Like most wrestling fans, someone* probably grabbed former WWE writer Tom Casiello last night or this morning and said “YOU’VE GOT TO SEE THIS!” about Daniel Bryan’s post-SmackDown ethering of Big Cass on June 5.
Unlike most of us who finished watching it, thought “I hope Cass has a friend he can talk to after seeing that, cause otherwise I’m not sure if he’s going be okay” and clicked play to watch it again, Casiello’s actually worked with Bryan. And based on the story he tells about shooting these kinds of promos in this Twitter threat, taking the seven-footer’s soul was just another day at the office for DB:
“Yeah. I gotta take a sec to put this guy over. I worked with this phenomenal human a lot over the years. I wish I could adequately explain what these moments are like. But I’ll try:
You grab Bryan backstage. He’s got matches/promos/an insane schedule, but still gives you that big smile. He asks what’s up. You say we need to shoot something for dot-com. Minute long. A minute and a half. You give the basic rundown. It’s a reaction to something that aired, or a response to a promo... whatever.
Now these dot-coms *usually* aren’t scripted. Some talent, you need to help them. They’re not writers, and that’s cool. Nothing wrong with that. They excel at other things. Others? They’re more creative with their language. They got this.
But Bryan... this guy... this guy’s a whole other league.
You tell him what you need. And he looks at you like you just said ‘bananas are yellow’, and says, ‘Sure. Yeah. Makes sense. One sec.’ And then he kinda shrinks back into the corner. Looks at the floor. Shuffles his feet. About 30 seconds of awkward silence, then he says ‘Ok.’
And you think, ‘Ok?!’ and you ask if he wants to go now. And with those humble puppy dog eyes, he shrugs and says, ‘Sure. Let’s give it a shot.’ And you roll tape. And you get... well, you get *this*.
IN ONE TAKE. Yeah. He ‘got it’. One-and-done, as they say.
And then he looks at you, and asks (sincerely), ‘I think it’s okay. Do you like it?’ And you’re standing there, blown away, and stammer out, ‘Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s pretty good.’ And he shakes your hand, and gives you that wonderfully goofy grin again, and shuffles off, like he just agreed with you that bananas are yellow and that was that. Like nothing really cool and interesting and improvisational just happened with no warning or preparation at all.
And when you turn and walk in the other direction? You can’t help but have a big, goofy grin on your face too. And let me tell ya: those are rare in those parts.
I hope he’s cutting promos like this for a long, long time. Honored to have NOT written for him. ‘A+ player’, I believe they would call that.
Yes. Yes. YES.
P.S. Totally would have been called to Gorilla for looking directly in the camera though. Would have happily taken the heat for that.”
So this isn’t a new skill for Bryan. He’s still got it. Aren’t you glad he’s back?
* Based on Casiello’s tweets, at least one of the someone’s was Wrestling Observer’s JJ Williams.