SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2014—8:42 P.M.
The front row alone at the WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony seats Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and John Cena. It’s uncanny. Sharing that row is an individual whom many believe has the potential to be a star of similar proportion, Daniel Bryan.
It’s not impossible to think that one day, years from now, Bryan may be among those distinctly honored at such an event. Yet the many matches and moments ahead—in the ring or otherwise—are not part of his present thoughts.
“I give very little thought to the future,” he admits. “Even in wrestling, I’ve never really had these long-term plans. It’s always been an incremental process, one thing after the next, doing things I’m inspired to do along the way.”
Bryan elaborates, “I have loved my career. I know that this—wrestling—is something I love, but I also know it’s not the only part that there is to love in life. I guess it’s my prayer to the universe to let me know when it’s time to stop wrestling, because if it’s left to me, I’ll do it until probably past when I should.
“Realistically, it’ll either be children—two, ideally—or when my body tells me it’s time that I will finally take my step back,” he confesses. “When Bri and I are both done, we’d like to just disappear—not from the planet, just from the spotlight. It’ll be just us and our family, living on a self-sufficient farm, if possible. I just want my place at the end of the world where my family can be safe.”
In the present, beside him, the “Braniel” families watch intently as Mr. T gets a “Yes!” chant for so profoundly expressing his love for his momma. Bryan’s mom subtly nudges him from his right side to acknowledge the crowd reaction and Mr. T’s words for his mother. Yet another wave of “Yes!”-ing begins during “the most anticipated speech in the history of sports-entertainment,” delivered by an icon who long ago widened the eyes of Bryan as a boy: the Ultimate Warrior.
The potent words selected by Warrior surely make an impression on those who isolate the spirit of the message. On the eve of WrestleMania 30, tonight has been a celebration of countless successes—from Warrior to fellow inductee Jake “the Snake” Roberts. In twenty-four hours, Daniel Bryan’s quest for unparalleled success will continue beyond WrestleMania 30. The variable, however, will be whether or not he’ll be taking two large golden prizes on the journey with him.
As the 2014 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony concludes, the aspiring challenger and company—most notably, his mom, who’s enjoying this rare firsthand experience at a WWE event—regroup with Brie Bella, who’s spent the evening escorting the honorees. A body-to-body crowd of Superstars, Divas, friends, and family members like Betty Danielson marches ahead, with less than thirty minutes before WrestleMania Sunday is officially upon the WWE Universe.
In March 2013, Bri and Nicole came back to WWE after a ten-month break, and having Bri back on the road was fantastic. As traveling performers, we get to do and see a lot of incredible things. We can tell people the stories, but it’s not the same as a loved one being there with us, living through the experience together. If Sheamus and I do something awesome, it’s fun in that moment, but when I tell Bri about it, it’s just a story, not a shared experience. On the flip side, with her being back on the road, we have been able to do things we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. Bri also breaks me out of the mold of airport, gym, show, sleep, and she is really good about forcing me to do fun stuff.
For example, I’ve been to Paris probably fifteen times, but never once had I seen the city’s most famous attraction, the Eiffel Tower. On the April European tour after she came back, we did a show in Paris where we flew in that afternoon, had about an hour at the show, then got back to the hotel after the show around 11 P.M. and had another flight early the next morning. Normally I would’ve just gone to sleep, but Bri insisted we go out. Not only did I finally see the Eiffel Tower, but I got to see it just during the light show that happens immediately before they turn the lights off for the night. We also “locked our love” on the Lovers’ Bridge and had a nice romantic dinner afterward. I was exhausted, but these are memories I’ll never forget, and I wouldn’t have done any of it without Bri there.
Bri coming back was also helpful in enduring all the frustrations that come with being in WWE. Before she took time off, she was there for the two Sheamus WrestleManias, and her support was invaluable. Likewise, when she came back, Bri and Nicole were promised a match at WrestleMania. Their match—the Bellas teaming up with Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow to face the Funkadactyls (Naomi and Cameron), Brodus Clay, and Tensai—was scheduled to follow the CM Punk–Undertaker match, which went significantly over its allotted time. As a result, Bri’s match got cut right at the very last minute. Her situation was more heartbreaking than either of my ’Mania fiascos because at least I knew ahead of time. She was in her gear, pumped up and ready to go out for the biggest show of the year, then never even got to walk out. In brutal situations like that, having someone who understands to comfort you is so important. I suppose I need more “comforting” than Bri typically does. She just gets mad as shit.
