1. How did you and Natalie Eva Marie first meet?
We first met at Orange Coast Crossfit where I train. Eva and I have mutual friends in the fitness industry and they directed her to me when she expressed interest in Crossfit. We started texting and at first I didn’t think too much of it. My schedule doesn’t allow for me to train other people and I wasn’t too enthusiastic at the prospect of wasting my time giving some model an orientation to my sport. Crossfit is extreme and brutal fitness; most athletic men can’t hang and quit. So I didn’t expect much from a fashion model from LA. I kept trying to scare her off by telling her particularly brutal work outs I was going to have her do. To my surprise she kept responding with “Bring it”. That threw me for a loop, I had never had a girl respond like that and the more I kept trying to scare her off the more she expressed excitement in attempting insane workouts. I knew I had to meet this crazy chick! She made the drive down from LA to OC on a Monday Night to workout.
2. When did you and Eva Marie first become a serious couple, and how did you become subsequently engaged?
She still makes fun of me about the first time we met. I was doing muscle ups with some buddies at the gym when she walked in and I didn’t see her at first. I heard someone say my name and I turned around and saw her for the first time. It was like I walked into a dream, I had never seen anything so beautiful. Love at first site is the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard, until it happens to you. I used to make fun of lame concepts like that until I met Eva. I must have had the dumbest expression on my face because Eva still makes fun of me about it and the fact that I couldn’t form a complete sentence and was stumbling over my words. It got even “worse” for me because not only was she gorgeous, she totally killed her workout! The crazy thing about Eva is that when you look at her you see a supermodel and that is where people consistently underestimate her, myself included. At her core Eva is a world-class athlete and her tenacity is second to none. We gave her a brutal workout and I know it had to have been killing her because it was designed to be intense, but she is relentless and never shows weakness. She pushed through, didn’t complain once, and killed it. She blew everyone away. Needless to say it was over for me. My buddy asked, “Who is that!?!” because he was legitimately impressed with her performance. I answered without even thinking, “That’s my wife.”
The only problem was I couldn’t talk, literally. I would fumble over my words when I tried to talk to her. I walked her to her car and pretty much froze the whole time. She drove away and I remember just saying out loud to myself “get it together!” I called her right then and there and asked her if she wanted to grab juice from a local juice bar. She was already on the freeway, but turned around and came back. I managed to pull it together, find my ability to speak, and talked with her for hours. Her intelligence, sense of humor, love of family, and desire to help people sealed the deal for me. At the end of the night I told her we were going to be together. She thought I was crazy, but clearly not that crazy because she is my fiancé now. From that night on we never stopped talking and we spent all our free time together.
3. Did Eva ever have aspirations to become involved in the wrestling business when you first knew her?
Eva began training with WWE very shortly after we met. And it was during that time that I developed a tremendous amount of respect for her as an athlete and her superhuman work ethic. She was training 6 days a week 6 hours a day with WWE. Eva would come home bruised, sprained, and exhausted. She was also working two other jobs as well. She would do modeling shoots during the day and work at a nightclub at night. She probably slept 4 hours each night, but no matter what she would be up and eager to train the next day. Becoming a DIVA was her dream and Eva is relentless. Eva will always achieve anything she sets her sights on because she is a born champion, it is in her blood.
4. We first heard about Eva, by being in a group of women training with Sara Del Rey and former Diva Eve Torres in a Diva Boot Camp. How did this come about with Eva being a part of the lineup?
While training with WWE Eva was introduced to Sara Del Rey whom Eva has said is the best women’s wrestler in the world. And Eva doesn’t just throw compliments like that out lightly. Sara’s coaching took Eva’s athleticism to a new level and she quickly began mastering the more complex moves under Sara’s guidance. My personal opinion of Sara is that her coaching is going to take the Diva division to another level. She has the natural ability to inspire her athletes and bring out their full potential. Eva thinks very highly of Sara and I know she is truly excited to have her as a coach. At this time she also met former Diva Eve Torres. Eve and Eva share many similarities and I know that Eva highly respects Eve. Ironically Eve met and began a relationship with her now fiancé right at the beginning of her WWE career too. She also met JoJo whose skill in the ring and upbeat attitude quickly helped solidified them as fast friends. Jojo and Eva have been together through this entire journey since day one and I know Eva thinks of her as a sister.
During this time our relationship continue to grow. I knew since day one that I was going to marry her and I pursued her like I’ve never pursued anything else in my life. I am pretty sure she realized that I was the one for her after the first time I cooked for her. Eva loves good food! I learned that real quick. I prep and bag all our food for the week and pack it in to cooler bags for us to bring with us for the day. And she loves a bomb steak, which happens to be my specialty. We joke that I locked her down with food! But in all honesty there wasn’t really much of a transition point for us in our relationship where we suddenly realized that we were it for each other. They say, “when you know, you know”, that was very much the case with us. We met, well fell in love, I made a trip up to her parent’s home in the Bay Area and I asked for her fathers blessing to marry her. We were engaged soon after. When you know you know.
5. What was your initial reaction when Eva told you she would be part of “Total Divas”?
I am not entirely sure how Eva ended up on Total Divas. One day she sat me down and said she was going to start filming for it. Nothing really shocks me anymore when it comes to Eva, so I just took it all in stride.
6. Will you appear on the show, and what can we expect?
When it comes to Total Divas there isn’t a whole lot I can discuss. I can say that even if I weren’t engaged to Eva I would watch the show. It has an amazing cast and production team. E! doesn’t play around when it comes to their shows and I truly believe that Total Divas is going become their number one show. It’s that good.
7. Have you met any of Eva’s co stars, and what did you think of them?
I have met the cast members and they are all awesome. I was really impressed with Natalya who has taken Eva under her wing as her mentor. What impressed me the most about all the Divas is their underlying respect for one another. At the end of the day the Divas are elite athletes, you don’t just get handed the title of Diva because you beautiful. If that were the case there would be hundreds of Divas, not a select few. The training, dedication, and athletic ability required to earn the title Diva is something that sets these women apart. And regardless of any other factors between the Divas, they all have the highest level of respect for one another because the all know what it took to earn the title Diva.
8. Finally, with you and Eva obviously being engaged, would you ever consider getting married on the show like Natalya and Tyson Kidd?
We haven’t really discussed getting married on the show. I don’t think E! could handle it Hahha! Not only are our families crazy, but our wedding attendees would be a cross section of Eva’s WWE Divas/Superstars, LA fashion world, my group of extreme fitness and MMA athletes with a sprinkling of my gamer co workers from Blizzard Entertainment. And I don’t even want to know how Eva would be as a bridezilla. Don’t let that pretty face fool you; she throws chicks around in a ring for a living.
