Daniel Bryan reflects on his 2018 match against Brock Lesnar

For years, WWE fans had clamored a dream match between Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar.

The fervor for this match picked up in early 2015 in the hopes that it would happen at WrestleMania 31 (unfortunately, WWE had other ideas), but when Bryan announced his retirement in February of 2016, it looked like this encounter would become another “What If?” scenario for people to ponder over.

Then Bryan came out of retirement in 2018.

It still took a while after that, but fans finally got to see Bryan and Lesnar square off at Survivor Series 2018. For those who saw it, the match was everything one could’ve hoped for from these two, even though both men were positioned as heels going into the bout. Knowing this, it’s no surprise to hear Bryan wax poetic about that match and “The Beast”.

Daniel Bryan had high praise for the match he and Brock Lesnar had at Survivor Series 2018.

Speaking with TalkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy, Bryan said this about Lesnar and the match they had at Survivor Series (h/t to Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert for the transcription):

"“I was thrilled, I was absolutely thrilled,” Bryan started. “I wanted the Brock Lesnar match for a long time But how I always envisioned it was babyface Daniel Bryan! Yes man Daniel Bryan, underdog Daniel Bryan against the killer Brock Lesnar. But I had literally just become the Planet’s Champion and kicked AJ Styles in the nuts [laughs]. So it was a really weird thing, but I think the weirdness of it also made it fun and made it more pleasurable for me. Wrestling Brock Lesnar, I don’t think anybody appreciates how great Brock Lesnar is and the mind that he brings to wrestling. I also think, and from a character perspective I’ve said this on a Talking Smack or whatever, but it’s actually not true, is I think Brock Lesnar loves this. He just also loves farming, loves being at home and he’s not going to do it just because he likes doing it, he’s going to do it because ‘hey, you need to pay me to put my body on the line’ that sort of thing, right? But his eyes light up when he does this. That’s the thing. That match is something that I’m really, really proud of and it was a test for me. I don’t think there’s been anybody in the history of WWE who’s been more excited to take a German Suplex from Brock Lesnar than me. Just to be like ‘Ok, let’s see! We got to see what I got here. Am I good?!’ German Suplex… ‘Yep, I’m good’ [laughs].”"

Lesnar — who was the Universal Champion at the time — defeated Bryan — then the WWE Champion — via pinfall following an F-5. Bryan, who turned heel in the midst of beating A.J. Styles for the WWE Title the Tuesday prior on SmackDown, used the loss and the beating he took at Survivor Series to fully transition away from the affable “Yes Movement” character to adopt a villainous eco-friendly gimmick, complete with exchanging the standard WWE Championship belt (with a leather strap) for one made of hemp and naturally fallen oak wood.

Bryan held the WWE Championship for 144 days (as recognized by WWE) before losing the gold (or hemp) to Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania 35 as the culmination of the “KofiMania” storyline that started in early 2019.

You can read (and listen to) the rest of the interview with Bryan by clicking this link.