I was even more of a fan of Jake The Snake than I was of my dad when I was a kid, and that's because of the snake. Jake used to have his snake, Damien, out in the locker room slithering around the showers. In the locker room, they would actually block off one of the showers just so Damien could roll around, and I'd sit there and watch him.
I don't have a problem with dives out of the ring, but there are a lot of these guys who don't have anything to fall back on, and they're not making any money doing it. A lot of these guys go out there, and they're gonna break their necks at 23 years old doing things they shouldn't be doing.
If anything, I'm overacting in the ring because of the facials and the body language. I want the guy in the cheap seats to be able to see what I'm thinking, the expression on my face. But when you're filming a movie, it could be a two- or three-camera shot, and you're doing it over and over and over again. It's not live TV; it's a lot different.
Teaming up for Evolution, I think Batista and I credit a lot of our success to Ric Flair, but especially Triple H. He has an amazing psychology for the business. He understands how to tell a story, and you just pick his brain the best you can while riding with him. It was a great advantage for us in terms of learning our craft.
Guys like Jack Lanza, Pat Patterson, Bruce Pritchard, Tom Pritchard - those guys all helped me get a tryout. And I'd never been in the ring, so they went on a lot of faith and signed me and thought that they could help mold me into a WWE superstar. And now I'm glad they did, because that was a big turning point in my life.
I probably had the most fun ever in the ring with Christian. And it was because he could just pick stuff up out of thin air and make it something. Neither of us were these big high-fliers; none of us were power guys doing these big, crazy moves. But the finesse and the things were smooth with me and him.