As noted, WWE Superstar Mojo Rawley was this week’s guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia. Rawley opened up on a number of topics including his multi-cultural upbringing, his journey from Division Three football to the NFL, and his life and times in the WWE. You can read a few transcribed highlights and listen to the full episode below:
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On The Most Difficult Decision He Has Ever Made:
I always say this is the hardest decision that I ever made, but I had everything going for me at CNU, an awesome group of friends. You started to touch on it earlier, but I was on the honor roll. I was in the honor’s program. I was in the business school. I was on the executive board of the business school and I kinda gave all that up and forewent a full scholarship to walk on at the University of Maryland. I just wanted to challenge myself, play at the top level and see if I could hang with the big boys, kinda get that national spotlight and play in prime time games. I can tell you it wasn’t easy because I gave up a full ride to pay $35,000 a year to go to school. It was very risky, to say the least. Maryland was out of state, technically, even though it was a hometown school….it was a very risky move, a tough one, but I don’t think I would have any of this today, if I didn’t take that plunge.
On Being Slighted By The University Of Maryland:
Maryland was actually tough. I don’t know if I should say this, but why not? Actually, I wasn’t on scholarship my first year. It was a walk on year. You have to prove yourself, but after my first year I was starting on some packages. I was playing well. I was told that I was gonna be on scholarship and the day before classes start, I get called into a coach’s office and they pretty much say, ‘We were expecting someone to fail out. They didn’t. That was gonna be your scholarship. We know you’re not gonna leave because if you do, you’re gonna lose your academic credits. There’s a rule that states you can only transfer 60 credits. We know you’re not going to leave, so we don’t have to put you on scholarship, so we’re not going to. Figure out your student loans. Alright, get out of my office, so I had a day to come up with $35,000 to pay for school after I was told all year I was gonna be on. I was probably one of the only players in the entire NCAA that was playing every game, making plays on national TV, that was paying for school and it was handled in such an unprofessional aggressive way. That was a dagger for me. That was a big risk I took, so fast forward after that season. I graduated early. I made sure to do it and I went into my coach’s office. I was starting on every package at the time time and I was like, ‘Look. Everything you’ve ever asked me to do, I’ve done and I’ve done it with a smile on my face. Am I on scholarship?’ He said, ‘Maybe. I don’t know, if we’re gonna put you on this year.’ So, I told him, ‘I don’t know this, but I just graduated. NCAA rules state that I can transfer to another school, go into a graduate program and not have to sit out a year, so either you put me on scholarship right now or I’m transferring to UVA and I’ll see you on the field next season.’ He didn’t like that. Oh man, I laid it down. That was years pent up of aggression and doing all the right things just to have it taken from me, but I laid it all out on the table. He had no choice, but to put me on scholarship. Again, that’s where academics come into play: being smart. He knew I knew the playbook. Go ahead, don’t put me on. I’m taking that playbook to another team and I don’t like having to do stuff like that, but it was also a first real lesson to me that no one’s gonna give you anything. You have to take it.
On An Injury Derailing His Opportunity With The Arizona Cardinals:
I called Merrill Lynch. I go in for some interviews. I sign a contract with Merrill Lynch to go into finance and two days before I start, the Arizona Cardinals call me, so I called Merrill Lynch. They were all for it. They were like, ‘Go ahead go. We are here waiting.’ I go to Arizona, plugged right into the system, played better than I ever had. Coach calls my agent, tells me I’m a shoe-in. First week of camp, I blow up my calf. It tears off the back of my leg and rolls up into the back of my knee like a window shade. Probably over-training. I think I went to hard in the summer. I was excited. I went my entire career without an opportunity like this. ‘They actually like me here. They’re actually high on me here.’ I got a real shot and then [snaps finger], overdid it. Too much, maybe. I fired out of my stance and boom pop!
