Bryan Danielson Says He Was Originally Going To Hit The Miz On Talking Smack

The most famous segment in WWE Talking Smack history featured Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan in WWE) saying The Miz wrestles “like a coward” and The Miz delivering a fiery response about Bryan not being able to wrestle. 

It’s a segment that is often referenced when discussing the careers of The Miz and Danielson and it left co-host Renee Paquette (Renee Young in WWE) stunned. 

Paquette and Danielson reunited at Starrcast V for a live episode of The Sessions and Danielson revealed the original intent behind the segment. 

“Miz was very frustrated. He was Intercontinental Champion and not on TV much. I was very frustrated that they weren’t clearing me to wrestle despite numerous doctors having cleared me to wrestle. I understand why, but that’s a long story. We came up with this thing and the original plan that Mike and I had come up with is, I was going to fucking deck him. We wanted to get under each other’s skin so much that it was plausible that I could legit be angry enough to punch him. That was the intent, that I was going to punch him. The idea was, either they’re are going to fire me or it’s going to make people want to see the match so much that they would have to clear me to wrestle. Mike did such a great job; intuitively, I felt it was better to walk off and leave him. It was like, ‘God, this is so good, leave him with his heat.’ He was so good. He was magic. Mike and I don’t like each other, legitimately, but he’s somebody I respect a lot for working hard. When he was going off, I was like, ‘This is so good. It’d be so good if I punched him, but maybe it would resonate more and be better for him if I walked.’ So, that’s what happened. Everybody, including Maryse, was like, ‘why is this going on? What is happening?’ It would have been great television. It might have gotten canceled. I may have gotten fired. There would have been pluses and minuses,” he said.

The Talking Smack segment took place in August 2016. Danielson wasn’t cleared to wrestle until March 2018. Miz and Danielson would finally wrestle at WWE SummerSlam 2018. 

Miz is set to compete at WWE SummerSlam 2022 when he faces Logan Paul. As for Danielson, he returned to the ring on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, losing to Daniel Garcia. 

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