From a fan perspective, the past year-and-change in the career of former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan has been impossibly frustrating. He wins the company’s biggest prize by winning two matches in the main event of WrestleMania 30 only to suffer career-threatening injuries, relinquish the championship and spend most of the year on the shelf. He returns, but the return is full of us gasping and hoping he hasn’t just fallen and broken his neck. He wins the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 31, only to once again get put on the shelf with injuries, and now there’s a chance he’ll never wrestle again. WWE’s trying to find non-wrestling roles to keep him involved, but no one is quite sure what the future holds.
In an interview with Atlanticville to promote an upcoming appearance, Bryan spoke candidly about the sacrifices he made for a life in pro wrestling, the goal for anyone hoping to make it on the upcoming season of ‘Tough Enough’ and the key to happiness.
“You have to acknowledge how dangerous [wrestling] is to do it safely,” he said, “And that’s a little bit nerve-wracking, too. And then once you get over that fear of falling back hard and that sort of thing, it’s just a continual learning process.”
Having relinquished his Intercontinental Championship title weeks ago because of an injury sustained during a subsequent match, Bryan said his career goal — besides “getting healthy again” — is to create “little pockets of perfection” in his craft.
As for others who want to pursue their dreams — especially the contestants he will judge on the upcoming WWE series “Tough Enough,” which begins June 23 on USA Network, or the children he expects to meet at iPlay America — Bryan said the goal should be to overcome any obstacle.
“Working hard at wrestling never felt like I was sacrificing anything,” he said. “If you do something you’re passionate about and you work hard … and devote your entire being to it, you’ll succeed or, at the very least, find happiness.”
When we get sad about Bryan’s WWE career possibly being over, it helps to remember that the kid we cheered in empty armories is now a popular, beloved millionaire with a model wife and “multiple-time WWE Champion” on his resume. Knowing he’s found happiness and understands what keeps him there is the best-possible ending to that story.
(Let’s get him healthy again, though. Seriously.)
(Via Atlanticville)