On Life After The Career Ending Injury:
I’m kinda grateful that injury happened. In my mind, I think I would have made the team. In the NFL, you never know, but what ended up happening was even though my calf was disconnected, the doctors cleared me and they cut me. They said I was good to play. They knew I was gonna file a grievance with the player’s union, but they sent me home. My world was upside down because I couldn’t walk. I had to move back in with my mom. I was in a walking boot for like four months. They cut me without a dime. They didn’t give me my injured reserve contract. That’s just kind of how they were doing things at the time. They knew a grievance was coming. I think they knew I was still injured, but it’s kind of one of those things that happen, one of those nasty stories you don’t hear about in the papers, one of those behind the scenes things. Actually, I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this on a live podcast before (laughter). I don’t even know, if I should be talking about this. Anyway, I go home…..I was with my ex-girlfriend since I was 11, as well. She leaves after this. So now I go home. I can’t walk. I’m injured. My NFL career is done. My doctor told me it was a career ender. I’m broke. I’m living with mom. My girlfriend leaves. This all happens within a week and this was after I was riding high, the best I’ve ever felt, finally an opportunity and boom everything is gone. I remember sitting there and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to handle the situation. I was beat up pretty bad, not even physically, more so mentally at that point and I didn’t know what I was going to do.
On How He Overcame His Personal Slump:
I was sitting there in my mom’s basement and I’m looking at myself in the mirror and I saw myself feeling sorry for myself and I cut a promo to myself, ‘What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna cry? Are you gonna quit? This has been your path since day one. Are you gonna give up now or are you gonna run with this? You’ve been a survivor your whole career. No one’s ever given you a shot. Nobody’s ever given you an opportunity that you literally did not have to take from them. What are you gonna do?’ I talked myself out of it. I went back and finished my master’s degree, 28 credits in one semester, got my MBA to finish. I went to 4 hours of rehab every day and started walking again, even though I couldn’t walk. Again, it was the same thing, taking classes and rehab. I’d leave the house at 3:30 AM and wouldn’t get home ’til midnight, just doing everything I could to get back and eventually I got cleared.
On How The Gronkowski Family Helped Get Him Into The WWE:
I’m thinking I might have a legitimate shot of getting back into a camp. Well, I’m sitting there watching Monday Night RAW one day with the Gronkowski Family and they’re all like, ‘Dean, this is what you should be doing. Forget football.’ I’m like, ‘Hell yeah, that’d be sweet.’ But, I didn’t put any weight behind it. If you’re an outsider, you don’t know how to get signed by the WWE. It’s not like football where you can sign up and segue your way in. You’ve got to know somebody. It’s an unorthodox, more un-traditional path, so I didn’t put any weight behind it. Mr. Gronkowski, their dad, was college roommates with Mike Rotunda at Syracuse. They were teammates. So, Big G, he goes, ‘Dean, I know IRS. I can give him a shout and we can probably make this happen.’ I was like, ‘Yeah yeah please do it.’ I didn’t think it was gonna actually happen. They make the call and they set it up. We went to a live event in Buffalo and we were sitting front row. Right then, ‘Forget football. I’ve got to be doing this. This is it. I have an opportunity to do the first thing I ever wanted to do, long before football. Forget football. I’m coming here.’ So we pursued it. I got my tryout. I went in and cut a promo for [William] Regal at a RAW in D.C. and they gave me a shot.
On Early Heat With The WWE Locker Room:
I came in completely blind. My tryout was cutting a promo on RAW. I had never run the ropes. I never did anything in the ring. I’d never taken a bump. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that I was coming in from football and I had to watch my back because here’s guys who’ve paid their dues on the independent circuit and have paid the dues within this industry and you’ve got a guy coming in as an outsider, someone as they might see as a blue-chip recruit or as someone who hadn’t earned their contract and I had to be cognizant of that. For me, I completely understood that perception because that was me my whole career path as the walk-on, as the guy that wasn’t recruited. [I was] the guy that would watch these five star recruits come in and get pushed ahead of them just because they were the recruited guy, even if they weren’t as good. To essentially get a contract without proving it in this industry, I understood it. Any hate that I had from the other wrestlers in the beginning, I understood. I didn’t appreciate it because I’m sitting here working my ass off. I was the first to show up everyday. I was the last to leave. I was being vocal, ‘Yes sir. No sir.’ I didn’t come in with any sort of ego. I was doing extra conditioning. Any extra session I could go to, I would.
