Daniel Bryan On How Brock Lesnar Helped Him Transit Into ‘The New’ Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan returned to in-ring action at WrestleMania 34 in 2018 and six months later, he turned heel for the first time since 2012 by beating AJ Styles for the WWE Championship right before the Survivor Series PPV.

However, it took the former World Champion some time to get into his new character and during his recent appearance on the Bump; Bryan explained how his match with Brock Lesnar at the PPV helped him embrace his new character.

The former NXT star first said that he doesn’t consider his defeat in the bout a loss. He then claimed that he wanted Lesnar to beat the ‘old Daniel Bryan’ out of him, which the Beast did a very good job at:

“I don’t consider that I lost that match, they never mention this on WWE TV at all. I was transitioning from the old ‘Yes’ Daniel Bryan to the ‘New’ Daniel Bryan. I really wanted to antagonize Brock Lesnar, to beat me up as much as he could because I felt he needed to beat the old Daniel Bryan out of me, and I feel like he did a very good job at that.”

AJ Styles was originally expected to face the then Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2018. However, Daniel beat the Phenomenal One on the PPV go-home episode of SmackDown Live using a low blow.

The former Nexus Member embraced this heel turn in the coming weeks after the PPV and introduced the people to a ‘New’ Daniel Bryan after the show.