Wrestlemania Quotes

It’s often said you don’t choose who you fall in love with, which I believe to be true. I also believe you don’t choose what you fall in love with.

While I was at the funeral home, seeing my father for the final time, one of Darby’s daughters gave me a box my dad left for me. When I opened it, it contained a silver bracelet, presumably a gift he’d gotten me for the wedding. Inscribed on the front were my initials, and as I looked at the back of the bracelet, I started crying even harder. My dad had inscribed, “To the man that you’ve become, and the son you’ll always be.

All of a sudden from one of the doors I heard a woman scream out, “Michael Shawn Hickenbottom! What are you doing?!” It was Carol, Shawn’s mom, and she gave him an earful in front of all of us for going against doctors’ orders. Instantly he stopped being the Superstar wrestler Shawn Michaels and turned into a son being scolded by his mother.

After dinner, Bri and I came back to my room and started doing the adult stuff—I will spare you the details. We were naked and about to do our thing when all of a sudden we heard the sound of the door handle turning and then the door popped open. Bri jumped under the covers as Teddy and Sheamus barged into the room, inebriated as can be, with the “Ahhh, fella!” and all that. This was one of the rare moments when I got really, really mad. I let out an angry “What the fuck?!” and butt-ass naked, from the end of the bed, I went to up-kick Teddy in the face. As if in slow motion, a drunk Teddy—with his ridiculous reflexes—sidestepped the kick like he was Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, then moved his head right back to where it was to look at me all confused. Meanwhile, Sheamus had sat down on the bed next to Bri, who was under the blanket, and was patting her on the head. Within a few minutes, I was able to get them out of the room, but sat there confused as to how a night that started so great could end like this. After that, Bri and I gave up, and ended up just going to sleep.

My Client Brock Lesnar conquered the Undertakers Undefeated Streak at Wrestlemania

THE EVENING before WrestleMania, Vince sent a memo around that instructed his entire crew to convene first thing in the morning at the arena. There were predictable grumblings, with the performers unhappy that their night of pre-show decadence would have to be cut short because of the early wake-up call. The unofficial rule amongst many of the boys was that when it came to doing pay-per-view, having a hangover was a prerequisite because it made you sulky and focussed. Of course, the risk was that someone would go too far and be in no condition to perform come show time, but Vince's meeting made sure there would be little chance of that. Sure enough, everyone was accounted for on that dreary Sunday morning, tired, but for the most part sober.               The boys sat with sunglasses covering their heavy eyes, sipping black coffee from the local Starbucks while wondering what was so urgent that Vince had dragged them out of bed at the crack of dawn. Those who had known McMahon for a while had a good inkling; the meeting wasn't about anything at all. It was simply a front to keep everyone in check and make sure there were no major problems caused by someone having a little too much fun the night before the biggest show of the year. "I betcha Vince doesn't even show," whispered Paul Bearer to no one in particular, and sure enough, he didn't. Instead J.J. Dillon wandered into the room, and told the amassed throng that Vince wasn't coming, but he just wanted to tell them all to have a good show. It was classic McMahon; keeping his troops in check and running things from afar under his authoritarian rule.   THE

Daniel because he thought it was a strong name. With that, a lightbulb went on in his head, and he came up with the name Daniel Bryan. Regal thought it would be a great idea because anybody who’d heard of me on the independents would easily be able to tell that it was the same guy. It sounded weird as I said it, but all the names sounded weird except my own anyhow. I put it on the list, along with Buddy Peacock and my favorite, Lloyd Boner.

With the WWF’s clout in the PPV arena already entrenched, McMahon saw an opening. He told cable providers that he was going to air his own show—the Survivor Series—that night, and if any of them showed Starrcade instead, he wouldn’t let them show WrestleMania IV. (Some retellings say that McMahon threatened that they’d never do business with the WWF again at all.) The cable companies by and large assented to McMahon’s power grab, and the NWA took a huge financial hit.

The Mega Powers exploded and squared off at WrestleMania V, where Hogan beat Savage to win the title. The show did the biggest wrestling gate up to that point in history, $1.6 million (keep in mind, in the entire history of WCW, even at its peak in 1997 and 1998, it never broke a $1 million gate even a single time) and 760,000 buys, the all-time record that stood until WWF’s peak year of the Monday Night Wars in 2000.

There was a plan for him to return to the ring at WrestleMania X-Seven, but personal issues again put a stop to that. At some point, he found religion and cleaned himself up. The match planned for WrestleMania was moved to the 2002 SummerSlam.

