by Daniel Bryan
After several moments, the two sit up and Brie reaches for the hairbrush on a nightstand littered with burned tea-light candles. She brushes her fiancé’s mane until the clock clicks close to Bryan’s call time. It’s time to go to work.
On the Raw after Survivor Series 2010, I was told my new story wasn’t with any of the male wrestlers, but rather with Divas, specifically the Bella Twins, Brie and Nikki, who would be vying for my affection. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Two hot twins each trying to get with you should make you seem cool. But that wasn’t the story. In this case, they were actually in competition with each other to see who could sleep with me first because they both thought I was a virgin (not vegan). I was an oblivious geek who was befuddled by any woman’s interest in me. That was the story.
Needless to say, I didn’t like it. I didn’t know the Bellas very well at the time, but I didn’t understand why the company was working so hard to make me look like a loser. My negative attitude at the time didn’t help matters either. If it had happened a couple of years later, like when I was paired with Kane as part of Team Hell No, I think it would have been very entertaining; by then, I had developed into a better entertainer and was more open to silliness. Over the two-month story with Brie and Nikki, I warmed up to it and tried to do the best I could with it. Looking back, if I had embraced it more, I probably could have gotten more over with it and made it popular with the fans, despite the horrible premise.
This horrible premise is how Bri and I came to be together.
When I started with WWE, I pretty much avoided the Divas, unless they came up and talked to me. I had a girlfriend, wasn’t interested in the party culture, and was pretty much just business when I was at work. Even after my girlfriend and I broke up that October, I didn’t have much to do with them. Being in the story with the Bellas forced us to interact more, both on television and at live events.
At first I couldn’t even tell them apart. (This was before Nicole got fake boobs. These days, telling the difference is easy.) I would be talking to one of them about what we were doing that night, then walk away, and the other one would come up to me shortly after, and I’d be superconfused as to whether it was the Bella I had just talked to earlier or not. Eventually I was able to tell the difference, and getting to know the two of them was the most fun part about being involved in the story together.
It was also interesting to see the differences in their personalities. It was clear to me that Nicole was the more domineering one, and some of the things she would say to Bri would make me feel bad for her. Not that Bri couldn’t dish it out, too; they would get in these sister fights in the middle of work, where they would say the meanest things I’d ever heard two people say to each other. Then, literally two minutes later, they would be doubled over laughing about something else. It boggled my mind. When you share a womb with someone, I suppose you have a different kind of relationship.
Though at first I was bothered by my portrayal, soon the three of us were having a lot of fun on live events. We tried out a bunch of different entertaining entrances, including one where the girls went out first with their arms out pretending to be airplanes, then they’d stop and present me, and I would also come out pretending to be an airplane. I thought it worked great with the music, but when we tried it on TV, Vince hated it. Back to the drawing board. We did another entrance for a while where all three of us came down to the ring and I’d squat by the apron as they each stepped off one of my legs onto the apron, where they would then hold the ropes open for me. The first time we did it, I could tell they were nervous, and I thought it was because they were worried they would fall or something. It turns out it was because they weren’t wearing any underwear. Such is the life of a Bella Twin.
At the time, I was wrestling Teddy on the live events, and we were having really fun matches. He was coming into the ring with a Diva as well—Maryse—so between the two of us and the three girls, we came up with some entertaining stuff. My favorite was a spot where I would put Teddy up on my shoulders to airplane-spin him as many times as I could (which was usually around thirty rotations). He’d be so dizzy that he would try to pin the referee, and I’d count to three and he’d think that he won. Maryse would get in and yell at Teddy, then Bri would come in and slap her, and then Nicole would give Maryse the airplane spin, before we’d go right into the finish. The crowd usually loved it, but we had to put a stop to it when a producer told us those kinds of shenanigans weren’t fitting for a United States Championship match.
