Daniel Bryan Wants To Face Brock Lesnar At WrestleMania 31, Talks Road To Recovery

After capturing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 30 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Daniel Bryan returns to New Orleans this Monday on Raw for the first time since that memorable week. To promote the event, Bryan spoke to The Times-Picayune, where he reiterated that current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is his dream opponent.

"Brock Lesnar is also supposed to be on (Monday's) show," Bryan said. "And to me, that's still my championship. My dream match for WrestleMania this year is if Brock Lesnar keeps the title and I win the Royal Rumble, and I wrestle Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 31 for the WWE championship. That's the match I want. That's the match that I've been thinking about this entire time that I've been injured."

After undergoing neck surgery in May, nerve damage prevented him from regaining strength in his right arm. Then in August, Bryan was scheduled to have more surgery on his neck in an attempt to alleviate the nerve issues that had caused him to lose strength in his right arm. Just a few days before the surgery, the doctors advised against it, and cancelled the operation. The doctors told Bryan that he just needed to do extensive rehab on his arm, and he did for several months, but strength still wasn't returning to his arm. He then discovered a doctor based out of Denver, Colorado, Dr.Greg Roskopf, founder of Muscle Activation Techniques, and after two rehabilitation sessions, began seeing positive results.

"It was like, 'Wow. I'm actually getting better,'" Bryan said, noting the condition of his right arm has incrementally progressed. "At the beginning of December, some parts of my right arm were even stronger than my left, which is pretty incredible given how long the nerve had been damaged."

Bryan recently returned to the gym has been training kickboxing and jujitsu. After working in the ring at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida a few weeks ago, Bryan felt like he was ready to return to action.

"Functionally, I feel great. My movement is great. Overall, I feel good," he said. "I didn't have any hesitation (in the ring), there was nothing that I did before that I can't do now. Not only that, mentally I've been recharged. I'm going to be better than ever."

To read the full interview, click here.

Source: The Times-Picayune