Daniel Bryan appeared on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox to discuss his wrestling career. One match Fox was keen to discuss was a Pro Wrestling Guerilla match between Bryan and Kenny Omega back in 2009. Bryan recalled just how different Omega was as a performer back then.
“So one, you’d have to think that Kenny Omega then isn’t the Kenny Omega now,” Bryan said. “I think if we did that now, if you booked Daniel Bryan vs. Kenny Omega or Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega, and we gave them the John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt bit, it wouldn’t fly. People wouldn’t be happy!
“But at the time, he was substantially lesser known than he is now. I remember, we were at a hotel and I don’t know if he floated the idea of something or not and then we started riffing about like this thing. And I laughed it off and he was like ‘no, what if we do it?’ And I was like…what are you saying to me?”
Overall though Bryan couldn’t think higher of the AAA, AEW and Impact World Champion. And while Bryan admires Omega’s ability, it’s his wrestling mind that he believes is Omega’s greatest strength.
“I have a lot of respect for Kenny Omega,” Bryan stated. “And it’s not just the great matches he’s put on. It’s also that he looks at wrestling differently than anybody else.
“When you look at say, the Young Bucks, who you’d think of in a similar vein. You can see where the Young Bucks take of wrestling is. It’s like a takeoff, a genius takeoff, of the wrestling they loved when they were younger. And mimicking it but also evolving from that and evolving from the takes from that. That’s why I think it resonates with so many people, the way that they wrestle.
“Kenny, it doesn’t have a previous evolution point. It’s just these completely new things that have entered his head that he’s daring to try.”
Bryan then brought it back to the PWG match. “So when I finally agreed to do it, it was like, you know. I just remember getting to the back; I don’t remember anything else about the match. Like I don’t know if the rest of it was good, I don’t know anything about it. I just remember the John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt bit.
“And the crowd, like, I wasn’t convinced it would work. I was like ‘do people still even know that song?’ And we did it and they went nuts for it and yeah. I loved it.”
You can watch the full interview below.