The three of us working together made it easy to become friends with Bri and Nicole, and soon we’d be laughing and joking together at shows and appearances. Oftentimes after our match, I’d be sitting watching the rest of the show on a monitor and Bri would come sit by me. We’d get in these wonderful conversations about the environment and diverse belief systems and all sorts of different fun stuff. There aren’t a lot of eco-conscious wrestlers like me in WWE, and during our conversations, I found out that Bri actually wrote an eco blog on WWE.com for a short time but stopped after getting so many hateful responses. We bonded together while everyone else, including Nicole, made fun of us for being hippies.
Despite all the talking we were doing, Bri and I had recently gotten out of serious relationships, and neither of us was interested in dating. For the two months that we did the story together, we were merely friends, yet the more we talked, the more I looked forward to seeing her. Soon I borderline expected that she would come sit by me at the monitor, and when it took her a while to get ready, I’d casually go looking for her backstage.
My story with the Bellas ended on the Raw episode before the 2011 Royal Rumble in January. While competing over me, each of the sisters had kissed me, but there was no way to really push forward the story of them trying to sleep with me on TV in a PG manner, so WWE ended it. On that Raw, the Bellas lost a tag match and came looking for me in a backstage segment. When they came into my locker room, I was making out with another Diva named Gail Kim, who I then revealed was my “girlfriend.”
The Bellas said, “We thought you were a—”
“Vegan? Oh, absolutely, I don’t eat any meat,” I interjected, not allowing them to say “virgin.”
That was the big climax to the story. Then the Bellas and Gail got into a kickass backstage brawl, and as I tried to pull Bri off, she slapped me in the face. Earlier, in preparation for the scene, I told Bri she could hit me as hard as she wanted as long as she didn’t slap me in the ear, since it was the same ear I ruptured in a match with KENTA years prior. We had to do the scene multiple times, and every single time, she slapped me in the ear—not on purpose, mind you, just in the heat of the moment with so many moving parts in the brawl. Bri later confessed she was a little bothered watching me kiss Gail in the segment. Even though that’s not why she hit me in the ear, that’s when she knew she had a crush on me.
The Royal Rumble took place in Boston that year, and Bri was going to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum before the pay-per-view event. She knew I loved museums, so she invited me to go with her. I picked her up at her hotel, and she told me all the great things she’d heard about the museum. When we got there, it was beautiful. There was a courtyard garden in the center of the place with three floors of galleries surrounding it. While we were on the second floor, Bri was pointing at a painting, and one of the workers came in and chastised her with a strong “No pointing!” I’d never heard of such a thing, and we had a good laugh about it. We never made it to the third floor because of time constraints, but we had had a great time, despite the whole pointing thing. Though neither of us considered it one at the time, today we think of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as the home of our first date.
We actually didn’t start dating until a couple of weeks later. It all began with a show in Victoria, British Columbia, where we had to take a ferry back to Vancouver after the show. While we waited for the ferry, some sort of all-female high school dance team got off their bus, saw our Divas, a
nd did a little dance. It was like that movie Bring It On—the high school team seemed to be challenging the Divas to a dance-off. I immediately told Bri and Nicole, “You don’t have the guts to have a dance-off with these chicks,” and that was all they needed to hear. All of a sudden Bri, Nicole, Maryse, and Eve Torres started battle-dancing these teenage girls right on the spot. It went back and forth with one team doing a dance, then the other. It got crazy when Nicole did the worm on the wet ground, and with that, it became clear the Divas were the true winners.
After we got back on the ferry, I went to sit by myself on the lower level, needing some peace and quiet. Bri was with everyone else on the second level—including Miz, who was in one of his talking moods and yakking away, which I couldn’t handle at the moment—and she started texting me to come up and visit. I invited her to come sit down with me, but she didn’t know how to devise an excuse for leaving the group and coming down to talk with me. (Not that she told me that, at the time.)
