When you get a record attendance for What Culture Pro Wrestling - or just recently with Matt Cross, we did a record attendance for Next Gen in Tennessee. These are various brands. They're not rinky-dink. They're small - they're not WWE - but their soul is there.

There is an honor to what we do, and there are no shortcuts.

I was a Shawn Michaels fan, so that's a sad memory for me. I'm proud to add a happier memory in that building, even though Christopher Daniels also lost his smile.

I don't have the same knack for the business end that my old man did. Recruiting people has been tough. I don't envy anyone in that spot, especially some of the great non-WWE promoters like 'Evolves' Gabe Sapolsky, Beyond Wrestling's Drew Cordeiro, or Markus Mac at All Pro Wrestling.

I believe in hard work, but I believe in vindication as well. You have a few nightmares, I imagine, before you reach your dream.

Some kids like books, some kids like movies, but for me, every year I still go back and play 'Legend of Zelda.' So to me, when I got up to the big time, I thought that Zelda was my thing. CM Punk has a Pepsi tattoo, so why can't I have the Triforce? Gaming is huge to me; it's all I do.

It's damn exciting that without the biggest wrestling company in the world, I'm able to build a brand and be successful. It's hard to stay on top of it. I had to hire a staff. It sounds so silly. I had to hire a kid to do social media work for me. It's really cool.

I put my confidence in Ring of Honor because they put their confidence in me.

When I wasn't wrestling, I got back into school a little bit. In Dallas, there was VIP Wrestling, and in Atlanta, AR Fox has a great school, so it's good to get back in there and continue to learn.

A lot of the work I did with WWE had very strong comic book ties that were more than just a wink at the audience. There was a period of time when I had a clear protective face mask and a hood over my head that correlated with Doctor Doom.

I was really confident when I left WWE. I was confident that I would have a good time, and I was confident that I could wrestle differently than perhaps people saw me in the last few years with WWE, but I definitely wasn't prepared for this level of everything.

Sometimes I just revert back to Dusty's kid. I'm trying to chase his ghost, and it's a pretty hard ghost to chase.

All you need to do is look down at my boots. My pro wrestling boots that I've worn for the past year have the Triforce symbol from 'Legend of Zelda' on them.

When guys leave - whether they decide to leave or they're forced out - there's usually this period of time we see them around the world, and they can ride that WWE wave and use it, and then it goes away. It loses its luster after a few months.

I just had the absolute best luck in the world in terms of meeting The Young Bucks, and they might look like wild little rock stars who are irresponsible, but they are business geniuses. They set up the deal with Hot Topic, and they're going to be the first 7-figure downside characters that New Japan Pro Wrestling has.

I'm not capable of being in a group where I'm not the leader. I did it once earlier in my career with Legacy, and that was cool because I was young and green and a rookie in the industry, but now no more.

To have a record crowd for What Culture, to be in there with Kurt Angle and not to be just, like, Kurt Angle plus garnish, for it instead to be Kurt Angle v. Cody Rhodes, our second match, actually - it was very vindicating. It's also nice, you know: the greatest revenge in all the world is success, so it's nice to be vindicated.

I just play it safe when it comes to television because it is WWE's intellectual property. But it is literally my legal name, like on my ID. My name hasn't been Cody Runnels since I was 17. But it's theirs. At no point would I ever want to go into a courtroom with a company I have love and admiration for.

WWE is the biggest, most wonderful company, and they have WrestleMania, so almost any professional wrestler is going to seek that goal.

I'm a second-generation professional wrestler. My family, the Rhodes family, has been wrestling for 50-odd years.

I love politics. It could be that, or it could be that my dad was always really big on, 'This is your job. You are going to work...' You know, it's really funny cause he was such a cowboy, and he doesn't like the concept of guys coming in like cowboys - unshaved and wearing flip flops - and stuff like that would eat him alive.

A lot of times, guys leave WWE or get fired by WWE, but there's always that little bit of buzz right when they get out on the scene, but like all buzz, it fades. But I feel really flattered that, for whatever reason, it seems to be trending upwards.

I'm looking at the belt on the top of the bag across from me, and it still hasn't fully hit me. There are multiple stages to all of this, but I know that every time I walk into a gym or go to a new locker room since I won the title, I've felt like the world champion.

I wanted to be a world champion of some sorts since I got into the industry, when I was 15 years old, and I was able to do that.