He also tied the WWE record for most eliminations in a Survivor Series elimination match with four in the 2013 event, and set the record for most eliminations in a Royal Rumble match with 12 in the 2014 event. Reigns has headlined numerous WWE pay-per-views including WrestleManias 31 and 32. Since being promoted as WWE's future "face of the company", Reigns' ascendancy as a world title-chasing heroic character has been marked by critics' disapproval and hostile crowd reactions.

attacked in the darkness by unknown assailants, directly leading to Punk pinning Rock; the announcers blamed the Shield for the attack. The match was later restarted with Rock winning. The next day on Raw, the Shield attacked and laid out John Cena; Sheamus and Ryback suffered the same fate when they attempted to save Cena. Later in the show, it was revealed through footage played by Vince McMahon that Punk and/or his manager Paul Heyman had been paying the Shield and Brad Maddox to work for them all along. This set up a six-man tag team match at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. At WrestleMania 29, The Shield made victims of Randy Orton, Sheamus & Big Show in what was The Show of Shows debut of "The Hounds of Justice." The following night on Raw, The Shield attempted to attack The Undertaker but were stopped by Team Hell No. This set up a six-man tag team match on the April 22 episode of Raw, where The Shield emerged victorious. Four days later on SmackDown, Ambrose made his singles debut against Undertaker but lost via submission, after which the Shield attacked Undertaker and triple-powerbombed him through the announcer's table. On the May 3 episode of SmackDown, Ambrose defeated Kane in a singles match. On May 19 at Extreme Rules, Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE United States Championship, his first singles title in WWE, while Rollins and Reigns won the WWE Tag Team Championships later that night. Ambrose made his first televised title defense on the following episode of SmackDown, retaining his title when he was disqualified due to the rest of the Shield's interference. Three days later on Raw, Ambrose defeated Kingston again to retain his title. At WWE Payback, Ambrose defeated Kane via

Hand to God, it was craziest fucking night of my life,” Tucker said, slapping a palm over his heart. “And I’ve been to WrestleMania three times.

Adam Pearce. The guest announcer was incredibly nervous and when the guy announced me, he mistakenly presented me not as the American Dragon but the Ultimate Dragon. So I came out and decided to do a full-on Ultimate Warrior entrance, sprinting to the ring, shaking the ropes, and all that.

My father, Donald “Buddy” Danielson, remembered me being easygoing but also having a really stubborn side. My dad’s most consistent example of this involved cookies, which could be my favorite food group. He always talked about this time I was reaching for a cookie and he told me no. I reached again and my dad slapped my hand, then again said no. I started crying but continued reaching for the cookie. Each time my dad would lightly slap my hand, and each time I would cry a little harder, relentlessly reaching for the cookie. Telling the story, he howled with laughter but never did say whether he eventually gave me the cookie.

When Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant met in what is still considered the biggest wrestling match of all time, exaggeration was in the air. According to various contemporary reports, there were 95,000 people on hand at WrestleMania III to see the 7-foot-5, 525-pound Andre square off against Hulk Hogan, who stood 6-foot-8 and weighed 320 pounds and whose biceps measured twenty-four inches around. Probably the only number in that last sentence that’s unimpeachable is the III.

didn’t mind the fencing. Maybe even liked it. “It’s like Darwin’s law got repealed. Call it the rule of the weak.” “Okay.” “You think women can tell which men are the fittest anymore? They can’t. You see a guy who’s really cut and buff and wearing a muscle shirt to show it off, and you can figure he spends all his time in the gym, but you know something? Odds are he’s a faggot.” “Or a WrestleMania champ.” Another flash of annoyance; I’d gone too far. “I mean, look at these guys.” He waved at the wall, at the hostages on the other side. “This country was made by guys like

The Miz started talking, but I could barely focus on what he was saying. I heard the words “Internet darling” and “a star in the minor leagues” and could only assume he was talking about me. He asked me if I thought I was ready, and ironically enough, my first word in WWE was “Yes.

Wrestling longer matches always challenged me, both mentally and physically. It inspired me to be more creative, which was important because wrestling is my primary artistic outlet. It didn’t boost my confidence at all when William Regal warned me, “Your wrestling career is what you did before this. Anything after is just a bonus.

When it was time to call somebody up to cut a promo, I named Vince. His topic: “How great Daniel Bryan is.” Vince stood there in front of the class, silent. Then he looked me up and down, judgingly, before his face turned to various levels of disgust, amping it up as he went along. Vince never said a word for about a full minute, and then he said he was done.

When we got back through the curtain, everybody thought the beat down was awesome. Then somebody shouted, “Who was choking Justin Roberts?!” They couldn’t see because the camera was focused exclusively on Justin’s purple face. I stepped forward and said, “Uh, that was me.” “And who spit on John Cena?!” they asked. “That was me, too,” I responded. Apparently choking and spitting are two of the things not allowed within the PG guidelines of WWE programming,

The only reason to care was that if you won the challenges, you got points, and by the time we did the first elimination, whoever had the most points was immune to being ejected. But the challenges were so inane and demoralizing that by the end, we all treated them as a joke—except, that is, for Skip Sheffield (later known as The Ryback), who demonstrated an undeniable will to win even the most idiotic game.

What made it my favorite show wasn’t winning the Slammys. Nor was it the amazing crowd reaction. It was that my dad got to see all that and got to be in the crowd while everyone was going crazy for me; he got to enjoy it, to stand back and be proud. I am incredibly thankful for that, because it was the last live show he would ever see.

After the Benoit tragedy, the perception of wrestling became so negative that many fans no longer cared to watch—

The Miz didn’t complain at all. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity and spent time with me to find ways we could make our partnership stand out. He genuinely wanted what we did to be good. The more I saw how hard he worked, the more I respected him.

But in late August, Russell, the lead producer of Total Divas, asked me if I’d be willing to have the proposal take place on the show.