Former WWE star Erick Rowan discusses his new movie, Bray Wyatt, his wrestling injuries, and more

In an exclusive interview for WrestlingNews.co, Erick Rowan (Erick Redbeard) spoke about Bray Wyatt's return to WWE, his starring role in the short film TITO, the possibilities of a WWE Royal Rumble return, and more topics.

Scroll down to watch the entire interview. Here are some highlights:

Rowan talking about being in the movie, TITO, on YouTube, which also stars Claudio Castagnoli:

"Well, Anthony Notarile is an actor as well. He used to live in New York and now he lives in LA. He decided to write for the first time and try to make a film with his friend, Andy Tworischuk. Those two wrote this short film and then they secured funding to get it made. Anthony wrote the role of Hammer with me in mind because we had worked together in WWE and social media, kept in contact because of our mutual love for movies and acting and just similar interests.”

“I was honored that he wrote it for me, but I think he was more surprised that I was willing to do it. He had sent me the script. I had read it. I really enjoyed the script. From there, you know, I was on board. I was game. They really impressed me, his first time, not only the writers, but they directed it. They got the funding together. I found the production company to be able to film it and get it out. I'm very happy that it's seeing some sort of success.”

“They're starting a festival run. It's already got a few awards at a lot of short film festivals. The more people that we can get to watch it, the more buzz we can get around it. For these two, especially being first time directors, filmmakers, and just seeing how the finished product is, they have a ton of talent and it's because of what they created. So the more people that watch this, the more successful this gets. You never know, like short films often turn into feature films or short films can be a segue for them to be able to create more short films which lead to future feature films. I'm very proud of what they did. Everyone that they cast, the leads, the delivery man is Alexei Bondar, he made that film with the way he portrayed that character. The dog Tito, a little French Bulldog, happens to be Anthony's pet. That's his baby, Winston, so he got to star in his first movie. I thought the dog did a great job."

Rowan talking about his wrestling injuries:

"All the times I got injured and you saw me off TV was because I was having surgeries. Every time I was off TV for a period of time it was because I was having a surgery. You never saw cameras around me. No. I was by myself at the hospitals, getting the surgery, flying back home, miserable, and doing the rehab every day, sometimes twice a day. Nobody ever talks about it. I remember when The Bludgeon Brothers, when we had won at SummerSlam, I tore my bicep. They gave me one day off so I could hopefully deal with the pain, and then we did a SmackDown versus The New Day where we used ladders and all sorts of stuff. In the meantime, I don't have a right bicep that's attached to my arm. But I've never made a story out of it."

This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.