Former WWE Champion loved working with Bray Wyatt but says it was a "weird" time

Former WWE Superstar, Bray Wyatt passed away unexpectedly in August 2023. He had only returned a few months ago to the pro-wrestling juggernaut after spending over a year away.

During his first stint with the Stamford-based promotion, an argument could be made that Wyatt's best rivalry, and perhaps most underrated, was against current AEW star, Bryan Danielson (fka Daniel Bryan). The two feuded in both the runs of the late wrestler. The first was when he was the cult leader of The Wyatt Family and later when Bray donned the role of The Fiend.

Speaking on Daily Star ahead of his "Title vs. Career" Match at AEW All In, later this month, Danielson looked back at the time that preceded one of his biggest career highlights. For a few weeks, WWE's creative had added him as a member of The Wyatt Family, which garnered a mixed reaction from fans. Despite the supposed heel turn, nothing stopped the crowd from cheering for Bryan.

WWE had to ultimately bring back his babyface persona. Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt subsequently wrestled at Royal Rumble 2014, in which the latter picked up the win. The veteran would later headline WrestleMania 30 where he would go on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship defeating Randy Orton and Batista.

"So I loved working with Bray. I worked with him several times. We had a match, after I left The Wyatt Family, at that Royal Rumble that I really enjoyed. I got to wrestle him as ‘The Fiend’. That was a lot of fun. He’s just someone that I really miss, Brodie [Lee] was also involved in that, and I was close with him. So it was a fun time," Bryan recalled.

Danielson admitted that although he loved working with Bray, it was an "uncertain" time for him when the company changed him from being a babyface into a heel. The fans were firmly behind the leader of the Yes Movement, despite the change in persona and he could not understand what was going on. The crowd reaction seemingly forced WWE to alter plans for him hastily.

"It was also an uncertain time because the crowd was getting super behind me and they had turned me into this bad guy, I don’t know what their hopes were as far as that goes, and then they were like 'oh, we should probably switch him back….'. It was just a very weird time in my career when I didn’t know what was going on," he added.

You can watch Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt clash at Royal Rumble 2014 in the video below:

Bryan was forced to retire from in-ring competition in 2016. But he was medically cleared in 2018. A year after his return to the squared circle, he and Wyatt reignited their rivalry.

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The Wyatt Sicks has found considerable success so far on WWE RAW

Triple H and his creative team re-introduced Bray Wyatt's real-life brother, Bo Dallas in June 2024, who portrayed Uncle Howdy alongside Bray during the latter's final few months in WWE.

Dallas was joined by Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, Dexter Lumis, and the last remaining member of the original Wyatt Family, Erik Rowan. The group pays tribute to the legacy of Wyatt.

The Wyatt Sicks made their successful in-ring debut on the RAW after SummerSlam this month, winning the Six-Man Tag Team Match against Chad Gable's new faction, American Made.

Bo Dallas is yet to make his return to the ring. Despite losing the bout, Gable later broke character to reveal why facing Bo's faction was special to him.