I went from two-minute matches when I started with NXT to eight, to 10, to 12.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I just remember that when I started at NXT, I had no character. I had nothing. I was just so excited to be here and just to be a wrestler.
I just felt that if the team is doing seven hours, I'd want to do eight. I'd always need to do more. I knew that would make me better than everybody else.
There's a huge fan base behind NXT, which is cool because that opens up the door to younger talent that maybe at one point thought that it was impossible to ever get into WWE, but now, there it is.
I was in the main draw from the start, my opening match was on Court One against Jan Eric Lundquist of Sweden who was about eight in the world at the time.
That's one of the reasons why I left WWE: not to feel tied up or pressured into fulfilling a certain number of work dates throughout the week or month - because of my injuries.
Even when I was No. 1 in the world, I was taking it one match at a time. I never was a player to look too far ahead, the way draws can pan out.
Even with not having that many matches under my belt, I handled the match against Svitolina well. When I was younger, not having that many matches under my belt, I might not have done that.
From one match to the next, I kept on winning.
I won two ITF tournaments in Japan in two weeks. I had to qualify for both of them, which meant that I won 16 matches in 15 days.
At least with me, the match starts much, much earlier than the actual match.