“He goes, ‘Dude, just watch with me, Just watch some of these things. You should really like this guy, Seth Rollins, because he’s from Davenport, Iowa, and you’re an Iowa guy.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll watch it,'” Kittle recalled. “I started watching it right at the end of The Shield. It was like the last three to four months of The Shield. I was like, ‘Oh, this is sick, dude. I love this. I love Seth.’ So every day I’d come back and we’d watch seasons, everything leading up to WrestleMania 1, then everything leading up to WrestleMania 2. He caught me up over the course of that summer. I probably watched like six hours of wrestling a day, minimum.”

Thanks to his WWE Network viewing sessions with Manders, Kittle’s appreciation for the professional wrestling business rapidly grew, so much so that he and his current 49ers teammates have now adopted Shawn Michaels’ flexing pose in moments of celebration.

Kittle cited a match between former world champions Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks as a notable one he witnessed in person. He was especially “blown away” by Flair’s top rope moonsault, which she used to take out Banks on the floor. Elsewhere, Kittle found himself enjoying the comedic work of Chris Jericho, specifically his gimmick of adding his colleagues, and even celebrities, to his list of shame throughout 2016 and 2017. 

Admittedly, not every storyline Kittle has seen has been a great one. Still, he eagerly hangs on for the ones that are.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “No-Contest Wrestling Podcast” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.