On episode 299 of the Steve Austin Show, Stone Cold Steve Austin spoke a bit about Daniel Bryan’s retirement. He spoke about what made Daniel Bryan so special as a performer and compared his own experiences with Daniel’s.
Here is what he said:
“From what I’ve seen out of him, it’s just bad ass work. He tells a great story, sells his ass off, makes everything look good, goes through great sequences, great psychology, sells his ass off. He’s the real deal and I could see, just being in the shoes that I was in, I was never the chosen one, man. When I rolled into WWE or when Eric Bischoff fired me, I was kind of a good hand in the ring, a good mechanic with this long straggly blond hair and ‘this kid’s not going to be a star’. Finally, I get an opportunity in WWE, but when I showed up there, man, it was the land of giants. A lot of the big men were still there and I had to have that conversation with Vince [McMahon], ‘hey man, if you take my personality from me, I can’t compete’. But then, finally, I got opportunities and I was able to get over through working the way I did. And so, Daniel worked at a faster pace than I did, that cruiserweight style, and, I mean, they tried to hold him down forever and the crowd organically just got behind this kid because they could see true talent. And I think the IWC [Internet Wrestling Community] had something to do with that because they were going to make their voices be heard that, ‘hey man, you weren’t giving this guy a chance or you don’t want him to succeed or you’re not booking him to be the guy, but this is the guy because we like what he’s doing.'”
SOURCE: THE STEVE AUSTIN SHOW — H/T WRESTLINGINC
Agree with everything Steve says! Daniel Bryan truly was something special in the wrestling business. I think he is also a great representative of why the WWE should listen to their fans more often. Fans want to get behind certain people and when they are given opportunities, they usually knock it out of the park.