It has been over half a year since former WWE World Heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan has competed in a match and the uncertainty surrounding his future is only making his time off more difficult, as Bryan told The Statesman.
Bryan, 34, has seen his career be derailed by injuries for the better part of two years. After being forced to relinquish his WWE World Heavyweight championship shortly after Wrestlemania 30 due to a neck injury, the leader of the “Yes! Movement” had to forfeit his Intercontinental championship less than one month after winning it at this year’s Wrestlemania 31 event.
Sitting at home for such a long period of time is not easy for Bryan, especially since his wife, WWE Diva, Brie Bella, is on the road wrestling.
“My wife is a wrestler, so she is on the ring, and I am just sitting, it is difficult… when I am upset, when I am angry, wrestling was always there as an outlet.. I could go, drop and kick… you can call your mom and you can call your sister… but sometimes you just need a physical outlet… I don’t know how to cope with this situation.”
Bryan also discussed what he’s been doing at home with The Statesman , admitting that he’s been doing a lot of gardening in an attempt to keep busy. However, no matter how many tree’s he plants, Bryan’s true passion is inside the squared circle, saying that he’s, “training really hard to be back to wrestling.”
Got flowers and more upon my arrival in India. We’re making a big announcement for #WWEIndia tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/IK0MJLR9xU
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) November 3, 2015
Another aspect to Bryan’s frustration is him thinking that he’s letting his fans down by being out with an injury. Before fans joined Bryan in unison to chant “YES! YES! YES!” in arena’s around the world, Bryan was a skilled technical wrestler who seemed to be held back by the company’s preference for bigger athletes.
But thanks to the vocal outpouring of love from his fans, Bryan ascended to the top of WWE. But as mentioned, injuries have not allowed him to keep that momentum going strong, leading Bryan to believe he’s letting all of those fans down.
“I think the frustrating part for me with the injuries is feeling like I’ve almost let the fans down, because they’re the ones who pushed me to the super high level,” Bryan told Sportskeeda . “They were the ones who, without them, I would’ve never gotten here. They were the ones who wanted it so bad, so it’s almost like, I feel like I let them down.”
In Bryan’s absence, several performers have followed in Bryan’s footsteps, joining the WWE from the independent circuit. All of them have enjoyed success within the company. Finn Balor is the current NXT champion, Kevin Owens is the current Intercontinental champion, and several other performers are doing well. However, watching as a fan, Bryan analyzed how he believes that WWE superstars in today’s day and age are overexposed.
Referring to the WWE’s two main shows, RAW and SmackDown , the company has five hours of television to produce each week. That’s why he believes the current generation is faced with a problem that previous generations didn’t have to deal with — being overexposed.
“Because realistically, if you take wrestlers from the previous generations, and if they had wrestled as much on television as we have, they would be over exposed. But then, you won’t like them as much.”
Whether it be analyzing or dreaming, any thoughts that enter Bryan’s head usually revolve around wrestling.
“Wrestling is always on my mind. I wake up in the morning and I think about wrestling, this is how my brain works,” Bryan told The Statesman.
[Images by Valerie Macon / Getty Images, WWE]