Back in 2016, Bryan Danielson and The Miz were involved in a heated verbal exchange on an episode of “Talking Smack.” For those who may not recall, Danielson accused The Miz of wrestling “like a coward,” which led to the latter blasting Bryan for continuing to remain with WWE at a time when the company had been refusing to clear him to wrestle.
During an appearance on a live edition of Renee Paquette’s “The Sessions” podcast at Saturday’s Starrcast V festivities, Danielson commented on the infamous segment and what the original intent behind it was.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the intent behind the segment: “Miz was very frustrated. He was Intercontinental Champion and not on TV much. I was very frustrated that they weren’t clearing me to wrestle despite numerous doctors having cleared me to wrestle. I understand why, but that’s a long story. We came up with this thing and the original plan that Mike and I had come up with is, I was going to f**king deck him. We wanted to get under each other’s skin so much that it was plausible that I could legit be angry enough to punch him. That was the intent, that I was going to punch him. The idea was, either they’re are going to fire me or it’s going to make people want to see the match so much that they would have to clear me to wrestle.”
On how the segment played out: “Mike did such a great job; intuitively, I felt it was better to walk off and leave him. It was like, ‘God, this is so good, leave him with his heat.’ He was so good. He was magic. Mike and I don’t like each other, legitimately, but he’s somebody I respect a lot for working hard. When he was going off, I was like, ‘This is so good. It’d be so good if I punched him, but maybe it would resonate more and be better for him if I walked.’ So, that’s what happened. Everybody, including Maryse, was like, ‘why is this going on? What is happening?’ It would have been great television. It might have gotten canceled. I may have gotten fired. There would have been pluses and minuses.”
Logan Paul defeated The Miz with his own “Skull Crushing Finale” finisher at Saturday night’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view event.
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(h/t – Fightful)