Exclusive: Aron Stevens, formerly Damien Sandow, on acting and his WWE career

You spent a lot of time in the business - 15 years I believe - do you still watch WWE or any wrestling?

I just kind of got out of it. It's not like I said, "I'm not going to watch wrestling any more. I hate the business." Quite the contrary. The business is responsible for the lifestyle I am still allowed to lead today and I got a lot of good things out of it, man, not just the financial rewards but the friendships and connections, and a lot of good practice for acting.

It wasn't as much, "I'm not going to watch wrestling", my attention just shifted to, "Okay, I'm going to start acting now, so I've got to start reading Shakespeare and watching all the old classics."

For my role in Midnight Texas, I watched the original Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'm very studious. I like to learn and soak up as much information as I can. When I dive into something, I dive completely in. Then when they yell, "Action," I just forget everything, just like in wrestling.

What's your favourite memory from your wrestling career?

You know, God, there's just too much to say one particular thing. My God, everything from the Battle Royal that me and Miz did at WrestleMania to the countless house show matches that I've had with so many good people that will never be seen on TV, but the ones that are there enjoyed it.

Believe it or not, because of the lack of attention on television it got, not a lot of people seen, but my feud with Brodus Clay - we had some house show matches where the building was just absolutely shaking and we'd be saying, "Man, this is why we got into this." It was great.

Even before I was in WWE, a lot of memories I had in Puerto Rico that, for good taste, I won't go into detail on but a lot of the memories, the blood and guts brawls, I had a lot of fun. As much as the fans hated me, they were so great. I really do miss them and Puerto Rico will always have a special place in my heart.

You mentioned Brodus Clay, but do you have any other favourite in-ring opponents?

Him and I were like the best unsung, unheard of feud I think I've ever had. Obviously Dolph [Ziggler] is great in the ring, The Usos are great, the Miz was amazing to work with, but I really enjoyed working with Big Show. We never got to do a lot of knockdown, dragout matches, but we did a lot of entertaining stuff, segments, especially on house shows. Mark Henry is another one, just having fun but they were just good guys.

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