Daniel Bryan Talks Wanting A Limited Schedule With WWE
As previously noted, WWE SmackDown Live Superstar Daniel Bryan was recently a guest on the Gorilla Position podcast. Among many other things, Bryan discussed being on the road, missing his young daughter, Birdie Joe, and negotiating a lighter travel schedule with WWE.
During the interview, Bryan shared that he misses his daughter while he is on the road. Bryan mentioned that he missed Birdie's first birthday and has not been home to hear her say 'daddy' in person yet.
"I miss my baby so much." Bryan continued, "yeah, she's a year old. I missed her first birthday. She said, 'dada' for the first time, which I saw on FaceTime, but I still have not seen, like, in person yet. And so, now, when I FaceTime her and Brie, she's like, 'dada, dada' and it's so stinking cute. But I haven't seen it in person! I just see, like, a screen!"
Having a child revealed to Bryan that he does not like being on the road as much anymore.
"Actually, the biggest thing is that I don't want to be on the road as much. Like, that's one of the big things." Bryan explained, "you don't realize how long you're away until you're away because we never had to think about it before. Like, when I was gone before or when Brie was gone before, I'd miss her, but we can FaceTime and we can talk, so it's nice. But when you're away from your baby, it's a completely different thing and it hurts your heart. And she? so I will be home for a span of three days out of a month because it was like 10 days for the Saudi trip, 18 days here [on Europe], and only home three days, so that's 31 days and I'm home for three-and-a-half days. A baby grows a lot in a month. Like, she'll do things when I get back that she wasn't doing when I left. And some things that she was doing, she'll no longer be doing. And that kind of stuff makes me sad."
According to Bryan, he has been talking to WWE about working a more limited schedule.
"I've been talking to WWE about maybe doing a lighter schedule because when we first starting talking about this, when I sent that, when Vince [McMahon] told me to send the letter to Dr. Maroon, he said for me to say, 'for a limited schedule', like 'revised concussion protocol for a limited schedule', so then, they clear me and I'm just on everything! I was just like, 'I wasn't expecting this!'" Bryan laughed. "Anywhere between 50 and 100 matches a year, to me, [is ideal] because one of the doctors that cleared me at Barrow Neurological [Institute], Dr. Javier Cárdenas talked to me. He said, I think when he cleared me before in 2015, he said, 'with all the stuff that [Bryan] had done on top of that, like, before I thought we dotted our Is and crossed our Ts, but the stuff you've done on your own, you've really scratched a big hole over the I and ripped, marked, through the T.' And so, he said, 'just so you know going forward, the less exposure you have, and this is for anybody whether you have a history of it or not, the healthier you're going to be. So I was thinking, 'oh, I'll do 75 to 100 matches a year or whatever it is.' And now it looks to be way more than that, so if I were to change something, it'd be like I'd kind of like to do less, be away from home [less]. Like, for me, it's not about wrestling less. It's like I don't want to be away from home this much."
Check out the interview here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Gorilla Position with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription. The video above has been provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
Source: Gorilla Position