Account
Bryan Talks WWE WrestleMania 37 Main Event; Christian Wanted Match vs. Owens, More
April 23, 2021
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Bryan Says He Tried to Get Out of WrestleMania 37 Main Event
Daniel Bryan turned in an excellent performance in the main event of Night 2 at this year's WrestleMania, but the veteran Superstar said afterward that he didn't even want to be part of the match.
Speaking to BT Sport (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Bryan explained that he lobbied to get out of the match since he didn't feel like he was needed:
"I kept trying to get out of it too. You know, this is a heck of a story, 10 years to do the day that [Edge] was forced to retire. It was shortly after Elimination Chamber, in the build to the singles match I had with Roman [Reigns] at Fastlane, it was like, 'This is going to be a stick Daniel Bryan in here thing.' Not to say that I didn't want to be part of it, I just thought it would be such a strong main event, just the two of them. WrestleMania 30, it felt like with the way the crowd was reacting with Batista and Randy [Orton], they kind of needed me in there.
"This one didn’t feel like it needed me. It's all water under the bridge now, but maybe that was in the back of my mind, 'Hey, I'm not sure I should be in this match,' is why I had this weird reaction to actually being out there."
The main event of WrestleMania was originally supposed to be Reigns vs. Edge for the Universal Championship, as Edge challenged Reigns for the title after winning the 2021 Men's Royal Rumble match.
Bryan was worked into the storyline, however, and after he was screwed out of a win over Reigns at Fastlane despite making The Tribal Chief tap out, the WrestleMania match was changed to a Triple Threat.
In the same interview with BT Sport, Bryan said he felt strange going into the WrestleMania bout. Bryan said he felt "detached" and "out of body," and he wasn't sure why that was.
As mentioned by Bryan, he was added to the WrestleMania 30 main event between Batista and Orton, and that turned out to be a great decision, as the fans clearly didn't want that singles match and instead wanted to see Bryan win it all, which ended up happening.
Reigns vs. Edge undoubtedly would have been great, but it did feel like Bryan added something to the WrestleMania 37 main event, so WWE may have ultimately made the right call on that front.
Christian Wanted to Wrestle Owens in WWE
Christian Cage surprised many within the wrestling world when he decided to sign with All Elite Wrestling last month rather than returning to WWE.
Since joining AEW, Cage has spoken about his desire to lock horns with many of the top stars in the promotion, including Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, MJF and Darby Allin.
During an appearance on the AEW Unrestricted podcast (h/t Mukherjee) this week, Cage made mention of who he would have wanted to face in WWE had he signed there instead:
"I would say probably Kevin Owens. I really like the passion that he has. I like the way that he delivers his promos. I think he's fearless when he delivers his promos. I think that he's a fearless competitor in the ring as well. I just like his style. Sami Zayn as well. I thought, especially this character the way it is now, we could have done some pretty special things. So off the top of my head, I would say probably those two guys."
Cage made his in-ring return in WWE's 2021 Men's Royal Rumble match in January after seven years away due to concussions.
It was widely believed that he would sign with WWE and work at least a part-time schedule, but the 47-year-old signed with AEW instead and made a surprise appearance at the Revolution pay-per-view last month.
Christian has already teased a match with AEW world champion Kenny Omega and is in the midst of a feud with Team Taz.
It isn't surprising that Christian chose Owens and Zayn as potential opponents had he stayed in WWE since they are fellow Canadians and real-life friends who have long seemed to "get it" in terms of being entertaining and versatile pro wrestlers.
Perhaps Christian vs. Owens or Zayn could still happen one day, but for now, fans will be left to wonder what could have been had Cage not made the move to AEW.
Rumors on Kalisto's Issues with WWE Creative
Kalisto was among the wrestlers released by WWE last week, and his departure reportedly came on the heels of some issues with the creative team.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Kalisto was unhappy with how WWE used him when he was part of Lucha House Party with Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik.
Dorado reportedly pushed for the stable because of his belief that they could have some success and sell merchandise, but Kalisto wasn't a fan of it and didn't want to be part of "prelim jokes."
As a result, WWE reportedly removed Kalisto from the group to "pacify" him and kept Dorado and Metalik together at Dorado's request.
The Lucha House Party breakup occurred last year, and they fully went their separate ways as part of the WWE draft when Kalisto remained on SmackDown and Dorado and Metalik were moved to Raw.
Kalisto was rarely used after the breakup aside from making some backstage appearances and competing in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the SmackDown before this year's WrestleMania.
While the latter part of Kalisto's WWE tenure undoubtedly didn't go as well as he wanted, he did enjoy a great deal of success during his tenure, holding the United States, Cruiserweight and NXT Tag Team Championships.
Now, the 34-year-old is a free agent and should have no shortage of options regarding where he will sign next.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).