All the people who were on WSX Season 1 are the life blood of the alternative wrestling business, and now the mainstream wrestling business as well. That is what Lucha Underground is doing.
For me, I'm not trying to be the flavor for everybody. But I'm just proud when people I respect or people that I want to be my fans are my fans.
I have a little dojo in Clearwater called the Sai Dojo and I've just been putting in extra work there and so, when I get a chance to wrestle now, my comfort level in the ring is higher, my skills are sharper and I just felt like I couldn't have a better time to get these huge opportunities.
So I don't think one type of wrestling is right and one type of wrestling is wrong, and I've used that ability to unlearn what I've done and really go back and get back in touch with that Dragon Gate style since now there's a lot of guys that can work with that.
I was down in Peru, and I was watching AAA in Spanish on my TV, and it just it blew my mind because they weren't following any of the rules, yet the crowd was still there.
It's just important for me to be healthy and just to take care of my body. Fans will appreciate the sacrifices we make with our bodies but I was just working a little more hurt than I should.
If you're just trying to get by, you're going to be left behind. The caliber of shows I'm on are incredible, and it makes me just want to raise that bar even more.
I am in a closed state where I'm just reacting and moving based on my instincts, knowledge, technique and years of experience.
The hardest thing to do in wrestling is that every time you show up, there's just a ring with three ropes, turnbuckles on each side, it's extremely hard to do something to surprise and shock the fans.
At WSX I think I was very much trying to figure it out on my own and we were creating our own style and our own thing. I can only speak for myself, I was not trying to be anything. I was not trying to be like anyone else.
When I was working for WWE I felt like I was trying to make someone else's vision happen instead of my own. And I think that's where I became less true to myself and I think it showed in my work.
Someone like Brian Cage, he's a gigantic man who is trying to wrestle like me. That's his mistake because I clearly hold the top card in someone who is wrestling like Matt Sydal.
When I'm out there, it's not even me who is doing the acting and the wrestling and the moving. It is something that I feel like I see channels more than anything else. So, for me, I tune into the right frequency. I get turned on and we're ready for take off.
Triple H was so generous to me with his time and his knowledge when I was like the young up-and-comer wrestling Chavo, and every life event, after our matches, he would come back and give me just a list of things to work on which is exactly what I see going on in NXT, like how they're adopting a high-flyer style to the WWE audience.
I was just lucky to be there ahead of the curve to be the driving force behind bringing this amazing style of wrestling from Japan that combined Lucha Libre, American professional wrestling, Canadian professional wrestling and Japanese wrestling all into one beautiful mix that fans worldwide absolutely can't get enough of.