Kenny Omega

When I was growing up, I thought there was only WWE. That's it. One promotion in the world. And then, as I grew up, I found that there's local wrestling. There's WCW, there's ECW. In Mexico, there are the luchadores. And then, finally, I realized there's wrestling in Japan.

As a professional wrestler in the position I am in, I would rather have people remember my matches for an emotion or for a certain thought it evoked when they saw it.

John Cena is one of the great WWE talents that I respect most. If I were to end up there, working with someone of his caliber would certainly be a goal and jive with my mission of changing wrestling.

We have a very physical performance art. A lot of times, when you want to achieve a certain emotion, you have to use professional wrestling ingredients, which are moves or a sequence of moves.

A lot of people, especially performers in wrestling, feel that winning the title is the only statistic that matters, but it's always about the journey. If you don't have the people behind you, believing in you, and the start of a new chapter after winning the title, then you don't have anything.

As naturally athletic as I'm gifted to be, where certain things came easily, I always rely on my brain first.

I main-evented a sold-out Budokan Arena show; I participated in the first-ever ladder match in NJPW, made the transition from junior to heavyweight, and earned a G1 win with a series full of performances that I'm personally very proud of.

I've always been on the outside looking in. I was never popular in school, despite my success in athletics. I would win track and field competitions, but I wouldn't go to parties. I'd be alone.

Winning the title is an important detail to the story, but how you get there is much more important.

I think it's important to show in the 21st century that if you're gay, lesbian, trans, whatever, that you should feel just as welcome to be a wrestling fan as anyone else. You're welcome in the space.

I'm lucky that my best strength as a wrestler has always been my brain.

If I were ever in a position to appear more for ROH, I would accept nothing less than to be recognized as the best - which would mean having to challenge the top dogs/champions.