Daniel Bryan recently spoke to The Baltimore Sun and said he figured people would enjoy his eighteen-second loss to Sheamus at WrestleMania. Check out the highlights of the interview:
On the WrestleMania Match: “I actually thought the people might enjoy [the quick match]. It was something really different, [to start WrestleMania like that]. The whole situation is very unusual. I’m just happy that the people have gotten behind me. It’s really incredible.”
On the ‘YES!’ chants: “It’s one of those things that it’s not necessarily specific to me, although I think it’s in, like, relation to me kind of. When we just came back from the European tour, people on the Raw side said that there were fans at the show chanting ‘YES’ even though I wasn’t even on the show. I’m [not even] a Raw wrestler. So, it will be interesting to see where this whole thing goes.”
On his match with Sheamus at Extreme Rules: “Hopefully this [match] doesn’t end in 36 seconds. I’m hoping that we can go out there and really steal the show. That’s what I was aiming for at Wrestlemania, but it didn’t actually happen, so hopefully it turns out this Sunday. Me and Sheamus are two of the hardest-hitting guys in WWE. And I don’t think there’s anybody that can put on a match like Sheamus and I can. So we’re gonna go out there and beat each other up, and I think people are really gonna enjoy it. The crowd in Chicago should be rabid as well, so it should be a really fun show.”
On doing a Piper’s Pit segment: “Working with Roddy Piper was amazing because growing up, Roddy Piper was the man. He was the first guy I remember thinking, ‘This is the first cool bad guy.’ Just to be on the Piper’s Pit was awesome. And then to slap Roddy Piper in the face, I mean if you would have told me that 12 years ago when I started wrestling that I would be on Piper’s Pit slapping Roddy Piper in the face, I would have never believed you. It was an incredible experience.
On getting fired over the Nexus attack: “I honestly at the time wasn’t worried about . It was a huge moment on WWE programming. Then they fire me for being what was reported on the internet for not being PG. As far as independent bookings go, there is nothing that can make me more marketable than that. [WWE] apologized and said they had sponsors they had to deal with and whatnot. And I said don’t worry about me, I’m probably going to make more money this year than I did the last year when I was on NXT. I had people from Japan calling me, I had TNA people talking to me, not directly, but through other people. It was just a fascinating time for me in my career.”
On Brock Lesnar’s in-ring return at Extreme Rules: “It will be interesting to see how Extreme Rules [performs] as far as pay-per-view buys to see if that part of it is really connected with the audience. I know the reactions in the live crowd when Brock Lesnar has been there, it’s been incredible. From a performer’s standpoint, I’m very, very interested to see where it goes. It’s peaked my interest.”
On Regal getting ribbed during their 2011 Superstars match by his “Real Man’s Man” music playing: “I did not have anything to do with that, nor did I know it was going to happen. I was in the ring, and my entrance was first, and he comes in the ring and then they busted the ‘Man’s Man’ music and he starts laughing, I start laughing. And William Regal is probably the most professional man you will ever meet. You don’t see him crack much, and he’s been in some really funny segments, where 99 percent of the people would crack, That got him. So that was pretty cool.”
On his YouTube show: “[WWE was] on this big kick on us using social media and at the time I wasn’t really doing anything on TV. I just had a website built and my website lady said you should do a YouTube channel. The idea was that I would do mostly training videos, kind of like Dean Malenko, the way he was introduced to WCW, where he would go in there and show a hold each week and each week it would get more progressively more violent. I thought it was a cool principal. And then my idea also was to put it in funny music so at the end it would be kinda funny. But we did a couple of takes and it just wasn’t very entertaining.”
