Daniel Bryan has made it no secret that he plans to move away from being a full-time performer once his current contract is up later this year.
Bryan has said he wants to focus on being a dad to his two children with Brie Bella, leaving less time for wrestling.
In an interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Bryan discussed the thought process behind his decision to walk away in a full-time capacity.
“It really started entering my mind at the end of 2019. We had done three or four months in a row on international tours. I was gone for 14 days at a time. Plus, you leave your kids for that long, you leave your wife [Brie Bella] for that long and all that kind of stuff and it just gets to be a little much," he said. “I love wrestling. Wrestling has been my favorite thing for a long time, but I don’t love wrestling nearly as much as I love being a dad. There’s nothing harder than your daughter telling you, ‘Daddy please don’t go.’ It was around that time that I started to talk to the head people in WWE, like I don’t know if I’m going to be doing this full-time for that much longer.”
Bryan noted that he spoke with WWE officials about his decision in March 2020 at WWE Elimination Chamber, noting he wanted to find the best use for himself so he could leave the place better than when he came in.
However, Bryan wondered if he was doing a disservice to himself by not pushing for a higher spot to have “cool kick-ass matches” that resonate.
“There was a moment where I was a little disappointed in myself and I was just like, ‘ugh, did I make the wrong choice going down that road,’” Bryan said. “I had expressed that thought to maybe the wrong person, who brought it up to other people [higher up]. I don’t know if that [conversation] played any part in why I’m now in this [main event] because I didn’t bring it up to anybody else and here we go."
The conversation worked as Bryan now finds himself in the main event of WrestleMania 37, challenging Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Title in a triple threat match that also features Edge.
You can check out the current lineup for WrestleMania 37 by clicking here.