“And so I see that, and he [Okada] comes out, and it’s like this gaudy entrance, where it’s dropping money, and it’s the ‘Rainmaker’ and all that kind of stuff. And there was something inside of me that was just like — and people think it’s cool. You saw a whole arena cheering, and it made me angry because being poor as a kid made me feel less than, right? And so to see people who you may look up to come out and all of sudden there was this fire in me, and I was just like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna kick this guy’s f*****g a*s.’ 

“And, so yeah, I wasn’t thinking at that point. I wasn’t thinking about having to follow Kenny and Will or anything like that. It was thinking about, ‘Okay. I’m here to do a job, and I’m gonna do it as best as I can.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit All Elite Wrestling and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.