Daniel Bryan may temporarily be out of the ring due to injuries, but the WWE superstar is still a major player in the industry. Rightfully so. Not only has he spent over 15 years proving himself and hopefully making the world of pro wrestling a better place, he’s also been acknowledged by PETA for his love of animals and has done much to aid the effort to fight pediatric cancer.
I was recently able to talk with Bryan about WWE 2K16 , as well as his recovery process. Despite not being a huge aficionado, Bryan was enthusiastic. “I don’t know very much about video games, to be honest. I played Pro Wrestling , the original Nintendo game. Like Star Man and all that kind of stuff. I also played the WWF Wrestlemania arcade game. I played 2K15 last year, at these press events.”
WWE superstars were called into do voice acting for WWE 2K16 , and Bryan elaborated on what else goes into preparation during development. “We do a lot of facial scans, a lot of scans of our gear. Anytime you get new gear, you have to go do a lot of that stuff. But as far as the movements, I didn’t do any of that. Which is what’s the most impressive to me. They let me play it, and play as me, and it’s a very accurate representation of how I move. But I didn’t do any of that.” It goes to show the sort of detail that goes into game development.
Despite others doing the motion capturing and work, he was amazed to see how similar virtual Bryan was to the real thing. He used his iconic “Yes” chant as an example. “Nobody does the “Yes!” chant exactly the same. When you watch my wife do it, because she does it on TV a lot, she does this sort of squat.” He laughed as he described it, before going on. “Everyone does it a little differently. They captured mine perfectly.”
Most interesting was when Bryan shared how Yukes seemed to understand his mannerisms and movements when even he didn’t. After talking about the “Yes” chant, he went on to discuss a quirk he didn’t know he had until he played as himself in WWE 2K16 . “They got the way that I come out when I come out to the ring. I didn’t realize that I do this thing where I look around first. They have my character whipping his head back and forth and I was like, ‘Wow. I really do do that.’ It’s the little things. It’s not, ‘They got that I do this.” It’s, “Oh, I do this?'”
Before ending the interview, Bryan also talked a bit about what the recovery process is like for a WWE superstar. Fortunately, he has a strong support system behind him. “My family is always great. All the guys have my back, the other WWE superstars are super supportive, as has been the WWE. My fans have just been the best. I’ve been going around. I was just in Dubai for WWE 2K16 , then I did Germany before that. We meet a lot of our fans, do a lot of signings and stuff like that, and our fans are just the best. Everyone wishes me well as far as my health and that’s cool.”
Which is encouraging, because Bryan shared one of the downsides of such an injury. He’s married to Brie Bella, one of the WWE Divas. The injury keeps them apart. As he put it, “Because I’ve been hurt since April, it can make things really hard. For example, [Brie Bella] got home last Wednesday around 10am, had to take a red eye Thursday night, and now I don’t see her for three weeks, because she’s doing media in New York City for Total Divas . Next week, she goes to Paris for Total Divas . She’s on the road in between, so we don’t get to see each other as much.”
We wish Daniel Bryan all of the best. He’s a great guy, a fantastic wrestler, and I’m sure people will appreciate the opportunity to play as him in WWE 2K16 . The game comes to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows PCs on October 27.