Daniel Bryan Makes Surprising Comments on Feud with The Miz

As WWE heads into the summer months, there’s perhaps no bigger feud looming on the horizon than Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz.

This is a storyline that has been building up since even before we knew Bryan would be able to return to the ring. If you rewind the clock two years, you’d see The Miz mocking Bryan on Talking Smack. You’d see The Miz using Bryan’s Yes Kicks in the ring in a mocking fashion. You’d even see Miz doing the “Yes!” chant.

With Bryan’s return to the ring at WrestleMania 34, this feud actually now has the chance to come to fruition. Given Miz’s move to SmackDown, the anticipation has grown to a boiling point, and both Miz and Bryan have been doing everything they can to stick to kayfabe and build-up to that eventual match.

Miz gave an interview last week where he declared himself to be out of Bryan’s league. Bryan was asked this week about Miz’s comments and gave a surprising response to SPORTbible (via Wrestling Inc.).

“If you were to look at Miz’s matches since I’ve come back, he’s got a point,” Bryan said. “His match with [Seth] Rollins at Backlash, that was by far the best match on the pay-per-view. When I lost to Rusev, he wrestled Jeff Hardy – which was a fantastic match. The knock on Miz for years was that he was a great talker but so-so in the ring. This happened with [John] Cena too where people were like, ‘This guy can’t wrestle’ and while they are saying they can’t wrestle, they learn to wrestle and learn to be the best as far as in-ring stuff.”

Bryan continued on, sounding surprisingly humble as he declared several WWE wrestlers to be superior to himself.

“On the independents when I was with Ring of Honor, people thought I was the best wrestler in the world – fans would chant it and I think the fans would believe it because they want to believe that their guy is better than the WWE guys,” Bryan responded. “But never once have I considered myself the best – I look at AJ Styles and I look at Rollins right now. I say these matches with Miz were great but Rollins is in those matches – and I don’t know what is different but now he’s clicking on every level. It almost feels like it was for me in 2013 where he’s not the top guy on Raw but he’s starting to get those top guy reactions, more so than other people. You look at these people and think, ‘Ah, he’s better than me at this.’ So if Miz says I’m not on his level, I look at it like, ‘Maybe I’m not’ and that motivates me – how do I get on his level?”

It’s true that Bryan has not had all that many matches since his return to the ring, so from a storyline standpoint, he does need to build-up his reputation again to go head to head with one of the biggest heels in the company, The Miz.