls and VFW halls and things like that.
The best part of watching any show is that feeling of being sucked in. If I'm watching 'Breaking Bad,' there is something compelling about Walter White.
I'm a humungous Browns fan. My 30th birthday was actually at the Browns' stadium.
I get a lot of comparisons to Daniel Bryan, and trust me, I am flattered by all of them because we mentioned New Orleans and WrestleMania; I watched it at home and watched Daniel Bryan in the main event of WrestleMania achieve his dreams.
I've said this numerous times: I've been in the ring with Daniel Bryan, and he's the best wrestler in the world, bar none.
Johnny Wrestling, to me, isn't just a cool nickname or a fun thing for the crowd to chant. To me, it's a state of mind, and it's just who I am. I first stepped foot in a wrestling ring when I was 8 years old.
Anything nerd-wise, I have probably collected it, and it's displayed in our apartment.
I'd love for it to go away and for people not to see NXT as a downgrade. I definitely don't think it is.
For the longest time, I was horrified to hear the word 'failure,' but I've come to realize that we all fail. It's just a part of life. We all fall. It's how you rebound that shows the type of person you are.
The fact that I'm still able to wrestle on the indies and yet still do my stuff in NXT, and the fact that I wrestled in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center at TakeOver, and then, the following weekend, I was still doing indie shows, is wild.
I do believe that Raw, SmackDown, and NXT are the three brands, and I think that people can come from Raw or SmackDown to NXT, and I think that people from NXT can go to Raw or SmackDown. It's very interchangeable.
When I moved to Orlando, it was my first time moving from Cleveland. You never know what to expect. But to be able to go and work with Shawn Michaels and learn from him - it's just mind-blowing.
It's a blessing and a curse, 'cause I'm never satisfied, so I continually want to outdo myself. But still, I'm never happy.
I'm walking around our apartment right now, and I see tons of action figures everywhere. There's Spider-Man stuff, old 1996 WWF figures, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Marvel stuff.
Growing up, I was a socially awkward kid who didn't know where he fit in, and I didn't have many friends, but I always had wrestling. I always had what was in between those ropes, and that always put a smile on my face no matter what.
We've got a bunch of guys who have been travelling around the world for over 10 years, scratching and clawing, fighting, just trying to live their dream, just trying to prove people wrong, just trying to show that we belong, and that's kind of the essence of NXT.
When I was younger, my favorite wrestlers were Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. I relate to them. I don't know what it was.
My mom made me a Shawn Michaels costume when I was a kid. I wore it every day and ran around the house dancing like him.
I don't think I'd be in WWE, and I wouldn't be in NXT, if it wasn't for my time in EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA and things like that.
It started with Dragon Gate USA, where I started as a guy on the pre-show and wasn't promised anything. I kept coming and doing what I do and ended up on the main show and eventually won their championship.
