Bryan Downplays Creative Input; Christian on Critics; Bayley Denies Balor Rumors

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

Daniel Bryan Says He Doesn't Have Much Creative Input

Once considered a B+ player—both in terms of an on-screen storyline and behind the scenes—Daniel Bryan has become one of the most influential wrestlers in the WWE locker room.

He's just not as influential as some fans may feel.

Bryan spoke to Alex McCarthy of TalkSport and said he's often given too much credit for when things are going well for other performers.

"It's interesting because, one, I don't have that big of a say [laughs]. Sometimes something really great will happen on SmackDown and somebody will say 'oh, that's Daniel Bryan!' Like, that's not me!" Bryan said. 

"One part is our performers—we have incredible superstars. Cesaro is a no-brainer. When you say 'Daniel Bryan helped Cesaro'—no. All I did was 'hey this guy is really good. We should put him on TV and use him!' [laughs]."

Cesaro has seen a singles push in recent months and is set up for a one-on-one match against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. This is the biggest push Cesaro's gotten as a singles competitor since he won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 30.

Bryan also said Apollo Crews' recent feud with Big E is all Crews' doing.

This is one of those cases where fans try giving credit to a performer they like when in fact credit is due to the person getting pushed, but also creative for finally realizing guys like Cesaro and Crews had the charisma to be stars. Bryan can make a push behind the scenes, but everyone knows WWE has one person who pulls the controls on all things with the product.

Christian Cage Not Worried About Detractors

For those who were hoping Brock Lesnar or CM Punk would be AEW's surprise signing at Revolution, Christian Cage was likely a bit of a disappointment. AEW arguably set itself up for that type of criticism given the hype surrounding Cage's signing and the fact that Christian has a well-trodden career outside WWE.

A 47-year-old who had an extended run in Impact doesn't quite hit the same when it's viewed through the lens of AEW hyping him up as an all-timer. That said, Christian was one of the defining members of WWE's Attitude Era and is unbothered by criticism.

"The way I think of it is that when you make that kind of announcement, it doesn't matter who it is," Christian said on the Sunday Night Main Event podcast. "You've given people an opinion and they're gonna pick who they think it should be or want it to be and when it's not who they want it to be, they're gonna be upset. Doesn't matter who it is, and that's fine, that's their choice and I think it's pretty obvious. Especially the social media wrestling fans are very fickle, and a lot of times that's just the way it goes."

Christian will make his debut on this week's Dynamite against Frankie Kazarian, which assuaged some concerns he would be hot-shotted into the main event picture. The signing of Cage in and of itself is a good get for AEW; the issue was arguably that it was hyped to such a degree that anything short of one of wrestling's biggest names would have been a disappointment.

Bayley Discusses Past Rumors of Dating Finn Balor

Back in their time together in NXT, WWE fans speculated about the relationship status of Finn Balor and Bayley. While neither did much to address it at the time, Bayley said she and Balor were never an item during an appearance on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette.

"Well, we had an awesome story… it wasn't even a storyline," Bayley said.

"We kind of made it up ourselves in NXT. He sprained his ankle, so he wasn’t having a match. Everybody thought it would be funny if I did his entrance cause my character was just so, whatever. And then they loved it so much it got so many views on YouTube, and then he did my entrance, and then they started teaming us up together on NXT shows. I think people liked it because it was such different characters. He was The Demon, and teaming us up together was insane.

“One time—I got in trouble with this in my past relationship—we took a picture with his parents, and people were like, ‘Oh, my God, are they really together?’ We’re obviously aren’t married. He’s married to a beautiful woman, and he seems so happy. That was so much fun. We had so much fun with each other.”

Well, there goes that, Bayley-Balor shippers. Balor is married to Fox Sports journalist Vero Rodriguez.