Daniel Bryan and Triple H Discuss WrestleMania XXX Match

At WrestleMania XXX, Daniel Bryan and WWE on-screen COO tore the house down with their opening contest, one that propelled Bryan to the main event later that night. Not many were sure of the kind of match the two would have, with some even being skeptical, but it eventually received rave reviews.

In the second part of an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report, Bryan and Triple H spoke about the psychology behind their match and what it was like leading up to it.

Bryan spoke on how there was a styles-clash with the tow:

“Triple H and I have very different styles. The fans would not be happy if I did a Triple H match. And likewise, they would not have been happy with Hunter doing a Daniel Bryan match. Especially when it comes to WrestleMania,” Bryan said. “And that’s where it really gets interesting. To me, the funnest part of wrestling is creatively putting together a match. Especially when you have two guys that have so many different ideas. We had so many ideas to choose from, and we just had to decide, ‘What story do we want to tell the crowd?'”

Triple H was complimentary of Bryan’s skill set:

“I don’t care who you are or how good your are—and I’ve had this conversation with everybody from the Undertaker to Shawn Michaels—when you’ve been gone and you come back and step in that ring, the pressure is unbelievable,” Triple H said. “Add in a 24/7 job as an executive here, on top of playing a character on the show, on top of training to get ready for the match…a guy like Daniel Bryan, or like me when I was doing it, is wrestling a couple of hundred times a year. You’re just in a zone, physically and mentally. Wrestling a guy like that at WrestleMania, I’ve got to prepare for that like I was [Floyd] Mayweather getting ready to fight [Manny] Pacquiao.”

Bryan noted the little things played a big part in it:

“The way we started the match, with a handshake and me kicking away his hand, and then he goes to the floor—that’s not something I would usually start with,” Bryan said. “That’s more of a Triple H-type thing, something of an older style of starting a match. But it worked great. It’s part of incorporating all these little things to tell the story we want to tell.”

And Hunter realized the story had paid off before the match even began:

“During his entrance—when the whole crowd was doing the ‘Yes’ chant—that was the blowaway moment for me,” Triple H said. “I can’t express to you, for me, as a performer and as a guy who helped craft that story, what it meant. I remember after my entrance and waiting for him the ring with Steph seeing 80,000 people doing the ‘Yes’ chant and thinking, ‘Dude, did this work or what?’

“I lean over to Steph, and I said, ‘Look at that.’ What a story. And even just thinking about it now, I get chillbumps. To be able to take that 10-month arc of a story and have it pay off for Daniel Bryan—who on every level is just the nicest guy and a guy you just want to help succeed—for every reason you just want him to be big, and then here it is. And man, it’s huge. And you’re just like, ‘Yeah!'”

The entire, elaborate piece can be found here.

Editor’s Note

This was an amazing match to experience live. They tore the house down. Great read.

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