WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan was recently a guest on the Why Not Now? podcast with Amy Jo Martin. During that interview, Bryan talked about a number of topics including WWE not wanting to push him previously in his career and how that affects his willingness to ask for a push even today, as he's one of the biggest stars in the company.

Bryan recalled finding it hard to come forward with ideas and asking for opportunities when he was on the upswing of his trajectory when he was getting popular in WWE the first time around. Bryan knew the company was holding him back, not confident he could be a star and it affected his demeanor backstage. He said:

"I'm a smaller guy... a normal person doesn't gravitate to looking at me unlike a John Cena who is enormous or some of the bigger guys like a Hulk Hogan, or a Steve Austin, or The Rock, who as soon as they come down, it's like, 'wow! Look at that guy,' right? And that's what WWE typically wants in their top stars and I've never been very good at being like, 'hey, you guys should do more with me' or 'you guys should do this or do that with me'. I've never been someone who is motivated by that or pushes himself towards that, or pushes myself towards financial goals, or pushing myself towards anything other than what I love to do. And I'm constantly having to remind myself, like, 'hey, if you want to get to the next level where I want to be, you do have to do some pushing here.' And so yeah, that's a constant thing that I struggle with."

Related: Daniel Bryan Discusses If He Had Any Ring Rust In His Return

It's interesting to note that despite not advocating for himself, Bryan has still become one of the biggest stars in the industry. Perhaps his shy demeanor is why the fanbase has been so quick to rally for the "small guy" with the Yes! attitude. He's got a rabid following of fans and even if he won't push himself to the top, they'll be happy to do it for him.

Bryan said that WWE administered personality tests and he scored extremely low when it came to the ambition portion of the exam. Bryan remembered, "and so, they ask you all these questions, yada, yada, yada. I got my test results back and the lady was just baffled. She was like, 'you have the lowest ambition score I have ever seen!' In percentiles, I was in the bottom one percentile for ambition. And she was like, 'how on Earth are you successful at this?' And I said, 'I don't know - I just really love to wrestle.' So yeah, I have to push myself sometimes to be more ambitious."

There have been rumors that to get ahead in WWE, you have to be a little more political backstage. Even the most talented of wrestlers need to know who to rub elbows with, how to get yourself noticed and speculation is that Vince McMahon has always preferred someone who will try to grab the "brass ring" and force WWE to notice them.

But, as Daniel Bryan is proving, it doesn't always have to be this way.