Bryan Danielson Credits The Miz For Helping Him In WWE
Bryan Danielson has explained how when he was in WWE, feuding with The Miz was a good thing even though he dislikes Miz as a human being.
When Bryan Danielson signed with WWE in 2009, he was highly regarded as one of the best independent wrestlers in the world after having an incredible run in Ring of Honor. In WWE, he became Daniel Bryan and was put on a new wrestling show called NXT where “rookies” had pros that would try to help them win the elimination competition.
The Miz was Bryan’s coach on NXT. It upset a lot of people at the time because Bryan was a much-more experienced wrestler than The Miz, who had about five years of experience at that point, so Bryan had double that. However, The Miz was (and still is) a gifted talker that was also a very good heel, so it provided an interesting dynamic on the show.
Bryan Danielson didn’t win NXT, but he did beat The Miz to win the US Title at Night of Champions 2010, which was Bryan’s first title in WWE.
In 2016, when Bryan was unable to wrestle due to concussion issues, he was the GM of Smackdown Live and got into a memorable verbal altercation with The Miz on a new show called Talking Smack. The Miz pushed Bryan to the point where Bryan wanted to hit him, but since he wasn’t cleared to wrestle, Bryan walked away instead.
When Bryan Danielson was cleared to wrestle again in 2018, he had a summer rivalry with The Miz based on their story going back to 2010 and the Talking Smack incident in 2016. The Miz beat Bryan at SummerSlam 2018, but Bryan would get the win back at Super Show-Down 2018 leading to Bryan winning the WWE Title later that year.
During an interview with Cameron Hawkins on the South Kongress Podcast, Danielson spoke about how feuding with The Miz was definitely not a demotion for him.
“As much as I dislike him as a human being, Miz really helped me and gave me a good story point and launching pad in WWE. Everything is how you take it, how it plays out. I don’t think (it’s a demotion), no.”
“If it gives you an opportunity to show people what you can do, it’s a great starting point because at the very least, the fans dislike The Miz. If you can go in, and you’re good enough, if you go in there and have a great program with him, it’s a great launching pad.”
While The Miz remains in WWE as the host of this year’s WrestleMania 39 event, Bryan Danielson has worked for AEW since 2021. Bryan recently challenged MJF for the AEW World Title at the Revolution pay-per-view that saw MJF keep the title in an incredible 65-Minute Iron Man Match.