Recently, AEW star Bryan Danielson shared that WWE didn’t view him as “the next John Cena” after he had just won the World Heavyweight title in the WrestleMania XXX main event.
Bryan Danielson Reveals That WWE Didn’t View Him as the Next John Cena Following WrestleMania XXX World Title Victory
In speaking with Uproxx, Danielson said that those running the show immediately started planning for “the next John Cena” in a meeting. It isn’t unusual to plan going forward as the American Dragon wasn’t going to be champion forever. However, Danielson’s recollection points to him being a stepping stone to who they feel would be a bigger deal worthy of carrying the company.
“After WrestleMania 30, when I had won the championship and just main evented WrestleMania, they had a meeting with me where it was like, ‘Okay, what we’d really like is to do is to set this other guy up to be the guy.’ I think the phrase was the next John Cena. And I was like, ‘I would like to be the next John Cena,’ [and they said] nobody can be John Cena,” (H/T: EWrestlingNews)
With that said, he took it as motivation to smash that assessment. The result was main event performances and character work that added to the WWE product of the time and contributed to the current in-ring approach.
In that same in that same interview, Danielson acknowledged that he was unable to reach that peak of being the ace of WWE. Regardless, his decade-plus with WWE garnered him five World title and WWE title reigns and gave the fans multiple bangers on PPVs whether he main evented or held it down in the undercard.
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