Daniel Bryan continued his media rounds for his new book, talking with Sporting News for a new interview. Check out the highlights:
On whether his Wrestlemania XXX push ‘changed’ WWE: “I honestly don’t know. I don’t see that much of a change. But I don’t know what change people expected. The change was hurt by the fact that shortly after that I got injured and then I had neck surgery and all that kind of stuff. What I did think it did for people was give them hope. That even if you’re not the standard person that WWE wants to push to the moon and give all the opportunities to, that if the fans really get behind you, you can still get to the highest level. And I think guys still have that hope. If you’re good enough and the people get behind you enough, that can push you past that point that WWE was originally planning to push you to.”
On his book and his story: “It’s pretty crazy. I’ve known this for a long time but especially when you write everything down, how much of my circumstances is just plain luck. Right? I worked very, very hard but lots of people work very, very hard. Like Nigel McGuinness. Brian Kendrick has worked very hard. All these people have worked very, very hard and haven’t gotten the breaks and the opportunities that I have. It’s just crazy. Sometimes, things just fall into your lap and that’s pretty incredible.”
On gimmicks he’s joked about in the past: “I think Lord Boner would have been a huge star. I actually believe people would have loved Buddy Peacock. If someone could come in with the last name Peacock — if they’re good — it would be tremendously successful. Can you imagine 10,000 people chanting “Pea-cock, Pea-cock”? It would be great.”
On if he’s won Vince McMahon over: “You know, yes but I don’t know to what degree. You know what I mean? Does he think I should ever main event another WrestleMania? I would say probably not. (laughs) It’s interesting. I think he likes me, he sees me as a valuable performer. He sees me as someone who makes the company money. But I still don’t think he will ever see me as “the guy” in the way he sees John Cena as “the guy” or in the way he potentially sees Roman Reigns as “the guy”. To this day, I still don’t think he sees me like that.”
