Daniel Bryan became the first superstar to declare himself for the 2021 Men’s Royal Rumble during the Christmas Day edition of SmackDown!
Following a definitive win over Jey Uso to end their 2-month rivalry, Bryan was interviewed by Kayla Braxton backstage and was asked what was next for the Leader of the Yes Movement. Bryan responded that he wanted to achieve the one last goal he’s never achieved in WWE: Winning a Royal Rumble!
“It’s interesting because I always try to practice a growth mindset and I’m always looking for new things to achieve and new goals to pursue. There’s this one thing that I’ve never done in my entire career, that I’m absolutely dying to do and that’s this: I have never, in my life, won a Royal Rumble.
So this is what I’m gonna do, this is the next thing I’m gonna pursue, this is the mountain that I’m going to put everything forth to climb. I hereby announce my entry into the WWE 2021 Royal Rumble match!”
Bryan has competed in four Royal Rumble matches throughout this tenure with WWE – 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2018 – but has never successfully won the match to guarantee his spot at WrestleMania. His last Rumble match was the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia where he entered first and outlasted 46 of the match’s 50 entrants, obtaining the record for the longest time spent in a single Royal Rumble in the process at 1:16:05!
Despite his lack of Rumble match success, Daniel Bryan has still obtained the match’s grand prize – participating in the main event of WrestleMania 30 against Randy Orton and 2014 Royal Rumble winner Batista where he won the WWE Championship in one of the most beloved moments in WrestleMania history.
Keep up-to-date with everything went down on SmackDown, as well as all the latest WWE news in general, right here at Inside The Ropes.