Give me a break.
Something Everyone
Should Strive For
Randy Orton
Show, Hunter, and Taker all have these tour buses that they travel on, and now that Hunter is getting a new bus custom built, I’m taking his old bus off his hands. So many guys don’t realize how great these buses are. Stone Cold, The Rock . . . these guys never did it. I think Hunter was the first one to do it, and it costs some money, but in the long run, we pay for our own rental cars and hotel already. That’s not taken care of. It’s a write-off for us, but we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on rental cars and hotel stays each year, and that cost will be erased by having the bus. Sure, the bus is a little more, but the benefits are unbelievable. Now when I fly into a town, that bus picks me up and I don’t need to worry about a rental car. My driver will take me to go eat, and inside the bus I have a fridge, an oven, a microwave, a washer, a dryer, bathroom, shower, king-size bed, a crew bunk, a bed for my baby with a crib, and even a little lounging area with two flatscreens. It’s like a traveling apartment.
So while I’m at the show, my driver can leave and go pick up some Outback or something to eat at the grocery store and make sure I have something for dinner. After my match, instead of hitting the showers in the locker room, getting dressed, and going out in the rental car and finding something to eat, a process that can take up to two hours before we even start our three-hundred-mile drive to the next town, now I can just go straight on the bus, eat dinner, and shower. And by the time I’m showered up, I’ve already eaten, and now I’m relaxing and playing video games on the bus or watching TV or sleeping, and we’re already in the next town . . . or at least halfway there. Then I get better sleep. And to top it off, I’m not sitting in the front seat of the car for hundreds of miles, which is horrible for your back, especially with what we do. I’m able to lie down, relax, and I can even bring my wife and child whenever I want.
As far as overall health, longevity, and stress level, it’s night and day. The bus gives you so much more opportunity, so much more time. Without the bus, you’re driving in the middle of the night, maybe get to your hotel at four o’clock, then you wake up at one in the afternoon, head to the gym, and it’s always rush-rush-rush-rush-rush just to make it to the next show. With that bus, I’ll be able to sleep and get up at a decent time and still be able to get my stuff done.
When I started, it was still like three or four years until GPS was around. But now having a driver and not even thinking about being behind the wheel and being able to sleep on the road, that’s as good as it gets. That should be the ultimate goal for any of us. Where you can get to a position in the company where you can afford the luxury of the bus. The bar has been raised to this. Now you know, if you can afford this type of luxury, you’ve made it. You’re finally where you want to be.
Three
Time to Play
the Game
“You know how embarrassing that is? A person who doesn’t even play that much to beat someone who plays every day?”
—THE MIZ
Back in the Nation days, Mark Henry once lost his European Championship to The Rock in a backstage game of Madden. Henry destroyed The Rock in the rematch and eventually took his title back with him to Raw , but this story just goes to show how invested some of these athletes are in their video games.In fact, Christian was once one of the top-rated online players at a tennis game called Top Spin 2 . “I figured I’d play the game until I was ranked number one in the world,” he tells me, “then I could break the disk and never play it again.” Didn’t happen. Instead, Christian ended up losing to some guy from England after his opponent kept hitting lob shot after lob shot, frustrating the wrestler and throwing him off his game. “So afterward, I’m
Something Everyone
Should Strive For
Randy Orton
Show, Hunter, and Taker all have these tour buses that they travel on, and now that Hunter is getting a new bus custom built, I’m taking his old bus off his hands. So many guys don’t realize how great these buses are. Stone Cold, The Rock . . . these guys never did it. I think Hunter was the first one to do it, and it costs some money, but in the long run, we pay for our own rental cars and hotel already. That’s not taken care of. It’s a write-off for us, but we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on rental cars and hotel stays each year, and that cost will be erased by having the bus. Sure, the bus is a little more, but the benefits are unbelievable. Now when I fly into a town, that bus picks me up and I don’t need to worry about a rental car. My driver will take me to go eat, and inside the bus I have a fridge, an oven, a microwave, a washer, a dryer, bathroom, shower, king-size bed, a crew bunk, a bed for my baby with a crib, and even a little lounging area with two flatscreens. It’s like a traveling apartment.
So while I’m at the show, my driver can leave and go pick up some Outback or something to eat at the grocery store and make sure I have something for dinner. After my match, instead of hitting the showers in the locker room, getting dressed, and going out in the rental car and finding something to eat, a process that can take up to two hours before we even start our three-hundred-mile drive to the next town, now I can just go straight on the bus, eat dinner, and shower. And by the time I’m showered up, I’ve already eaten, and now I’m relaxing and playing video games on the bus or watching TV or sleeping, and we’re already in the next town . . . or at least halfway there. Then I get better sleep. And to top it off, I’m not sitting in the front seat of the car for hundreds of miles, which is horrible for your back, especially with what we do. I’m able to lie down, relax, and I can even bring my wife and child whenever I want.
As far as overall health, longevity, and stress level, it’s night and day. The bus gives you so much more opportunity, so much more time. Without the bus, you’re driving in the middle of the night, maybe get to your hotel at four o’clock, then you wake up at one in the afternoon, head to the gym, and it’s always rush-rush-rush-rush-rush just to make it to the next show. With that bus, I’ll be able to sleep and get up at a decent time and still be able to get my stuff done.
When I started, it was still like three or four years until GPS was around. But now having a driver and not even thinking about being behind the wheel and being able to sleep on the road, that’s as good as it gets. That should be the ultimate goal for any of us. Where you can get to a position in the company where you can afford the luxury of the bus. The bar has been raised to this. Now you know, if you can afford this type of luxury, you’ve made it. You’re finally where you want to be.
Three
Time to Play
the Game
“You know how embarrassing that is? A person who doesn’t even play that much to beat someone who plays every day?”
—THE MIZ
Back in the Nation days, Mark Henry once lost his European Championship to The Rock in a backstage game of Madden. Henry destroyed The Rock in the rematch and eventually took his title back with him to Raw , but this story just goes to show how invested some of these athletes are in their video games.In fact, Christian was once one of the top-rated online players at a tennis game called Top Spin 2 . “I figured I’d play the game until I was ranked number one in the world,” he tells me, “then I could break the disk and never play it again.” Didn’t happen. Instead, Christian ended up losing to some guy from England after his opponent kept hitting lob shot after lob shot, frustrating the wrestler and throwing him off his game. “So afterward, I’m
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