Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) won the WWE World Title at WrestleMania 30 in 2014, but he was stripped of it just a few months later due to neck injuries.
During an interview with TMZ.com, Bryan explained what WWE’s creative plans were if he hadn’t been injured.
“When I won the World Championship at WrestleMania 30, I wasn’t their guy. They still had plans, like, ‘Okay, we really want to transition to Roman Reigns being the guy.’ Vince [McMahon] legitimately sat me down and told me that. It was really funny because the conversation was like, ‘Okay, so we have these great plans—this is like a week after I had won the title or whatever—and we’ve got these big plans. We’ll have a couple of title defenses for you between now and SummerSlam, but at SummerSlam, you’ll wrestle Brock Lesnar and he’ll destroy you. Then we’ll build up Brock Lesnar for Roman Reigns, and Roman will be the next John Cena.’”
”He’s telling this to me, and I’m like, ‘That’s great, but I would kind of like to be the next John Cena.’ I remember seeing the look on Vince’s face where he was just like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think you even saw that as a possibility for yourself.’ It was really funny. Then he—this is the only time Vince has ever backtracked with me—he said, ‘Well, nobody can really be the next John Cena, you know? It’s like, you know…’ But in his mind, I wasn’t the guy. I was just the guy they needed at that particular point because the fans wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
