While talking with Dean Muhtadi for TMZ Sports (via Fightful), Bryan Danielson recalled a time where he told Vince McMahon that he wanted to be the top guy in WWE, like John Cena.
He said: “So one of the things, and I don’t know if my body can physically hold up to this if I were to win the title, one of the things that I got to experience in Ring of Honor, but I never really got to experience anywhere else is being ‘the man,’ right? Being ‘the guy.’ Even in WWE, when I won the when I won the World Championship at WrestleMania 30, I wasn’t their guy, right? They still had plans as far as, like, ‘Okay, we really want to transition to Roman Reigns being the guy.’ Vince legitimately sat me down and told me that. It was really funny, because the conversation was like, he’s like, ‘Okay, so we have these great plans,’ and this is like, a week after I had won the title, or whatever. He’s like, ‘Okay, we’ve got these big plans. We’ll have a couple of title defenses for you in between now and SummerSlam. But at SummerSlam, you’ll wrestle Brock Lester, and he’ll destroy you, and then, we’ll build up Brock Lesnar for Roman Reigns, and we’ll make Roman the next John Cena.’ He’s telling this to me, and I’m like, and then I just kind of said, ‘Okay, that’s great, but I would kind of like to be the next John Cena.’ I just remember seeing the look on Vince’s face where he’s just like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think you even saw that as a possibility for yourself.’ It was really funny,” he recalled. “This is the only time Vince has ever backtracked with me. Whenever he said something, he always kind of stuck to it, but that’s the only time he ever backtracked. He’s like, ‘Well, nobody can really be the next John Cena,’ I wasn’t the guy. I was just the guy that they needed at that particular point because the fans wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, right? So, that said, it would be cool on a national stage to be the guy for a period of time.“
