In my first fight, I acknowledged it. I'm a professional wrestler, this is who I am, who you know me as. But guess what, I've also been wrestling since I was 5 years old - real wrestling - amateur wrestling, Olympic wrestling.

I grew up in one of the most prolific high-school-wrestling programs in the country, and MMA fighters are more successful when they have that amateur-wrestling background.

From the beginning, make no mistakes, I'm a prizefighter and doing this for the money. Money first. And then championships.

As a fighter, I'm not one of those people that wants to prove I can go out and throw strikes.

All I want to do is go out there and win. That's all that is important to me.

My junior and senior year in college is when I first realized what MMA is and really started liking it. I went the other route - I went into the entertainment field and started wrestling professionally, and I did that for about 11 years.

I need to wrestle, I need to compete.

I'm a competitor. I had that reputation in my time at the WWE. I would walk into a locker room, start wrestling with someone, and all I'd hear is, 'There goes Swagger again.'

Luckily, I feel like I was a late bloomer as far as my body developing. I really didn't start developing until I was like 18, 19, 20 years old.

Yes, pro wrestling is damaging on your body. It hurts.

Growing up in Perry, Oklahoma, there's not a lot going on, so we would go wrestle anywhere and anyplace we could. It really is who I am.

MMA is very difficult; you can't just be good at wrestling. You need striking, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and countless other things.

I was never the best athlete, but I knew how to be coached and I knew how to work hard at it.

The nerves with WWE performance is more the live television angles because we have time limits and have storylines we want to get through in that time. You're going to forget a lot about the spots.

I grew up with two cousins from North Dakota who were junior national champions. They're a lot older than me and I looked up to them as my older brothers.

MMA fans and pro wrestling fans are similar in that they care about their sports very much. They want to see that you're serious and not making fun of them or the sport that they love.

I think it's surprising for a lot of people to see Jack Swagger crossover to MMA because they know Jack Swagger more than they know Jake Hager.

I would say to the critics that they don't have a black belt in time management like I do.

I feel like being a professional wrestling has definitely made me a better MMA fighter.

We The People' is public domain, any American can use that.

In this world, I feel like we all need to be nicer to each other.

Let's come together, let the people stop fighting each other, but let them fight in the octagon.

Pro wrestling fans love surprises, so let's surprise them, and not just give them the old stuff.

Pro wrestling is all about staying fresh.

Once you're an amateur wrestler, you're always an amateur wrestler.

I relate everything to amateur wrestling, including the way I watch basketball and the way I watch football. My brain thinks as an amateur wrestler. That's who I am.

A lot of people want me to say negative things about WWE, but I'm very grateful for my career there.

I want to grow my brand and help wrestling continue to grow, too.

When I look in the mirror, I'm a husband and a father first.

Wrestling for wrestling fans is an honor.

I've always been a big fan of Hollywood.

I look like a winner, I smell like a winner, so why not put it on the big screen?

If you go back and look at WWE Magazine, they asked me when I was going to win my first world championship and I told them WrestleMania XXVI, so I was only a couple days off.

As far as the work in the ring, it's so much technique and spacing and timing, and that's what amateur wrestling is, too. So I felt like I learned very fast and a lot of things came naturally for me.

I really like Bellator and them as a company and how they are run. It's a popular place for fighters to go to.

To be able to change from being essentially a bad guy into a really hot babyface overnight is very hard to do.

To be successful in WWE, you have to love what you do. You have to want to steal the show every time you go out.

People want to see fighters who can put on a little show and then back it up. Hopefully I can do both of those things.

If you speak pro wrestling or MMA, you almost speak any language.

If I just keep my head down and I keep working hard, that's just what I do.

Your character has to be an extension of yourself, and you got to be comfortable in it. Otherwise, people are going to see right through it. They're going to see that you're acting or that you're playing wrestling.

People think I look like a P.E. teacher or the principal.

Some people work their entire lives to become a professional fighter and see certain guys with exposure or just a name, hop into the professional ranks. It can rub people the wrong way and have them very doubtful of your skills because they see first-hand the hard work and how many years it takes to master this.

If people want to compare me to Brock Lesnar - there's worse people to compare me to.

Big risk means big reward. I want that.

I want people to say that Jack Swagger/Jake Hager is a world champion in MMA and in pro wrestling.

You don't see a lot of fighters with no or little experience getting to be on the main card. I know that's an incredible honor, but at the same time, I know my worth, and I know my value.

You know, there's not a lot of guys who don't like Jack Swagger. It's a good problem to have.

Kofi Kingston has always been one of my favorite opponents to wrestle. He and I started back in McDonough, Georgia in 2006 in developmental at Deep South together. So, our careers have come along at the same time. He's incredible.

When you step in front of a camera, and everybody is going to have their hyped-up personality, everyone is going to have the character they are trying to play.