WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan recently sat down with Shaffee of WGRD in Michigan for a lengthy interview. During the interview, Bryan discusses his brief run with The Wyatt Family, whether or not the Michigan State crowd chanting “Yes!” played a role in his quick babyface turn and his belief that WWE still don’t see money in him.
Here are some highlights of what Bryan said about:
Getting Over Despite WWE Booking Him Poorly:Â
“I don’t feel like they…they never aspired for me to be where I’m at. There’s certain guys…they see somebody and say, ‘I see money in that guy.’ I don’t think they ever looked at me and said ‘I see money in that guy’ and to this day, even with the loud fan reactions that I get, I don’t feel like the company still doesn’t see money in me. That’s just interesting, because you go out there and you do your best and sometimes it can be very, very frustrating. That’s probably one of the biggest frustrations of this job because this is not an objective business. It’s not like football where if you’re a running back and you go out there and get five yards of carry every time you are out there, they are going to keep putting you in because.”
” The stats don’t lie. It’s not that. It’s, “He’s getting a great crowd reaction, but is he selling tickets?” The bottom line is you need people who are going to sell tickets, but I can get the crowd to react very loudly, but does that’s transition into people buying PPVs or does that transition into this or that? “Oh, I don’t think he’s very marketable….he might have a niche appeal” or this or that or whatever. I just go out there and do my best. Sometimes, it’s very difficult dealing with the political type stuff because I’m not a politician. I never have been. I’ve never been someone to say, ‘Oh you have to do this with me or you have to do that with me.’ My whole career…I’ve been pretty easy going. As far as being pretty successful in WWE, that’s probably my biggest downfall actually and that’s…it’s one of those things…the booker in Ring of Honor. Ring of Honor was an independent company I worked for for years…his name was Gabe Sapolsky. He ran the company from the time it started until 2007. He said when he met me, he never thought I’d be the guy in Ring of Honor. When he met CM Punk, he thought he’d be the guy. When he met Samoa Joe, he thought he’d be the guy in ROH. Both of them were the guys for Ring of Honor. I ended up being the guy for Ring of Honor but he never thought of that because of my personality. I’d be, “Okaaay’ Bryan you are doing this tonight. OK.”
Not Being ‘Protected’ By WWE Like Steve Austin & Hulk Hogan Were:
“The interesting thing to me, because I’m a fan of pro wrestling history. I am a fan and I love the whole thing. What’s interesting is I’ve become very popular without needing what those guys needed to become very popular, which is Hogan didn’t get beated for years, a four year run as champion. Steve Austin, after the big promo that started the Austin 3:16 thing, he was very carefully managed and you didn’t see him a lot, you know? He lost a couple of times but you didn’t see him lose a lot on TV. This year, the day after Wrestlemania, 70,000 people throwing their arms up and doing my “Yes”. I lost to Big E. Langston in three minutes. I’m not somebody who’s been protected or…Â “
Losing To Sheamus at WrestleMania 28 In 18 Seconds:
“In 18 seconds. Two months before I main evented Summerslam, I lost to Damien Sandow in four minutes. It’s one of those things where it’s never been, I’ve never been the guy…let’s put a rocket ship to him, let’s try to turn him into the guy. That’s why, if that doesn’t happen, because you need that to happen for you to have any enduring success beyond crowd reaction. A great example for me is a UFC Fighter and he’s Clay Guida. He was everybody’s favorite. There was a point where everybody was rooting for this guy because he fought like an animal but then he kept getting to that number one contendership spot and losing or getting a title fight and getting dominated. People still like him but nobody’s getting PPVs to see Clay Guida fight. They like him, he’s awesome, he’s an animal but you have to overcome that hurdle. They have to see you as a success for people to buy into you as an attraction like Austin was, like Hogan is. Like John Cena is. For John Cena to become the success that he is, they didn’t just put him in his first title match and he was the draw that John Cena is now. The same thing with Steve Austin. It had to be a lot of time of him on top and him winning and he had a supporting cast and was wrestling guys like Shawn Michaels and Triple H and all the big names of the past.”
