Erick Redbeard looks back on his pairing with Bryan Danielson in WWE.
The duo, who wrestled under the monikers Erick Rowan and Daniel Bryan for the fed, first joined forces at the 2019 Royal Rumble and went on to become SmackDown tag team champions. During an exclusive interview with Wrestling Headlines the former Wyatt Family member opened up about that pairing with the American Dragon and whether he thinks he lives up to the team’s expectations.
I mean, I don’t see why not. What I loved, and people can hate it or love it as much as they want, the who done it storyline. When we split up, at least it led to a storyline about finally why was I pissed at Bryan and why did I get with Bryan. It might have only lasted, you know, a month or so, a month or two, but I loved where it went.
Redbeard later discussed the moment he found out that he would be teaming up with Bryan, his first action after suffering an injury that sidelined him after a dominant run with the Bludgeon Brothers. He says that prior to accepting the new storyline he had a conversation with his longtime tag parter, the late great Jon Huber (fka Brodie Lee & Luke Harper).
I remember coming into work, I was like, okay, I’m going there to get cleared and cause I hurt my right bicep, tore it during the SummerSlam match with the Bludgeon Brothers. And two days later we had, I had to work through that injury for a really fun match with, we had a no DQ match with New day. I remember coming in…they weren’t using Jon at all. I was fully, fully expecting to not do anything but just reunite. And I was told there, ‘Hey, do you got a flannel shirt? Here’s what we want you to do.’ So I get on the phone with Jon right away cuz if you’re tag partners with somebody, you don’t just say, ‘Yeah sure I’m gonna do this solo run or I’m gonna do this.’ Like, you, you have a conversation. And so I told him this was not my idea. Are you cool with this? I’m not gonna do it if you’re not. And you know, he’d want it, what’s best for me. So as far as expectations from what people think or whatever…you guys are watching a show and the show’s supposed to be filled with unexpected things and friendships and all sorts of things, you know? So a chance to be able to do this odd couple thing. I was all for it.
As mentioned Redbeard and Bryan formed a dominant tag team that had Redbeard take zero pinfalls. He tells Wrestling Headlines that is mainly due to Bryan, who wanted Redbeard to look dominant so it could better play into his own heel character.
And as far as expectations anytime that, that I was told not to take the pinfall…that was not the office, that was Bryan. Bryan wanted me to look strong, to look dominant because it only helped him with his heel character. And you know, I’ll be thankful for him for that rub for a while. But, you know, believe it or not, they didn’t want me to be that dominant. It was and to, to his credit and his mind in the business. Like he was smart enough to, you know, pitch for me for things. So I appreciate that.
Elsewhere in the interview, Redbeard spoke about his appearance at the 2022 AEW Revolution pay-per-view and how Tony Khan helped make it all happen. You can read about that here.
Check out the full interview below.