Daniel Bryan theorizes on why Roman Reigns was booed after winning the 2015 Royal Rumble.
Ahead of the Royal Rumble, Daniel Bryan appeared on WWE Talking Smack, where he asked Paul Heyman, the Special Counsel to the reigning Universal Champion if there was ever a point where he thought Bryan was the best in the business. Heyman gave a yes and no answer, commenting that he worries that Bryan still has the ability to best anyone in a match, which would be a concern should he eventually challenge Roman.
Paul claims that Bryan may see himself near the end of his full-time career, but that one taste of glory will keep him coming back over and over again. Bryan replied by saying the only thing that drives him is his love of wrestling. He also shared his opinion as to why he connects with fans, unlike Reigns, who couldn't even get cheered after having The Rock "put him over." Here are his full remarks:
"There's a couple things that you got wrong, and it has to do with motivation and what drives me. 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.
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 why they connected with me, this happens every night, I put my heart out there. That happened on SmackDown, right. I've been wrestling for 21 years, Paul. You go out there and you've been out there for 30 minutes,45 minutes, a lot of guys that have been in this business as long as I have, they'd get on the apron. I get in there with a chance to fight The Miz, who I absolutely hate, and there's no place in the world I'd rather be. So the big difference is not about who's the best or who wants glory, it's who's willing to go out there and fight with heart."
Daniel Bryan will be competing in the Men's Royal Rumble Match this Sunday, while Roman Reigns will be defending his Universal Championship in a Last Man Standing Match versus Kevin Owens.
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