Daniel Bryan is a former WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and one of WWE’s most popular Superstars, but he had to fight to make it to the top of the card.
Bryan didn’t compete in the 2014 Royal Rumble, although he ultimately went on to main event WrestleMania anyway, and when he competed in the 2015 Royal Rumble match he only lasted about 11 minutes before he was eliminated by Bray Wyatt.
Bryan recently opened up about his thoughts on how he was used in the 2015 Royal Rumble match during an interview with Inside The Ropes, and he revealed that he warned WWE about how the fans would react to his elimination.
“When they told me what was going to happen, I was like, ‘this isn’t gonna work out well for you guys. But, you can do what you want,'” Bryan said via Wrestling Inc. “Like, I don’t run the company, right? If it’s bad — I feel bad for certain people who were negatively affected by that. The year before, 2014, Batista was negatively affected by it.”
Bryan went on to say that he makes it a point to share his perspective on the creative plans that he’s given, but ultimately all he can do is play the hand he’s dealt.
“So like, I always try to say like, ‘hey, I think this is gonna happen,’ and sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong. But I think, like in that specific case, like I had said that, like I don’t think this is a good idea, and it doesn’t matter what I think, right? And so, I just go out there, and I do my job, and I play the hand that I’m dealt with.”
