If Daniel Bryan had his way, he wouldn't have been part of the main event for day two of WrestleMania 37.
The initial plan was for Reigns to defend his Universal Championship in a singles match against WWE Hall of Famer and Royal Rumble winner Edge. However, Adam Pearce added Bryan to the match following his loss to Reigns at Fastlane.
For just about any superstar, competing in the main event of WrestleMania is a dream and a special luxury. But the 39-year-old Bryan would have preferred a one-on-one match between Reigns and The Rated-R Superstar.
During an interview with BT Sport (h/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful.com), Bryan revealed that he actually tried to get himself removed from the Universal title match, believing that a Reigns-Edge main event would have been exciting on its own.
"I kept trying to get out of it too," Bryan said. "You know, this is a heck of a story, ten years to do the day that he was forced to retire.' It was shortly after Elimination Chamber, in the build to the singles match I had with Roman at Fastlane, it was like, 'this is going to be a stick Daniel Bryan in here thing.' Not to say that I didn't want to be part of it, I just thought it would be such a strong main event, just the two of them.
"WrestleMania 30, it felt like with the way the crowd was reacting with Batista and Randy, they kind of needed me in there. This one didn't feel like it needed me. It's all water under the bridge now, but maybe that was in the back of my mind, 'hey, I'm not sure I should be in this match,' is why I had this weird reaction to actually being out there."
Last month, it was reported that WWE chairman Vince McMahon "wasn't satisfied" with the WrestleMania 37 plans, which led to him drastically changing the main event.
Edge, Bryan and Reigns competed in a thrilling back-and-forth contest that lasted 22:40. The latter was able to retain his title via pinfall (on both superstars) thanks to some help from Jey Uso.
In the same interview with BT Sport, Bryan admitted that he felt "detached" in the match.
The future Hall of Famer's WWE contract is set to expire soon, and though he'd like to stay with the company, Bryan also wants to wrestle in other promotions. So it'll be interesting to see how everything plays out from here.
Everything Worked Out In The End
Bryan is renowned for his selflessness and insistence on putting other talents over. So it's not surprising to hear that he didn't want to be involved in the main event. Regardless, it was a grade-A match between the three legends, and Bryan's performance made the main event that much more exciting.
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