Two days later, Raw was in Anaheim, California, on Valentine’s Day, and after the show, Teddy, Sheamus, and I were driving to San Diego, where SmackDown was taking place the following day. Bri and Nicole weren’t on SmackDown, but Nicole lived in San Diego, so Bri was staying with her for a few days, and she texted me during the drive, inviting me out to dinner with her and her friends after SmackDown. Bri told me to bring Teddy and Sheamus along as well, but after the show, the guys were tired and just going to head back to their rooms. I decided to go and meet up with Bri and her friends for dinner, and after that, we all hung out at Nicole’s place. When I was ready to leave, Bri walked me back to my car, which was parked kind of far away, and then I drove her back to the front of Nicole’s.
And this is where Bri and I have a major dispute as to what actually happened.
My version: We were in the middle of talking in the car when Bri quickly wrapped up with “OK, well, I should go. Talk to you later. Bye!” and then sprinted out of the car, closing the door behind her.
Bri’s version: She felt like we were talking forever and I wasn’t making a move to kiss her, so she gave up and said good night.
In general, I’m very patient, and Bri sees that as slow in a lot of ways. After all that, I was driving back to my hotel thinking about what a fun night we’d had, when Bri sent me a text that said something like, “Wow, I thought a gentleman would have the courtesy to give a lady a kiss good night.” I instantly responded, “Don’t tempt me. I’ll turn this car around right now.” Which I did. Several moments later, I was back at Nicole’s place. When I pulled up, it was raining, and Bri hurried through the rain to come out the gate. I got right out of the car, went up to Bri, and grabbed her and kissed her. We didn’t say anything, just kissed in the pouring rain.
It was February 15, but we still observe Valentine’s Day as the anniversary of our first kiss.
The next week, Raw was in Fresno, California, and it was the first time we attempted to have sex. Bri and I decided for the time being not to tell anyone about the kiss or that we had an interest in each other. I’m a very good secret keeper, so I didn’t tell anyone. Literally, no one. After Raw, Teddy and Sheamus invited me to go out to dinner with them, but I said I was going to stay in and relax. It was an innocent lie, because I’d actually planned to go out to dinner with Bri. When she came to get me, though, Teddy and Sheamus spotted her picking me up. They pointed at us in disbelief from their car and started laughing. They had us caught, but after that, they drove off to dinner. I thought they were leaving us alone.
After dinner, Bri and I came back to my room and started doing the adult stuff—I will spare you the details. We were naked and about to do our thing when all of a sudden we heard the sound of the door handle turning and then the door popped open. Bri jumped under the covers as Teddy and Sheamus barged into the room, inebriated as can be, with the “Ahhh, fella!” and all that. This was one of the rare moments when I got really, really mad. I let out an angry “What the fuck?!” and butt-ass naked, from the end of the bed, I went to up-kick Teddy in the face. As if in slow motion, a drunk Teddy—with his ridiculous reflexes—sidestepped the kick like he was Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, then moved his head right back to where it was to look at me all confused. Meanwhile, Sheamus had sat down on the bed next to Bri, who was under the blanket, and was patting her on the head. Within a few minutes, I was able to get them out of the room, but sat there confused as to how a night that started so great could end like this. After that, Bri and I gave up, and ended up just going to sleep.
The following day, Sheamus told me the whole story. They knew my room number, lied to the front desk about losing their key, saying it was their room, and just hoped I didn’t lock my door. I never locked my hotel room; I was naïve like that. Needless to say, Bri and I have locked our hotel doors ever since.
16
WORD OF HONOR
SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2014—9:22 A.M.
The “Yes!” Man’s psyched for his VIP Axxess event, now four years after his very first WrestleMania Axxess in 2010. He ends up encountering NXT’s Sami Zayn (in his first appearance of this kind), and the two talk their way up the ramp into the loading area of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. There’s tremendous history between both stars who gained their pre-WWE fame in Ring of Honor.
“Personally, [Bryan] represents to me what he represents to millions of people already, which is an unconventional hero that has really defied the odds,” Zayn boasts of his friend. “He means as much to me—as the one spearheading the movement for the little guy—as he does to every kid who sees himself in Bryan. I’m still a kid who sees himself in him as well.”
