For the first half of 2019, Erick Rowan served as Daniel Bryan’s henchman, and they won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships after WrestleMania 35.
Rowan recently appeared as a guest on Rewind Recap Relive, when he recalled WWE execs telling him to dress like his new ally:
“I remember the first day, they’re like, ‘We want you to dress like Daniel Bryan. We’re going to cut your beard, even.’ Like, they wanted to cut this nice and short, like, they wanted me to look like him. Like, ‘Can we do a little makeup, and make his ears.’ True Story. We’re at TV, they’ve already given me a couple plaid shirts to look like him.”
“I think, Dean Malenko came to me and said, ‘We gotta get you to makeup and cut your beard.’ I said, ‘No, we’re gonna talk to Vince.’ So going to Vince’s office, I basically said, ‘Before I start cutting my beard off and making permanent changes to the way I look, can we discuss what exactly do you want out of this?’”