Daniel Bryan On CM Punk's UFC 203 Loss, If He Watched It, Plusses And Minuses Of Being Back On TV
WWE SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan was recently interviewed by The Philly Voice, who was promoting tonight's SmackDown taping in Philadelphia. Below are a couple of highlights:
CM Punk's fight at UFC 203:
"I did watch the fight. Punk and I have never been best friends or anything like that. I don't even think I have his number in my phone, but I really support him in that fight. I was really hoping he would win. The reality is that even though he lost, he was dead on in his promo afterwards. It's the whole thing with me and him, and guys like Sami Zayn and Neville even trying to wrestle. Right? It's just this idea of you have this dream that everybody tells you that you can't do, but you just keep going after it. Sometimes, you're not successful, right? He wasn't "successful" in the fight. But he fought a professional fight in UFC. That's crazy! You know? It's crazy and it's awesome and he may have lost and he may have gotten beat up, but hey, he tried it. How many people would be afraid because of their ego to not even put themselves out there like that? I like to train jiu jitsu and I like to muay thai and the number of people who train all the time but won't put themselves out there to even do like a tournament and nobody knows who they are. The ego part of you that says, 'Well, if I go and I do it and I lose, what does that mean?' Well, [Punk] went out and did it, right? He's a huge public figure. I have the utmost respect for him trying to go do it.
"It's hard, too. At that age, and I know at my age and how many injuries I have, just getting up out of bed every morning, you know, for the most part, I feel really good. But then to get up and go train with killers ? that camp is a great camp. And so you go in there and train with great guys and getting beat up every day. It's tough. That's the job. The job is getting beat up every day. And right towards the fight, then you have to lose a bunch of weight. So, it's like, 'OK I get beat up every day, now go lose 15 pounds. Oh, just like that? Oh, OK.'"
Being back on television:
"It has its pluses and minuses. I love being around it. I love that part of it. I love being around my friends. I've grown up wrestling, right? I started when I was 18. So my friends are wrestlers. Which is how it works. I still have friends that I grew up with, but those friends are people that you see a couple times a year as opposed to these people that you see 200 days a year. So, yeah, it's good to be around my friends. I like getting out in front of a live crowd and that sort of things. Sometimes when a crowd reacts too good, then now I just want to wrestle. So, yeah, it's got its plusses and minuses, but it's been really fun being back."
Bryan also discussed AJ Styles in WWE, elevating stars that have been around for awhile, the WWE Cruiserweight Classic and more! You can check out the full interview by clicking here.
Source: Philly Voice