Daniel Bryan Says He Regrets Focusing So Much on Wrestling, Talks Shawn Michaels

WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan recently spoke with Digital Spy to promote his recently-released book and talk about his career. Below are a couple of interesting nuggets from the piece.

In it, Bryan says he feels he spent too much of his life focused on wrestling:

“As you write about your life there’s a lot of things that you think about that you regret. It’s interesting, because one of the things I regret the most is spending so much time focused on wrestling as opposed to focusing on my family.

“Focusing on things that you think are really important but in the grand scheme of things aren’t really that important. That’s the main thing. You’re constantly striving because society says that you need to keep reaching for this elusive top, right?

“Then when you get to that top… when you talk to John Cena, for example, he will say that he’s still striving for stuff. He’s reached the highest level that you can reach in professional wrestling. He’s been the top star in the largest wrestling organization in the world for years. When you talk to him, he still wants more.

“Right now we sell out a lot of shows, but we don’t sell out every show. And until we sell out every show all the time, John’s not happy – he’s still striving for more. We’re in this culture of constantly striving for more and sometimes that leads you away from your core values.”

He also spoke at large about his mentor, Shawn Michaels:

“To me, Shawn’s is a very inspiring story. And also it’s about knowing when to let go. He has this redemption story and knows when to let go. He didn’t stop wrestling because he couldn’t wrestle anymore. He stopped wrestling because he lost a retirement match.

“They’ve wanted him to come back and wrestle probably a million times. ‘No, that’s okay, I’m satisfied with what I’ve done – I’ve had enough of the fame and enough of this that now I’m content walking away and spending time with my family.’ To me that’s a wonderful life story.”