"For me, I like to be different. I didn't want to imitate another wrestler. I always try to find something from other genres, like movies, books, art, and musicals. That's how I made my style."
"Wrestling is a universal language. The moves, the facial expressions, most people understand."
"I love wrestling, and I love telling a story to the audience."
"When I was a kid, I loved Nintendo."
"You have a good side and bad side, real side. Then I put that on in the ring. My character, my personality in the ring, came from heel stuff."
"Moving to the United States is a huge decision."
"There are wrestlers in Japan. I think they think they can move to WWE, but it's not so easy."
"I wanted to enjoy my life and challenge myself."
"Florida's waves are better than Japan. It's just an hour drive to the beach, but just once a week, I'm able to go to the surfing."
"Language is important, I know, for the TV show, so a lot of people watches 'WWE' everywhere. Asia, Africa... some people don't understand English like me. That's why I use facial expressions and body motions."
"I think a wrestler can say something from fighting, from wrestling."
"WWE, time-wise, is so strict."
"At 'WrestleMania,' I can show my 100 percent or more."
"I'm not, like, an English speaker, so I have confidence in my wrestling skills, also, like, body language, hand gestures, facial expressions. I put all of my emotion in my wrestling."
"For a long time, almost 14 years, I wrestled in Japan, so I didn't think I would leave New Japan Pro Wrestling, but I started changing my mind. I wanted to see the other world. I wanted to change something. I wanted to be bigger."
"Strong style is a philosophy for Japanese wrestling fans that was created by New Japan Pro Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki. He wanted you to show every motion and show real technique in the ring. It's important to use real techniques from real life and real martial arts. The detail is important."
"With Michael Jackson, when he moved, it looked like a martial artist to me. He was quicker than other dancers, but he didn't have muscles; he was just quicker and looked more in control of gravity. He looked like a martial arts master, so I tried to steal body movement from him; that's why I imitate Michael Jackson a little bit."
"Wrestling is an art. Every culture has an art, like music and dancing and fighting. So that's my base. If I think about it like art, I can connect with everybody."
"NXT fans are hardcore wrestling fans."
"One of the reasons to come to the WWE was to wrestle at 'WrestleMania,' but to main-event 'WrestleMania?' Wow! I live for this."
"I need to study English more. I'll start by watching 'Sesame Street' every day."
"Wrestling has its own culture. Every culture - Japan, Samoan, Indian, Korean - has wrestling, and wrestling is a worldwide mix."
"My inspirations were 'Macho Man' Randy Savage and Andre the Giant. It was easy to understand their character."
"After match, in WWE, I do not drink alcohol. I just drink a lot of water."
"I feel as if I accomplished everything in Japan, so I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted something new, so I decided to come to WWE."
