WWE’s Roderick Strong: Edge & Shawn Michaels Are Inspiring The Latter Part Of My Career

Despite an NXT rebirth as the head of Diamond Mine, Roderick Strong is contemplating his future in the wrestling business, taking inspiration from WWE Hall of Famers Edge and Shawn Michaels.

Before returning with Diamond Mine, the former NXT North American Champion took some time off, got into character, and reflected on his career, telling The Metro:

“I feel reinvigorated! It was nice to actually take some time off and kind of understand what I was getting myself in to and putting myself in the right headspace. Trying to make this, the whole experience, as real as possible to me. Putting myself in the mindset of, ‘OK I don’t have this job anymore, I’m not doing this. What do I wanna do? Do I wanna keep wrestling, do I not wanna keep wrestling? OK, there’s this opportunity…’”

Strong has no plans on retiring any time soon however, more he is at a time in his life where he can truly embrace his veteran status, like Edge and Michaels did:

“It’s just having an understanding of how long I’ve been doing it, experience and understanding that I feel like I have another seven or 10 years in me,” said Roddy “But in this aspect, it’s approaching it from a different psychological level, presenting myself on a deeper level with the stories. That’s why I love guys like Shawn Michaels and Edge, guys that dive really deep into the emotions of it all and the battle inside.”

Strong continued:

“You have to build a foundation, you have to show fans who you are. You earn people’s respect by going out there and working your butt off and showing them that no matter what’s going on in front of three people or 30,000 people that you’re gonna absolutely give your best in the ring. Then, you use that to start telling your story about who you are and how you got to this point – whatever you wanna tell them.

“It takes time to get to that point and understand because everybody always wants to be the highlight reel – because it’s easy to gain attention. But building a strong base and just competing with all your heart for as long as you can until things naturally start moving forward.”