Mm-hmm.

You know? So, and like I said, I had to, I had to go back to what I know, you know? And so you ain't, you ain't gotta like me, you know, you ain't gotta ask for my autograph, smile and all that, you know.

If you do, okay, cool, but you need to watch yourself around me, you know? You need [laughs] n- need to know.

Like, "Yo, I don't know what this dude is thinking.

This dude is p- playing with a full deck." You know what I'm saying?

Mm-hmm.

You know, that's, you know, that, that's m- my roots right there.

Like, it, it ain't, it ain't easy out there.

Is there, is there some extra responsibility on your shoulders that you see, like, "Hey, man, I, I got a chance here to lead this team to being something special that people s- keep talking about for decades down the line"? And are you taking those steps?

Oh, yeah, most definitely, man.

I'm, I'm a, a natural-born leader and, you know, and so collectively, you know, I, I, I wanted these four with me.

So it's, you know, it, it, you know, you look at the, the great leaders of every faction in this business, you know? So the stuff you see with us, like arriving together, working out together, th- that, that's all us.

Like, we, we do that in every town.

So it is my responsibility, the big brother role, to, to look after everybody and, you know, scold everybody, you know, make sure we're all learning.

You know, they, they can teach me some things, and, you know, I'm gonna teach them some things, so we're, we're one unified unit.

Like, how, how excited are they to be a part of this too?

So how crazy a dream has this pa- recent part been for you now?

It's crazy 'cause for me, uh, there, there was no plan B.

Like, there, there wasn't.

Like, I remember being in kindergarten, sitting in Miss Lisa's class, drawing what I wanted to be, and it's always been a wrestler.

You know, 'cause I, before I even watched wrestling, I, my grandma and grandpa and my dad took a Greyhound bus from Holly Springs, Mississippi, to San Francisco, and they lived above this little market which was like a liquor store, grocery store.

You get all your stuff.

And right across the street was the Cow Palace.

It's like that.

Just who do you think on this road that we wouldn't have the Royce Keys we have today without them?

I got to say 100% my grandparents.

Mm-hmm.

My big mama and my papa, like, raised their kids and turned around and raised my siblings and I raised their grandkids.

Like, they didn't have to do that.

You know, that wasn't their job.

We weren't their responsibility.

so now everything that you have gone through everything that you had to overcome the the people who helped push you along the way to you making your entrance at a royal rumble yeah talk to us about what that felt like number one to know that you in the rumble yeah then when you step out of that curtain and what's going through your mind

Right, right.

'Cause I couldn't be out.

I was a surprise.

Nobody knew I was there, um, except for certain, uh, people knew.

But man, getting to the, to the arena and, you know, a few people saw me, just the love I got and then when people found out I was there, and just the love from the locker rooms.

Like, it, it was crazy.

Like, people I never knew who knew who I was, was, you know, dapping me up and welcoming me then.

Mm.

Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

I have to, to lose their life.

So it's like I kinda ...

I, I go through these moments where I, I hear certain things and, uh, like I, I hear certain things and it reminds me of him.

And I felt guilty for, for so many years.

Like, I felt guilty for wanting to be like him, but if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have certain things growing up.

Like, I, I feel guilty for, oh, like not being the son maybe I should've been for my mom.

Wow.

He, he lost his life saving you?

Yeah.

So it was one of those things, like, it was, I don't know if I should say, like, it was meant to happen, but if you, you play a certain game, you win certain prizes, right? So it's, it's one of those things, like, you look what he sacrificed was himself to save me, and it's just like, I, I replay it in my head.

It's just like, to see somebody, like, laying there just gasping for air and just, just blood just coming out of him, and you, you don't, you don't know, like, what to, um, what to feel.

Like, someone that's, you know, trying to, trying to get by, do, do what we have to to, to survive, to, to lose their life.

So it's like, I kinda, I, I go through these moments why I hear certain things and, like, I, I hear certain things and it reminds me of him, and I felt guilty for, for so many years.

Like, I felt guilty for wanting to be like him.

Wow.