WWE News: Daniel Bryan's reaction to hearing Roman Reigns was going to be the next John Cena

What's the story?

Roman Reigns has been earmarked as WWE's top guy for a long time now and WWE needed to put those plans into action early on in The Big Dog's career. This included letting certain people know about their plan including Daniel Bryan.

The current SmackDown Live General Manager recently spoke to E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness, where he discussed how he felt when he was first told about the plans to move Roman Reigns into the next "John Cena" role in WWE.

In case you didn't know...

WWE makes plans for people way ahead of time if there's something big that needs to be set in motion. Sometimes it doesn't work out too well because fans see it telegraphed and squash it with their thunderous chants and anti-establishment ideology. But Roman Reigns' push has been in the works for a long time, even before The Shield broke up.

The heart of the matter...

Daniel Bryan remembers having a conversation with Vince McMahon around WrestleMania XXX, the same event where Bryan would walk out with WWE's top prize. McMahon told Daniel Bryan at that time that they would be making Roman Reigns the next top face of the company while he was a member of The Shield in a rushed match on the same card.

Thanks to StillRealToUs for the transcription.

“You know, we really want to push Roman to be the next John Cena” Vince said.

“Boss, I one hundred percent support that, but I just want you to know that I want to be the next John Cena,” Daniel Bryan replied. “I’m the man. I want you to push me.”

“To be honest with you sir, that’s great that you want that for him,” Bryan told Vince. “I want to be the next John Cena, and I’m going to push myself to be that person.”

Of course, history would tell a different story about the remainder of Daniel Bryan's in-ring WWE career.

But there's always hope we could be talking about an upcoming match at Wrestle Kingdom 13 for The Bearded GOAT this time next year if things turn out as they are somewhat expected to.

What's next?

Daniel Bryan is going to work for WWE until his contract is up and then it will be time to really focus on his future. Who knows where this could take him?

But the passion to wrestle is still there and he obviously wants to be a top name, he might just need to achieve that status somewhere other than WWE to really achieve all he can in pro wrestling.

Author's take

It seems we can't have a conversation about Daniel Bryan without mentioning how he should still be wrestling. But the fact is he can still go and has the drive to perform. I just hope whatever he chooses to do, he makes the safest decision for himself and his family. Because it's not all about what the fans want anymore for Bryan.