Daniel Bryan Discusses Wrestling Outdoors, The IC Title, & More

Daniel Bryan recently spoke with USA Today’s For The Win, here are the highlights…

On wrestling outdoors: You know what’s crazy is that when you’re wrestling outdoors in a giant stadium like that is the sound — in an arena, a 15,000-seat arena that’s packed, everything echoes down and it can get really loud — sometimes like when we were in Miami for WrestleMania XXVIII, it seemed to me in the ring like the sound just kind of escaped. I don’t know if that comes across on TV or not, but it’s interesting. I love wrestling in the open air, and it’s crazy just looking out amongst 65, 75,000 fans. It’s very surreal.

If wrestling had a March Madness bracket, who would his #1 seeds be?: The four No. 1 seeds of all time? You’d have to go with the guys who are the biggest stars of all time. You’re looking at Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and probably… you know The Rock is a bigger star as far as mainstream, but as far as in the context of WWE [John] Cena has been a bigger star for longer. So maybe John Cena as the fourth No. 1 seed, but that’s going to be heavily debated.

What does the Intercontinental Championship mean to Bryan?: To me it’s the one title that I haven’t won in the WWE. I’ve been the United States champion, I’ve been the World Heavyweight champion, I’ve been the WWE champion, I’ve been the tag team champion. The Intercontinental championship is the only one I haven’t won, and to me I have been disappointed that — when I was a kid, the Intercontinental championship matches were usually the matches I looked forward to the most. WrestleMania III everybody talks about Hulk Hogan slamming Andre the Giant, but when everybody remembers the great match, they’re remembering Ricky Steamboat versus Macho Man Randy Savage. Same thing with WrestleMania X, with Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon in a ladder match. So it’s one of those things where the Intercontinental title for a long time was so prestigious, but now for some reason it feels to me like it’s been devalued. One of the things I would really like to do is win the Intercontinental championship at WrestleMania and make it be not just what it was before, but make it better than that. Make it so the Intercontinental championship is something that can headline pay-per-views, can headline all the live events we do throughout the country. I’ve been disappointed with how the Intercontinental championship has been treated, but I’m hoping after WrestleMania it’s going to change.

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