I had seen a lot of people who had been released from WWE, or asked for their release, and gone out into the wild unknown. There's more cases of it being unsuccessful than successful.

A lot of times when people are released or, unfortunately, get fired, they almost scramble for what it is they are going to do next. I think when you are no longer working under a big, corporate umbrella, you have to be your own brand, your own enterprise. That was my thought process before I left.

There are fans who just like their indie stars, and then there are your more casual fans that are more familiar with somebody like Kurt Angle, and their interest might be piqued.

I had a habit of watching classic wrestling pretty much on repeat in the locker rooms. With the influx of talent at WWE, with guys like Kevin Owens, he was one of the first people to open my eyes up to the world that is PWG and BOLA.

I was a referee in TCW in Carrollton, Georgia, doing Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, and it was 1,000 degrees in there, and it was completely sold out every Friday that we ran it. That was my dad's independent promotion.

I like to think of Christopher Daniels as one of those who's a great professional wrestler, but I like to think of myself as one of those people that's great at everything.

I think Christopher Daniels' first championship reign with ROH is about 20 years too late, and I fully embrace the role that I've naturally been given here as spoiler for that reign.

It's my whole life, brother. It's a world title. It has been something I've worked for and quested for, and now I have the opportunity to compete for one.

I think one of my biggest attributes as a person and a businessman in wrestling is I'm very self-aware. There's a reason why I like all of the negative comments on social media. It's because I'm not delusional about my skillset, about my consistency and what I have to offer.

I reached a point where nothing scares me in this industry, mainly because I grew up in it. My earliest memory is 4 years old, getting in a wrestling ring.

I had several decorated characters within the WWE that I was really proud of, coats of paint that changed that I could show a different side to the audience, because I've been in front of them since I was 20 years old, and none of them were necessarily the right one.

If you're in front of a Ring of Honor crowd and you suck, they'll let you know.

I love good balance, so being a collector is a fun little thing while we travel this world. I mean, every night, it's something else. The other night, I head-banged a dude on my rental car and drove him through the curtain in my rental car. So some moments are not as good as others, but they are all fun, that's for sure.

One of the last things that my dad and I discussed, and it sticks with me today, is that he no longer believed in the concept of Good Guy/Bad Guy. He believed in the idea that one guy is trying to beat the other. However, he would say, 'You can be a Good Guy/Bad Guy, or you can just be a star.'

Everything in the business is based around the idea of a World Championship. WWE, World Heavyweight Championship, Universal Title, the ROH Title, or the IWGP Title - they are all World Championships. The best of the best.

Nothing has been more exciting for me knowing that Ring of Honor is experiencing their best crowds, their best buy rates, and their best merchandise numbers while I'm the champion.

Some people, they're seeking elsewhere, looking elsewhere. I love WWE, but this is the type of wrestling that I grew up on. And every week, it's bigger and bigger. And these shows are just getting more and more special.

Entertainment is changing so much because of the devices we have at our hands. I'm really proud to be on the forefront of that. You don't have to work one place. It's our generation. As much as we get knocks against us, we don't accept non-quality work in our entertainment. We're no longer force-fed. Wrestling is going through that.

I loved WWE , but in the end, I was unhappy. It was just like planning an escape from a maximum security prison. I'd released a list of potential opponents online, so when the 90-day no-compete clause was up, I had matches booked on good faith. I thought about the follow-up.

I have this little, tiny Dusty Rhodes figure they make in Japan that people always give me in my bag. I set it next to the title and took a picture of it in my bag. That was my big goal in the industry. I wasn't able to achieve that in his lifetime, but he always believed.

It was just my sense being on the ground, doing four unique independents a week and then finally seeing how, at the ROH event, fans react to us as a group. I really see the sport trending upwards.

As we formulate big four matches, there should definitely be a lucha presence involved.

It's kind of a tricky subject because I had a great time in WWE. There were highs and lows, but I cut my teeth there. I met my wife there.

'Final Countdown' would be a welcomed tune, even as a competitor.

I'm in the best shape I can possibly be in, and I'm drug-free. I'm doing what I have wanted to do my entire life, so life is good.

After 10 years of WWE, in a somewhat dramatic fashion, it just didn't feel right, so I stepped out of my contract, and after 10 years of that schedule, I had all this time.