Zitat des Tages von Shawn Michaels:
Even though I wrestled Ric Flair very early on in my career, it was a short match, so getting to wrestle him later on in my career was a benchmark. Wrestling Hulk Hogan was a benchmark for me.
'WrestleMania' is pressure-filled anyway, and more so when you're going for the first time in what might be the main event. If you are being dubbed, or people seeing you as the next guy, those things mount up.
'Wrestlemania' is the time of the year where careers are made or broken.
Our line of work is very cynical, and a lot of it is driven by cynicism, cruelty, and meanness. It's easier to believe the negative stuff than the positive stuff. The feel-good stories don't usually spend a lot of time on the front pages.
The only thing you have to have is patience and an attitude that you aren't ever going to give up.
Tully was the first young, handsome, cocky, well-dressed bad guy. He was our version of Ric Flair before I knew who Ric Flair was. This was before cable TV or any of that, and Tully was our Ric Flair.
If you're desperate enough for attention, any attention will make you feel better.
That's what I love about my faith and Christianity. It's the polar opposite of darn near everything I experienced in the wrestling business. I still love the business, and I'm thankful for everything that it's provided, but the idea that it deals in the truth is the furthest thing from reality.
I was raised Catholic, and I knew of Him and certainly what He did, but I never truly experienced knowing Him.
It wasn't until 2002 when I returned to WWE and until I had physically been out there - it was during the match when Kevin Nash blew his quad. That next morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading my Bible and the Book of Joshua, and this feeling came over me that I was back here for a reason. God built me to be a wrestler.
If I truly believe everything that's in that book, God is in control. He is in control. He's working for my good. Doesn't mean everything's going to be smooth, but that's all I needed to know. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
As long as I did the good things associated with religion, I thought I was in good shape spiritually, too.
My faith is sort of where I got my confidence. And it was the confidence of, 'It's going to be what it's going to be.'
If I'm appearing on 'Raw,' then I'm usually there to help sell tickets to something, and that's when you see the 'HBK' Shawn Michaels come out. At panels, I can be more open and honest and show some more humility. They don't want me talking about my family on TV, but I can in a panel setting.
I have no doubt that LeBron James would've loved to have played against Michael Jordan, but that simply is not going to happen.
I learned very early that you don't get time back. I'd miss my children growing up, so that's the reason I retired.
If we're not a good steward of what God gives us, he takes it away. I think that's what happened. I wasn't a good steward of the gift that he gave me in this line of work. I abused it, so he took it away.
I am to wrestling what Elvis was to rock n' roll!
In all the years with WWE, I never really got to really establish the branding of The Showstopper as well as I would have liked to.
Whether it's NASCAR or whether it's football, or whether it's the NBA, any time something spills over to the point where somebody makes a WWE reference, I always think it's a good thing.
The entrance is important, but it's the in-ring performance that fans truly remember. My zipline entrance has become so much bigger over time, but I still think fans remember the match more than anything.
Being a good husband and father... that's the most important thing I'm going to do on this earth.
We can bring it all down to the subtleties of the shifting of an eye because we know the camera will catch it. That has been a great thing to learn, and it makes it interesting for a guy who has been in it as long as I have.
You do your best with the realization that nothing gets you in ring-shape better than being in the ring.
There were times that we'd be in the locker room there before everyone else, and a guy would walk in, say, 'Is this the Kliq locker room?' So we'd draw with a sharpie on the back of a program and write 'Kliq locker room'. I can promise you that none of those signs were ever on WWE letterhead.
Being called 'The Heartbreak Kid', 'Mr. Wrestlemania,' and all those other names doesn't even begin to compare to what it feels like to know that the Almighty God who created the universe calls me His child.
When I returned to wrestling, I went back a changed man. I had adopted a new way of thinking. All I wanted was for God to help me be a good witness on the platform He had brought me back to.
The whole thing about me being The Showstopper - and Mr. WrestleMania - is that it was something I said once, and it took on a life of its own from there. Truthfully, I think the idea of going out and stealing the show is something you ought to do every time you wrestle. But if you focus only on that element, you end up doing almost too much.
For those of us who are on the Raw brand, to hook up with the guys from the Smackdown brand is our chance to go in there and get a hold of guys that you normally don't get a chance to work with.
I like learning new stuff, also, and I can sit there and watch shows on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel or stuff like that and learn something new. I think once you've gone through such a long stage of learning one thing, you're not as well-rounded as you'd like to be.
No, I don't want to go back and wrestle again... But some big bubble could break, and I might need money like everybody else.
I would love to have gotten into it with Harley Race. He was such a good wrestler and rough and tough. We wrestled at the same time but never each other. And wrestling Sting would have been something I would have enjoyed.
I'm the 'Showstoppa', the Main Event, the icon!
I don't consider myself a great multitasker, so I try to do one thing at a time, even though there were opportunities when I was wrestling.
My whole intention at 'WrestleMania XIV' was to drop the belt to Steve, but I was going to make everybody sweat it out and make them think I wasn't. Obviously, I got that accomplished. That's extremely unprofessional, but that's exactly who I was and what I was doing.
I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Howard Finkel does not get a lot of chicks!