Daniel Bryan On WWE Talent Not Being Able To Speak Their Minds

There has been a great deal of criticism in regards to today’s WWE promos, and the overly scripted nature of them at times. In times past, superstars were more free to experiment with their promos and characters in general, but today’s marketplace is a very different place.

Smackdown Live general manager Daniel Bryan recently addressed the different from eras past on Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast, and it seems to come down to lack of competition (via Wrestling Inc).

“The reason why guys could do that before, like, say in The Attitude Era, because it’s like, ‘yeah, fire me – I’ll go to WCW’ or in The Territory Era, ‘yeah, fire me – I’ll go to a million different places,’ right? Now, ‘fire me – actually, please don’t fire me.’ Literally, I’ve been doing this since I was 18 [years old]. I don’t know how to do anything else.”

He’s right, though while there might not be another competitor the size of WWE, there are other viable options for wrestlers looking for a career. New Japan was the longtime home of AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura before they made their way to the WWE, and Ring of Honor, TNA, and other independent promotions offer televised chances to compete. Still, there isn’t a true competitor in the realm of WCW level these days, and it keeps the superstars of WWE from rocking the boat for the most part.

Bryan also spoke about his comments on Talking Smack, which he admits do get criticized from time to time. “Sometimes, yeah. I mean, sometimes, I just say things and then, sometimes in my earpiece it’s like, ‘why are you saying that?’ And then, it’s like, ‘oh…’”

“so my thing with Talking Smack is, I want our talent to look really good. So for example, Baron Corbin was on the show, not last week, but the week before, he was awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It did great and the key is the show is not about Renee [Young] and I, like, we’re just hosts – we’re just there to bring stuff out of people, to help them.”

Up next for the WWE is the RAW-focused Roadblock pay-per-view, which airs on the WWE Network on December 18.

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