Bryan Danielson Feared The Rock Would Steal His ‘YES!’ Chants

Bryan Danielson admits there was a time when he thought The Rock was going to steal his thunder.

WWE fans had enough of Danielson, who was known as Daniel Bryan, being treated as an afterthought. The night after losing the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania back in 2012, Bryan received a huge ovation and for the first time, fans chanted “YES!” in unison.

Fans even chanted “YES!” during one of The Rock’s promos. Speaking to The Miami Herald, Bryan Danielson admitted he was worried that The Rock would take it and run with it as if the catchphrase was his own.

“It was a pretty cool moment. It was interesting because I wasn’t on Raw that night, I was just on the dark match. There was a funny moment where The Rock was out there doing a promo and everybody starts chanting ‘Yes!’ for Daniel Bryan and I said, ‘Oh no,’ because the Rock is so quick-witted. I said, ‘He’s for sure going to turn this around and it’ll become his thing. I’m not gonna have it.’ He came back and said, ‘Hey man, you’re super over out there.’ ‘Oh, yeah, it was really nice.’ He could’ve easily turned it around into a Rock thing and he didn’t, that was very kind of him.”

The fans continued to force their hand and eventually, Danielson got his big moment at WrestleMania 30. He defeated Batista and Randy Orton to capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Danielson now competes under the AEW banner. He has said that he won’t be leading the “YES!” chants out of respect for WWE.