It’s been ten years since Bryan and Zayn first met in 2004, and Bryan’s opportunity at WrestleMania—the dream stage for these warriors—is a powerful symbol to his friend and fellow entertainer.
“Professionally, I’ve always looked up to [Bryan] and always tried to catch up with him,” the tenacious NXT grappler concedes. “For him to break this barrier, he’s paving the way for guys like myself.” He adds, “Daniel Bryan is smashing those boundaries, and now, more than ever, anything’s possible for me and countless people like me.”
Several moments after the impromptu Ring of Honor reunion, an anticipated “Yes!” chant serves as Daniel Bryan’s entrance theme during his arrival at his Axxess signing. Among the first jubilant members of the “Yes!” Movement he meets is young Hunter. Despite his name, he’s actually not pulling for the “other guy” at WrestleMania. He’s one of the biggest little supporters Daniel Bryan has.
“He’s the best wrestler ever,” Hunter says after his encounter with the bearded star.
Danielle from Long Island, New York, shows off her special manicure for the Show of Shows with fingertips supporting the Shield, AJ Lee, and Daniel Bryan by way of a YES inscription on her thumb. There’s also an eight-month-old baby girl in a Bryan goat-face top who can’t help but lock her eyes on the Superstar’s face up close.
“Signings are great,” Bryan says. “It’s an opportunity to meet the fans. We have great fans. They’re pretty awesome. It’s all about seeing the way that we touch people.”
While Bryan scribbles out his autograph, Zayn prepares to compete in a live match at the center of Axxess, just ahead in the distance. If he has anything to say (or do) about it, the young NXT upstart may follow in his fellow Ring of Honor alumnus’s footsteps and perch in his seat not too far from today.
I hadn’t been doing much on TV once the story with the Bellas ended, but I was still United States Champion, and that gave me hope of being able to get on the card for WrestleMania XXVII. That said, I was delighted at Elimination Chamber 2011, the pay-per-view immediately before WrestleMania, when I found out the plan was for me to wrestle Sheamus on the biggest show of the year. We even had a writer assigned to us, Jen, who would help us craft our story in the six weeks leading up to the event.
Even though I was the U.S. Champion, Sheamus was a far bigger star than I was.
He had already won the WWE Title by this point, and the previous year he’d wrestled Triple H at WrestleMania XXVI. For the 2011 edition, they actually asked Sheamus whom he’d like to wrestle, and the two top options were me and Rey Mysterio. Sheamus chose me. When he told me that, I chuckled and thanked him, but I also told him he’d probably made a mistake. If he elected to wrestle Rey, he would be guaranteed to be on ’Mania, because Rey was a veteran who’d earned his spot already, and WWE would feel almost obligated to put him on the card. If Sheamus wrestled me, there was no guarantee our match would make it. Sheamus didn’t worry about it, though, because in his experience, when WWE told him something like this was going to happen, it did. My experience hadn’t been like that, so from the very beginning I was skeptical, despite assurances from all sorts of people that we would get an opportunity to shine.
And at first it seemed like we might. When we started crafting our story for the show, we knew we weren’t going to get a lot of time to build it. WrestleMania season is a notoriously hard time to get on TV, so we designed a simple story, and for the first several weeks, our ideas were actually being executed. We wrestled a short match where Sheamus lost by count-out after he hurt his ankle. The next week, we did a title match where Sheamus declared if he lost he would quit WWE. He won that match along with the championship, and from there, we were setting up my rematch to happen at WrestleMania.
Shortly after I lost the title to Sheamus, we were talking to Jen about the following week’s plans when I asked, “What are the chances of us actually being on WrestleMania?” She said, “Oh, I think a good eighty percent.” I took that as being a good thing. Sheamus, not so much. Until that moment, I don’t think he even considered the possibility that we wouldn’t be on WrestleMania.