Daniel Bryan told Chris Jericho on the latest “Talk is Jericho” podcast that he feels WWE decided to put their weight behind him when CM Punk left the company in January. Commenting about when WWE decided to make a shift and finally get behind him as a top star, Bryan said:
“It wasn’t necessarily that I felt a shift. It was essentially after Punk quit. It was like, ‘Well, we’ve got John and we’ve got eeeeeeeh.'”
Bryan went onto discuss his good timing and fortune in WWE:
“When I first won the World Title in December 2011, I had Money in the Bank and Mark Henry was champion. I honestly think the plan was for me to lose MITB, but then Mark got hurt… It was more of a thing wWE here, ‘Well, what are our options here?’ And, all of a sudden, I’m World champion. It’s those kind of lucky breaks where you can show what you can do as a performer that helps turns the tide. A lot of that is just circumstance. And, the only reason, I think, why I was MITB champion is because they didn’t want two heels winning it that year. And, Alberto (Del Rio) was the other one. It’s a little series of things that add up to a whole lot.”
In an interesting note, Bryan also revealed how he low-scored in the categories of “ambition” and “power” in a personality test he took about two months ago:
“WWE did these personality tests for guys they considered successful or who had good runs here in WWE. They ask all these different weird questions. But, apparently it gives you an idea of some sort of personality. The lady who did the testing said I had the lowest ambition score she had ever seen.”
Bryan continued:
“She asked, ‘How did you even get to where you are?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. It’s pretty much just because I love doing this.”
On his personality, Bryan noted how he’s relaxed and goes with the flow in WWE, but commented about what upsets him:
“The hardest part (about wrestling in WWE) is how do you even do a three-minute match?” Bryan joked. “As guys who enjoy wrestling – and I get worked up about wrestling – most of the time I’m excited to go out there and wrestle. It’s like a letdown for myself. The worst to me is when a crowd is really good and you’re out there for only three minutes. There’s only been a couple times I came back through the curtain hot. It’s been because, ‘Oh my gosh, that could have been so much more. Why was it only three minutes? It could have been an awesome experience.'”
Bryan and Jericho also discussed their first-ever match on NXT in 2010. Jericho said he initially complained about being an NXT “Pro” because of his already hectic schedule as World Champion, but was excited to find out he would face Bryan on the first show… until he found out the match was only scripted to go six minutes:
“I was so disappointed in that because I knew we could have gone 60 minutes if we were given the opportunity,” Jericho said. Bryan added, “I go with things pretty well. But, it’s just frustrating when you see something like that. But, it’s good that I get upset over that kind of stuff because it means I still love to wrestle. I almost dread the day where I see four minutes and I’m like, ‘Thank goodness.’ (laughs)”
Bryan and Jericho also discussed the challenges for new superstars going through NXT and the WWE Performance Center as opposed to wrestling on the independents and coming through that way:
“It’s so strange that if you pluck a football player – for example, someone like Titus O’Neil. I think Titus has a lot of upside. He is very charismatic and has a personality. But, one of the things that is going to be hard for him going forward is that he has only learned one system and one way of doing things. So, even if you sign someone to a Developmental contract, I think it would behoove everyone to send them to Europe for six months or to Japan for a couple months to learn different things.”
Listen to Daniel Bryan’s full interview here.
