Bryan: If Miz says I'm not on his level, then maybe I'm not.

[Abdullah]

Former 8-time WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz recently stated in an interview with Sports Illustrated that Daniel Bryan is not on his level. The two men's storied rivalry dates back to the NXT TV show when The Miz was a "mentor" to Daniel Bryan although Bryan was very successful in Ring Of Honor and in other promotions but was not accustom to the "WWE-style" of doing things. During the WWE European tour that the company is wrapping up Daniel Bryan and The Miz clashed in singles action and fans who were present shared on social media that the match had the crowd going nuts.

After Sports Illustrated spoke with The Miz and got his comments about Daniel Bryan not being on his level, SPORTBible reached out to Bryan for a response and Bryan agreed that as of right now he is not on "The A-Lister's" level in the squared circle since being cleared to return to in-ring competition.

"If you were to look at Miz's matches since I've come back, he's got a point," he admitted."His match with 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 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. When I was the GM, we did that thing on Talking Smack and I told Miz he wrestles a very soft style - that's your thing. I wrestle this way and that's why I'm hurt. Saying that, he had several incredible matches with Dolph Ziggler during that time period and that elevated him. What he did was awesome and it wasn't just Miz talking. When he says I'm not on his level, there's a reason [why] he believes that."

The former ROH World Champion came into WWE having established himself as a great wrestler and would hear it from the fans on a nightly basis. But Bryan stated that he has never considered himself the best and that right now he looks to guys like AJ Styles & Seth Rollins to be considered the best in the sport.

"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. 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?" Bryan said.

Although The Miz has Daniel Bryan in the back of his mind he has the WWE Championship in his sights. "The A-Lister" recently qualified for the men's Money In The Bank Ladder match and is looking to pull down that briefcase for the second time in his career.

- www.fightful.com/wrestling/daniel-bryan-agrees-he-has-not-been-miz-s-level-ring-being-cleared

Man... if the writers let Bryan and Miz run with these thoughts and kayfabe them, this could be a feud that regenerates interest in the whole company.

[RedSmile]

I dunno.

I'm not really interested in a Daniel Bryan who genuinely thinks he's not better than The Miz.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Just sounds like he's putting over Miz.

[Sponsored by Groose Wipes]

We get the Bryan VS Miz feud we've all been waiting on and it somehow ends with HHH VS a cob of corn.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

If they want for Bryan to put Miz over hard, that's cool. But they need to make Miz consistently look stronger, and quit beating him clean all the time. He can't be both a weasel and a badass.

[Deleted]

If this is how the feud going to go, Miz being seen as the better of the two and Bryan climbing back up, then that's not the feud I wanna see. I wanna see Miz get his shit kicked in from the amazing Daniel Bryan for all the shit he's been saying for years since Bryan's retired. If it's not that then shit, the whole feud's point is destroyed.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

I need Bryan to not turn into "I'm a big fat piece of shit" Era Vader. Not saying he needs to go "f*** Miz, I'm going to kick him into a fine paste FOR REALZ"

But he also doesn't need to be so humble that he's putting himself down "Seth's better than me, AJ's better than me, Miz is better than me." Because A) AJ is not, B) Miz is not and C) If you think Seth is firing on all cylinders (which he is), STEP IT UP!

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

I'm glad that clam digger finally admitted that The Miz is clearly better than him. After all The Miz taught him everything he knows.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Attaboy.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

Miz just needs to cut a third-degree burn of a promo on Bryan to the point where he just snaps and goes ape shit, thus leading into a blood feud between the two where Miz outsmarts him a few times before Bryan wins in one of the big PPVs...

[Deleted]

May 20, 2018 14:54:14 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

Miz just needs to cut a third-degree burn of a promo on Bryan to the point where he just snaps and goes ape shit, thus leading into a blood feud between the two where Miz outsmarts him a few times before Bryan wins in one of the big PPVs...

The amount of money they can make if they play this feud right....

[EyeofTyr]

This isn't anything new, Bryan's been saying stuff like this for...well, for years really. I remember interviews dating back to "Best in the World" heel Bryan era saying stuff like this out of character. I also distinctly remember him saying something similar to this in an interview right around the time of his heel championship run and people going "See?! NO PASSION!" and theorizing it was why he hadn't gotten as far as he could've in the company that's run so much by the backwards "alpha male" mentality of its owner. I respect the fact that the guy's humble honestly, a lot of people in his position even prior to the "Yes Movement" would've had a much larger ego on them.

That all said, I'm fairly certain like Miz's interview they reference that Bryan's is tinged with kayfabe. If the direction they're going in is Bryan being the underdog, having to adapt to being back in the ring and rising up to kick Miz's head in, I'm fine with it. It adds more drama to the story and makes it far more compelling than redoing the first time Cena & Miz feuded of Miz going "I'M BETTER THAN YOU" and Bryan going "Lolz noz" and squashing him.

[A Platypus Rave]

May 20, 2018 12:10:05 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

If they want for Bryan to put Miz over hard, that's cool. But they need to make Miz consistently look stronger, and quit beating him clean all the time. He can't be both a weasel and a badass.

This just reminds me.

God I hope they don't try to force Miz is a Badass again... that was awful.

[Abdullah]

May 20, 2018 14:57:53 GMT -5 EyeofTyr said:

That all said, I'm fairly certain like Miz's interview they reference that Bryan's is tinged with kayfabe. If the direction they're going in is Bryan being the underdog, having to adapt to being back in the ring and rising up to kick Miz's head in, I'm fine with it. It adds more drama to the story and makes it far more compelling than redoing the first time Cena & Miz feuded of Miz going "I'M BETTER THAN YOU" and Bryan going "Lolz noz" and squashing him.