Bri’s return to WWE and the road did, however, present one problem. A couple of months after we moved in together in San Diego, we decided to get a dog. We debated back and forth on what type to get; I really wanted something that would protect her when I was gone, but the apartment we lived in was relatively small. I thought a beagle would be good because of their loud howls, the exact reason why Bri was nervous to get one in our apartment complex. Suddenly Bri started to really like French bulldogs, and when she found a picture online of a little white French bulldog puppy, she told me it was the one. Bri was so adamant about it and the puppy was so cute, I said yes without hesitation. Shortly thereafter, we brought Josie home and instantly fell in love with her.
We faced a big dilemma when Bri decided to come back to WWE: We had nobody to watch Josie! Considering our travel schedules, if we boarded Josie while we were gone, she would spend more time in boarding than she would with us, and that just wasn’t acceptable. Bri even had friends who said they would watch her for us, but that would be a ton of work for them, plus, we also had the fear that Josie would start feeling more like their dog than ours.
Bri’s mom, Kathy, lived in Phoenix and loved bulldogs, especially Josie. (If we treat Josie like she’s our baby, Kathy legitimately treats her like her grandchild.) Weighing our options, we came to the conclusion that we had to move to Phoenix—an incredibly tough decision to make because, outside of Aberdeen, San Diego is my favorite place I’ve ever lived. My days off there were a joy, with the weather being so nice year-round and our proximity to the beach. Nonetheless, in May 2013, we moved from paradise to the desert, all for the love of our little French bulldog.
Back when she and Nicole first left WWE, shortly after Bri and I moved in together, a production company came forward to do a reality show on the two of them. I would be in it, if they could get it cleared by WWE, and so would Bri’s entire family. The girls have a pretty big—and hilarious—family, who mostly live in the small town of Brawley, California, and work in the farming business. The filming they all did was supposedly really good, but Bri and Nicole decided against going forward with the show because they were afraid it would force unnecessary drama into their close-knit family. Serendipitously, when WWE called wanting to hire the girls back, one of the main reasons was so they could star in their new reality show called Total Divas. I didn’t know much about reality television. For years, I didn’t own a TV or have cable, so I don’t watch much TV in general. What I did know was this: Reality shows are great for the networks because they are generally cheap to produce, they can film multiple seasons each year, and they don’t have to pay the talent residuals when they replay the show because they are paid one sum per episode. The networks can reair the show as much as they want without having to pay the talent anything extra, as opposed to having to send Mr. Belding money every time a rerun of Saved by the Bell is played.
Total Divas premiered on July 28, 2013, on the E! Network, with the goal of gaining WWE exposure to a different market of viewers, and it’s been very successful—even reaching an entirely new audience. One time, we were at a Chipotle near a live event and this very enthusiastic mother-daughter duo came up to us to say, “We. Love. Your. Show!” They didn’t know we were in town for WWE, and when we told them about the event, they said, “Oh! That sounds fun!” as if they’d never thought of the idea of going to a wrestling show before. They were clearly Total Divas fans.
Naturally, being a part of the series and filming it has its drawbacks. The crew often comes and shoots us on our days off, which is somewhat problematic considering our WWE schedule. In 2013, for example, I did 227 matches on 213 shows. And that doesn’t include travel days. When we film, they set up specific times for shooting, and given how very little free time we have, getting some necessary stuff done on our two days off per week can be nigh impossible—and I don’t even have to film as much as Bri does. Luckily, I’m only on the periphery of Total Divas, while Bri has to deal with the pressure of being one of the main stars and filming all the time.
Still, Bri has also been able to do some really cool things on the show, like highlight certain issues we care about. For example, in one episode, she convinced E! and the producers to go on location to show the differences between factory chicken farms and organic chicken farms. Even though that episode may not have changed the world, it did help raise some awareness among people who’d never been exposed to that information. Generally speaking, the show has definitely allowed Bri and me to do things we would have never been able to do before, which I’ll describe in more detail later. We have had some pretty amazing experiences thanks to Total Divas, and going through it all together—both good and bad—has brought us closer as a couple.