William Regal is once again singing the praises of Bryan Danielson.
The Gentleman Villain spoke about the American Dragon during a recent interview with ITR Magazine, where he discussed Danielson’s incredible work ethic, how he abides by a certain set of standards, and how he never struggled with addiction like he did earlier in his career. Highlights from the conversation can be found below.
How Bryan Danielson has always been in a different league:
Because he’s got no bad habits, and there have been times when he’s had problems injury-wise, and he’s been out, but he’s overcome it all. I’ve got to where I’ve got to by, that’s what I was like when I was younger. I was never as good as him when I first met him when he was, in 2000, he was 19 or 20. First night I watched him, I’m like, ‘Wow, he’s in a different league to what I was at this stage of the game. I wanted to be a wrestler as good as him, but I wasn’t built for it. I wanted to be a junior heavyweight like Rollerball Rocco and Fit Finlay, but I grew to 6’3″, and I didn’t have the athletic ability, so I went the traditional British heavyweight route, and that changed over time with different things, but I had to grow into that. Bryan has got no kind of, whatever that I had going on, and things that have set me on the wrong path. It’s 22 years since I did any of that, and it seems to follow me around. It affected my health later on, and different things at that. So there’s no downside to him.
Says Danielson has always had a set of standards that he’s abided by:
I set a set of standards out for myself once I was 18, and I was starting to figure this out, and I’ve never broken them. I don’t want to get too deep into that, but it’s why people look at me the way I am now. I’m never gonna say ‘yes’ when the answer’s ‘no’. It’s one of the reasons why I had the job I had before [at WWE], but it’s also maybe one of the reasons I don’t have it now. But I’m quite happy understanding my role in wrestling. Sometimes, you’ve gotta do things to bother people and do whatever to get to a high position. That’s in any form of entertainment or sports. Bryan, since I’ve met him, has stayed polite, kind, helpful, done everything right, and has never broken. He has the same kind of set of standards as me. He’s got to where he got to on his talent and his way of doing it without doing any… I mentioned Chris Jericho before. Chris has wrote in his books how he had to do certain things to get to the position he got to. There’s nothing wrong with that. You have to do that. That’s not me. I’m just quite happy doing, ‘What do you need? Yes, thank you very much.’ Bryan’s never done any of that. He never had to, and got to where he got to. So that’s what I mean when I say he’s the wrestler [I wished I could be] because he’s better than I ever was.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
