wrestling / News

Daniel Bryan Discusses John Cena’s Injury Being Good For Business, WWE Stars to Keep an Eye On, More

September 16, 2013 | Posted by Larry Csonka

– Chris Van Vliet of WOIO-TV interviewed Daniel Bryan today. Here are some highlights and the video of the interview…

On John Cena’s injury being good for WWE: “I think right now it’s a great thing because it gives other guys an opportunity to step up and fill that spot that Cena’s been in for years. When Cena’s on the roster it’s X amount of time every show is devoted to John Cena, now it’s being given to other guys who have the opportunity to shine and that’s better for when John Cena comes back because now we have John Cena, we have me, we have other guys who are stepping up and becoming stars. And that’s what happened in the Attitude Era with Steve Austin and The Rock, that a lot of guys left and created a lot of spots for a lot of guys to come in and be like ‘hey, we’re the new stars’ and that’s what’s going to happen now.”

On why his “YES!” catchphrase caught on: “I have a theory that people like doing hand motions and saying things at the same time. So if you’re a wrestler out there and want to make a mark, come up with something that’s easy to say and some sort of hand motion that you can do with it and guaranteed success. If you can back it up in the ring.”

Which up and coming WWE Superstars fans should keep an eye on: “I love watching Antonio Cesaro wrestle, I think he’s just incredible. Tyson Kidd doesn’t get a lot of opportunities and I think he’s amazing as well. But it’s going to take people who can wrestle great and have the personality and stuff to get over and really break through to that next level. But we have a lot of guys who can do it. The Shield guys right now are being given a lot of awesome opportunities as a trio but if they ever split up, they are going to be awesome individually because they are all such unique, charismatic performers.”

Whether he ever considered going to TNA: “TNA probably doesn’t want me saying this but I would make more money wrestling on the independents than I would wrestling for TNA. And it’s a more free schedule and you’re not under anybody’s contract, you can go do what you want.”

On his name change from Bryan Danielson to Daniel Bryan: “It’s especially hard getting used to people calling me ‘Daniel’. Cody Rhodes likes to call me ‘Dirty Dan’ and Teddy Long calls me ‘Soulman Danny B’. All these little weird different names that spring up that you were never used to. When I came here, I was 28, 29 years old and you get used to just being called ‘Bryan’ everywhere you go and now it’s all these different things. Maybe the weirdest one is ‘DB’ because DB can also stand for something else. Like ‘Hey DB, what’s up!’ and I’m like ‘Umm, I’m not sure if I like that'”.