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Daniel Bryan Has Mixed Emotions Around WrestleMania 30 Win, Says Brie Bella Couldn’t Come to Ring After Match

May 2, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Daniel Bryan WrestleMania WrestleMania 30 WWE Image Credit: WWE

– Daniel Bryan appeared on Jimmy Jacobs’ podcast and discussed his win at WrestleMania 30, saying that he has a lot of mixed emotions around it. Some highlights are below:

On having mixed emotions around WrestleMania 30: “I have so many good and bad memories tied to that. And this is the hard thing about WrestleMania 30 to me. I actually think more fondly of this past WrestleMania, WrestleMania 34, then I will probably think of WrestleMania 30. And that’s because it’s too closely tied to my dad’s death and Connor [Michalek]’s death. And there’s this really weird thing because there’s three people who are intertwined in this WrestleMania 30 moment to me — four people, really, so… my wife, Dana Warrior, and Steve, Connor’s dad.”

On his WrestleMania 30 roller coaster of emotions: “So I had grown close with Connor and his family, and WWE had grown closer with Connor and his family. And I was a huge Ultimate Warrior fan when I was a kid. So the night before WrestleMania 30, the Ultimate Warrior comes back to WWE, and he gets put in the Hall of Fame. And okay, cool. That’s an awesome moment. WrestleMania 30 happens. I win the championship, it’s this amazing thing, my sister’s there. Two of my nieces are there. Connor’s there, and I see him when I’m done and I give him a big hug and all that kind of stuff. The next Friday, my wife and I get married. On the Sunday, we leave for our honeymoon. We got to Hawaii, the first time I’ve ever been to Hawaii. That was the end of the greatest two weeks of my life, where you’re literally on Cloud Nine this whole time. We’re staying at this eco-retreat that’s off-grid, I’m swimming in waterfalls, with nobody else. It’s just me and my wife, I’m just, ‘This is a dream, right?’ Then we get back to our home, and Saturday we fly out, Sunday. On Monday I get a call from my sister freaking out. Saying that my dad’s wife had called her and saying that they had to rush him to the hospital, I don’t know what’s happening. Turns out my dad had died. He’d had a heart attack at fifty-seven, very unexpected. I’m in Baltimore for Raw that night. The same place where I won my first World Heavyweight Championship for WWE, and I’m just a mess … so my dad dies on a Monday, I go bad to Aberdeen, Washington in order to see him one last time on a Tuesday and — oh, I’m sorry. I missed that the Ultimate Warrior died several days after that WrestleMania. And then Connor died on Wednesday. ”

On Brie Bella not being able to come down to the ring for his WrestleMania 30 win: “The worst part about WrestleMania 30 itself is that my wife didn’t get to come to the ring. She was in gorilla, like, I was going to marry that was the Sunday, I was going to marry her that Friday. She was in gorrilla waiting for me. I pulled my sister and my nieces (into the ring). She wanted to (come to the ring) and she asked, ‘should I go down?’. And they said, ‘No, don’t go down.’ They told her not to go down. Now, I’m not somebody who likes to relive life through pictures but one of my favorite pictures of my, my sister, and my niece is at WrestleMania 30. Because the three of us are in the ring … If you were to ask me what we did in those matches, I don’t even remember. To me, the moments are hugging Connor, seeing my mom and my sister and my niece there, seeing Brie and Regal and all the people that I know and love in the back and they are so happy for me. It’s interesting, seeing that gave me more emotion than the actual thing and the actual fanbase and all that. My biggest regret is that I didn’t get to celebrate in that moment, with the confetti coming down, with my wife.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Jimmy Jacobs Doesn’t Know with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.