"Being PWI Rookie Of The Year was a big accomplishment," says IMPACT Wrestling star Moose

IMPACT Wrestling -- which airs every Thursday night (10 p.m. ET) on Pop TV across the U.S. -- is currently in Las Vegas, Nevada for a three-night stand at Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, Nov. 11-13.

And one of the top names on the IMPACT roster is Moose, who played 62 games in the NFL from 2006 to 2012 after a stellar career at Syracuse University.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Moose -- a former two-time IMPACT Grand Champion -- by phone, and below are some of the highlights from that chat.

Moose can be followed on Twitter via @TheMooseNation and on Instagram as @MooseNation69, while IMPACT is set to return to Vegas with another stand at Sam's Town on February 15-17, 2019.

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I first want to ask you about your feud with Eddie Edwards. Had you known Eddie before Impact? Had you worked with him before?

Moose: No.

Now you have that on-going feud with Eddie, which a lot of people are talking about. What is it that excites you most about the feud?

Moose: He's one of the best wrestlers in the world, which obviously helps me as a performer and helps me in what I do.

Your career has been fantastic with Impact, you have achieved so much in such a short period, achieving gold so many times already. Is there an accomplishment that you're most proud of at this point?

Moose: I'm proud of everything I do. Every time I step into a ring and perform I am absolutely proud of that moment.

You were the PWI Rookie Of The Year a couple of years ago, and I think you reached number 55 last year on the PWI chart last year. Is that something that meant a lot to you?

Moose: I don't really follow that stuff. Being Rookie Of The Year, that was a big accomplishment if you look at all the wrestlers that have gotten that award. But I don't really care about stuff like that, I just try to get better every time I get into the ring and work on things that I think I need to work on. Keep things that I'm doing fresh.

Did you want to be a wrestler before you joined the NFL?

Moose: Yes, definitely. Wrestling is something that I knew I wanted to do. I just didn't know how and when I was going to get into it because of the NFL.

What was the specific era or match that drew you into wrestling?

Moose: It was definitely was the early 90s, maybe 1991, 1992. I don't think that era was called a name. Watching Ric Flair do his thing, the '92 [Royal] Rumble, that's when I fell in love with it and decided that was something I wanted to do.

I believe you were trained by Mr. Hughes, that was his era as well. When you were training with Mr. Hughes, how did you find him in the first place?

Moose: Google. I Googled wrestling schools in the area. At the time I was living in Atlanta, Georgia and that came up. It was a pretty easy decision.