The former NFL defensive lineman speaks on a number of topics regarding his WWE career.
Current SmackDown Live talent, Mojo Rawley, recently spoke with ABC 15 Arizona while the blue brand was in the copper state this week. Mojo is a former defensive lineman for the Arizona Cardinals, but he stated that the WWE was always in his sights.
"Believe it or not, being in WWE was the first thing I ever wanted to do, well before I even started with my football career," Rawley said. "I almost look at football as a means to this end. It’s kind of cool to see life coming full circle now that I’m here."
During Mojo's entrances, he gets into a defensive lineman stance and pounces to the ring, similar to the way that WWE Hall Of Famer, The Ultimate Warrior, used to do back in his prime. The former member of the "Hype Bros" stated that he does take a bit of the Ultimate Warrior's entrance and inserts it into his own.
"I emulate him a little in my entrance to this day. Just coming out all hyped up, running around, flipping out all over the place. He was always the guy I pretended to be when I was a kid and still is."
The 2017 'Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal' winner also played alongside former WWE United States Champion, Baron Corbin, on the Arizona Cardinals while Corbin was an offensive lineman. Tied into Mojo's football past is current New England Patriots TE, Rob Gronkowski. There was a report via the Wrestling Observer, that WWE has interest in signing Rob Gronkowski if he does decide not to return to the NFL. While that has not been finalized or made official, one thing that is, is the friendship between Mojo & Gronk. Mojo would go on to speak about being close with Gronkowksi and Gronk's two brothers.
"It’s just a friendship that we’ve maintained through the years, especially before anyone had achieved any level of success. We all kind of grew up together, trained with each other, kind of coached each other along and helped each other out whenever we could. It’s paid dividends for all of us, every single one of us." Mojo added, "In my opinion and a lot of others, he’s the greatest tight end to ever play the game. You take all those assets and just raw abilities that you have and you bring that here, it’s kind of a recipe for success one way or another. He has a lot on his plate right now. Whether an appearance here in the WWE again comes at WrestleMania, or whether it comes to a Wrestlemania five years from now, I’m sure at some point you’re going to see him in a ring again."
Mojo has been in the grind for both football and pro-wrestling, but he separates the two, stating that wrestling is the toughest grind with being on the road 24/7.
"You take your training protocols and regimen and you just throw them out the window, because they are not applicable here. Football, it’s little bursts. A play is 3-5 seconds and that’s it. A wrestling match is a lot longer than that, you don’t know how long they’re going to be sometimes. You’ve got to train more for conditioning, endurance and stamina as opposed to necessarily maximum power." Rawley continued, "We’re on the road five days a week, traveling, flights, long drives every day. It’s really the travel that will beat you up. It’s not like football where you can hang on to those nagging injuries or postpone surgery for a month or two until the offseason and you have this long break to come back brand-new. We don’t get that luxury here. It’s about maintaining and just finding ways to be able to show up every day in one piece and get the job done."
Mojo Rawley would have more to say to ABC 15 Arizona. To take a look that those comments, click here.
