Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins were recently interviewed by ESPN. During the interview, they discussed how they became friends over their mutual interest in action figures, and how they felt that they had to hide their obsession from the rest of the locker room. Here are the highlights:

On How They Became Friends:

HAWKINS: The icebreaker was the wrestling figure thing.

RYDER: We realized, ‘Woah, wait, you’re 18 and you play with wrestling figures too? So do I, let’s be friends.

On Feeling Like They Couldn’t Be Open About Their Obsession:

HAWKINS: It was weird back then, because the business was so different. We were so young — we made it to the main roster at 22-years old — so we were the first guys of our generation to make it there. Our generation grew up with wrestling cartoons and toys and bed sheets and video games, and it was all geared towards kids, whereas a lot of those hardened veterans on the roster when we got called up, it wasn’t like that when they grew up. I think they thought we were weird or immature, and now everyone on the roster …

RYDER: Everyone collects something. Xavier Woods has his very successful video game channel, UpUpDownDown. Everyone’s into comic books. Now the long bus rides overseas, everyone’s on their iPad playing a game or watching a movie. Everyone’s into something. We’re into wrestling figures. I wasn’t proud about it. I wasn’t bragging. I wasn’t like, ‘Hey [Under]taker, look at this new Titantron line figure I got.’ Now, we’ll go toy hunting on the road and I’ll bring my bags into the locker room. I don’t care.

STARTING THEIR PODCAST:

RYDER: I wanted to do a podcast, but I knew that I wanted it to be different. I knew if we did it, it would have to be about something within wrestling, and that just happened to be wrestling figures. We’re so passionate about it, we talk about it every day anyway, so why not talk about it and try to get some other listeners to listen?

You can read the full interview HERE

Credit: ESPN.