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Daniel Bryan Preparing To Wind Down As Full-Time Performer
The former multi-time WWE Champion will be headlining this year’s event in a triple threat match against Edge and Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship. This match holds a unique aspect as all three men have had to step away from the ring due to health reasons over the past few years, however have managed to make miraculous returns to the ring.
Daniel Bryan has been very vocal over the past few months of his plans on slowing down as an in-ring performer in the near future, with his WWE contract set to expire very soon.
Since returning to the ring in early 2018, Daniel Bryan has picked up various accolades, including reclaiming the WWE World and Intercontinental Championships he never lost. The leader of the Yes Movement will be main eventing this year’s WrestleMania for the second time in his career, going in as the challenger, and underdog, on both occasions.
Daniel Bryan recently sat down with New York Post ahead of his big match on Sunday night. The former WWE Champion discussed what this year’s show means to him and how it could be his last as a full-time WWE performer.
Bryan started off by speaking on how since becoming a father, he has been wanting to spend more time at home rather than being on the road for the majority of the year.
“It really started entering my mind at the end of 2019. We had done three or four months in a row on international tours. I was gone for 14 days at a time. Plus, you leave your kids for that long, you leave your wife for that long and all that kind of stuff and it just gets to be a little much.”
“I love wrestling. Wrestling has been my favorite thing for a long time, but I don’t love wrestling nearly as much as I love being a dad. There’s nothing harder than your daughter telling you, ‘Daddy please don’t go.’ It was around that time that I started to talk to the head people in WWE, like I don’t know if I’m going to be doing this full-time for that much longer.”
Bryan, who is a member of the SmackDown Creative Team, revealed that he had begun to question whether entering this year’s Universal Title match was the correct decision.
“There was a moment where I was a little disappointed in myself and I was just like, ‘ugh, did I make the wrong choice going down that road. I had expressed that thought to maybe the wrong person, who brought it up to other people [higher up].”
“I don’t know if that [conversation] played any part in why I’m now in this [main event] because I didn’t bring it up to anybody else and here we go.”
Bryan commented on how both he and his WrestleMania opponents all came back from career-threatening injuries to main event this year’s show, noting how he thinks it’s ‘pretty incredible’.
“I think it’s pretty incredible. The odds of any one of the three of us being in this position is pretty slim. In descending order, Roman, me, and then Adam. Coming back from triple neck fusion is absolutely incredible, but all three of us shouldn’t really be here. But thanks to the miracles of modern medicine we are.”
This isn’t the first time Bryan will be main eventing WrestleMania, as he fought his way into the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 30 in arguably one of the best endings of a WrestleMania ever. However this year he isn’t sure whether fans are excited for him being in the match.
“The big difference is WrestleMania 30 you knew everyone wanted me in it. We had real crowds there, audibly reacting to these kinds of stuff. I think for this one, it’s hard to tell if … to me in the back of my mind once this kind of started, it’s do people really want this? I was somebody who really thought Edge and Roman is a strong WrestleMania main event on their own. I think it’s worked out well for me.”
Bryan noted that despite his win at WrestleMania 30 being a huge moment, he feels ‘a little numb’ when reminiscing on the event due to the things which happened around it.
“Fans think of it from a Daniel Bryan perspective from mostly a positive perspective. I have just a mixed bag. There was WrestleMania 30, there was Ultimate Warrior passing away shortly after that, then my wife and I get married, then my dad passes away, then [8-year-old superfan] Connor [Michalek] passes away, I have to have neck surgery and I don’t have wrestling as a catharsis to deal with the emotional pain that I’m going through from my dad passing away, which is how I’ve emotionally dealt with everything in my life”
Bryan continued by hoping that if he manages to pull off the win at WrestleMania 37, he hopes it feels similar to that of WrestleMania 35 when he faced Kofi Kingston.
“At the end of it, I lose, I come back, I have a great moment with Kofi, but then I go to my wife and my daughter’s there and my daughter just saw me wrestle in front of I don’t know what, 65,000 people and it’s just a pure joyful moment. That’s kind of what I expect if that were to happen this time. But I also think there is just going to be a cool moment that I’m having regardless because for the first time in over a year we are wrestling in front of a live crowd. The thought of it just gives me chills.”
“In Mexico, there is tons of just older people who love just still going out and wrestling just because it’s fun. It’s this lifelong passion you have. So what’s the right amount? How much does my wife actually want me in the house?”
Bryan finished by commenting on how since coming back from retirement, he treats every match as if it were his last.
“Since I’ve come back from retirement I’ve approached a lot of matches with the feeling that this could be your last one, because you never know. My last one, before I was forced to retire I had no idea that was my last one even when it was happening. There’s this idea that no matter what the circumstance is this could be the last time you get to do this thing that I’ve done my entire adult life that I get such joy doing. It’s created a completely different perspective almost every time I’ve wrestled since I’ve come back, a different level of joy as I wrestle and do this thing that I love so much.”