Daniel Bryan has told Paul Heyman exactly what he thinks of the WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns ahead of the Royal Rumble.
Appearing on Talking Smack, Bryan shared an exchange with Heyman where they discussed Reigns and Bryan gave his thoughts on why he connects with the fans more than the ‘Tribal Chief.’
Bryan explained:
“I’m not interested in glory. I’m not interested in the adulation of the fans, despite all the yes chants. Do you know what I loved? I loved when we were at the Performance Center, wrestling in front of zero people with zero noise, just wrestling. Do you know what made people love me? I don’t know if you remember the 2015 Royal Rumble? I don’t know if you remember that, I lost, very quickly. That’s the one that Roman Reigns won. It was in Philadelphia. I was in the ring for maybe 5 minutes. 5 minutes total in that Royal Rumble, but when Roman Reigns won, everybody booed. The Rock congratulated him. The Rock saying, “oh man, you’re the man,” and The Rock putting Roman over, people booed.”
Bryan continued:
“I have a theory as to why that is, and it’s this. I think you’re right, Roman Reigns might be the best right now. He’s performing at a whole different level than everybody else, but he doesn’t wrestle with his heart. It’s a facade, always has been. He came out there when he debuted in this company wearing a vest, a bulletproof vest so you couldn’t see his heart. I have a theory that’s why they connected with me, this happens every night, I put my heart out there.”
Daniel Bryan competes in the men’s Royal Rumble match; the first two entrants of that match have been already been revealed. Roman Reigns will defend his WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble event in a Last Man Standing match against Kevin Owens.
Bryan is one of the favourites to win the Rumble match, which would guarantee him a title match at WrestleMania. He is no stranger to success at WrestleMania, winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 30.
Credit: Talking Smack
h/t Fightful for the transcription