Yeah, I don't know why people want to see this version so bad. Even without the squash, I feel like Miz and Bryan both have evolved enough that the feud shouldn't just be a rehash of what they did in 2010.

[Allie Kitsune]

May 20, 2018 16:06:00 GMT -5 Abdullah said:

May 20, 2018 14:57:53 GMT -5 EyeofTyr said:

That all said, I'm fairly certain like Miz's interview they reference that Bryan's is tinged with kayfabe. If the direction they're going in is Bryan being the underdog, having to adapt to being back in the ring and rising up to kick Miz's head in, I'm fine with it. It adds more drama to the story and makes it far more compelling than redoing the first time Cena & Miz feuded of Miz going "I'M BETTER THAN YOU" and Bryan going "Lolz noz" and squashing him.

Yeah, I don't know why people want to see this version so bad. Even without the squash, I feel like Miz and Bryan both have evolved enough that the feud shouldn't just be a rehash of what they did in 2010.

I think part of it is that some people won't believe that WWE will treat him anything close to fairly if they don't let him effortlessly squash Miz.

I personally think Miz has earned better than that, but eh. My opinion doesn't matter.

[abjordans]

Psst, someone tell D Bry that this whole feud doesn’t work if he doesn’t laugh at the thought of Miz being able to hang in the ring with him.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

I really hate that people want to waste whatever shelf-life Bryan has left on the f***ing Miz, of all people. Please, please, please give me Bryan vs. AJ or Bryan vs. Nak.

[Deleted]

May 20, 2018 16:06:00 GMT -5 Abdullah said:

May 20, 2018 14:57:53 GMT -5 EyeofTyr said:

That all said, I'm fairly certain like Miz's interview they reference that Bryan's is tinged with kayfabe. If the direction they're going in is Bryan being the underdog, having to adapt to being back in the ring and rising up to kick Miz's head in, I'm fine with it. It adds more drama to the story and makes it far more compelling than redoing the first time Cena & Miz feuded of Miz going "I'M BETTER THAN YOU" and Bryan going "Lolz noz" and squashing him.

Yeah, I don't know why people want to see this version so bad. Even without the squash, I feel like Miz and Bryan both have evolved enough that the feud shouldn't just be a rehash of what they did in 2010.

The reason I and others don't want to see a "damn, Bryan's not up to Miz's level so now he has to rise and to compete with him" feud is that this isn't the reason why people were hyped for the feud. When Miz cut that promo on Talking Smack they both were right to a degree and Bryan's comments on Miz's wrestling was pretty accurate to what most were thinking about Miz. Miz turned his wrestling up after that promo indicating that yeah some of what Bryan was saying was pretty accurate. Bryan couldn't return to the WWE either so whatever Miz said against Bryan, how he's on him each week in promos, all the problems they've caused where Miz is egging him on makes people want to see Bryan attack this guy who he was pretty much right about but he couldn't. Sure, Bryan got Ambrose to do the job for him at times but Miz kept talking shit. Miz kept cheating in matches, keeping the title, kept pissing off GMs, kept causing problems, he was being that whiny heel with lackeys everywhere he went with very little comeuppance.

So Bryan's announced as cleared and Miz posts

And then when Miz hears he's drafted to SDL per Bryan's request he's clearly saying "no" to it indicating he doesn't like it and doesn't want to see Bryan now that he's cleared

So right here, the stage is setup as Bryan, the returning hero who was partially right, can now get his revenge on the guy who was talking shit about him for years and he couldn't do anything about it and Miz, the guy who doesn't want to see Bryan, will have to face him. Miz doesn't have his girl or his lackeys to stop him from cheating in matches anymore either, he's wide open. This is what we've been waiting for all these years.

With that said, here we get to these recent comments on Bryan and Miz per these interviews...

These comments completely change the narrative of what they've been building for years. Yes, it's different than before but it's not in like with the narrative they've been presenting since the feud. The narrative was that Miz can talk shit to Bryan and because he's not cleared he's free to do what he wants with his girls and goons but now the narrative is that Miz is actually better than Bryan, Bryan isn't on his level and now he'll have to climb up to face The Miz? With no goons and girl? That Miz is suddenly different than how he was before when people really wanted this feud to kick off?

Nah bruh, that's not good storytelling. It would be a different story if that was the narrative since the beginning but the WWE have clearly changed plans and now they're expecting all fans to jump on the bandwagon fully not understanding why we were wanting this in the first place. It would be a different story if Miz didn't have his girls and goons with him when he cut that promo, was winning consistently, was presented as he was now and was saying "I'm better than you without anyone" because then this happening would make sense. That's not what happened though.

There's a reason why many people don't want this. It's not all about it being different from the past, it's about what makes sense. They've changed the direction of the program.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

One thing we have to keep in mind... This isn’t WWE doing this, this is Bryan himself on an interview with a third party, before he and Miz have actually properly started feuding again (both are in different programs right now, so there’s no active feud, officially). Once they’re paired up on TV properly, then we’ll see what direction they’ll go.

[Allie Kitsune]

May 20, 2018 17:23:16 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

One thing we have to keep in mind... This isn’t WWE doing this, this is Bryan himself on an interview with a third party, before he and Miz have actually properly started feuding again (both are in different programs right now, so there’s no active feud, officially). Once they’re paired up on TV properly, then we’ll see what direction they’ll go.

I do get the feeling, that outside of the ring, Bryan does legit respect Miz for stepping his game up, and probably takes some level of pride in being the catalyst for doing so.

I think that they were the best thing to happen to each other, and if people want to run me down for thinking that, well, I'm probably going to ignore them.