Daniel Bryan Talks About Working With Kane, His Relationship With CM Punk, and More

DirectTV recently featured “Part 1” of a two-part interview with Daniel Bryan in promotion for August 18th’s WWE PPV event, SummerSlam. Here are a few questions that the #1 contender for the WWE Championship answered in the exclusive interview:

[Mick Foley said] that your match would be competing with the CM PUNK v. Brock Lesnar match for Match of the Show at SummerSlam.

I think there is also a bit of competiveness behind it. We feel that we are carrying on the tradition of being a wrestler and with that there’s comes a certain pride in having the best match of the show and being the best performer. It’s unspoken but each of us come SummerSlam, we’re going to go out there and want people to remember our match. There will definitely be an element of one-upsmanship. Everyone at SummerSlam wants their match to be the best.

You and CM Punk first met in your early indie wrestling days, correct?

Yeah, It was 2003 or 2004. I wrestled CM Punk for 45 minutes in front of 30 people in Florida. We’ve known each other a long time.

Can you talk a bit more about your relationship?

It’s interesting because CM Punk and I have a lot in common personally, yet we are very different. He is very brash and kind of says whatever he feels. I’m more laid back and not the most outgoing person. But we have a certain respect for each other. I have been on shows that Punk drove 14 or 15 hours for from Chicago to get paid 100 bucks. We’ve done those shows in front of 30 people together. It’s a long road for guys like us to get here. I’m always astounded. There was that December PPV when I had cashed in my Money in the Bank contract to beat Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship and Punk had retained his WWE title that same night. We used to work on the indies together and then there we were, both champions. No one really thought we could do it. It’s very cool and surreal.

What was it like working with Kane?

It was incredible. I was watching him when I was 16 and it’s crazy that we were Tag Team Champions for 9 months. I have always had a tremendous about of respect for him but seeing how hard he works night and day takes it to another level. The anger management skits we did were great. It was a lot of wackiness. I was in charge of his birthday celebration in Russia and he ended up in the ring with his eyes closed with two Russian hats on before I abandoned him in the ring. He was such a good sport about it. We had so much fun together.

Aside from Kane, who are your dream tag partners or opponents?

Because he trained me, I’d love to team with or wrestle against Shawn Michaels. I would also love to do something with William Regal. He helped train me also. He has been there for me my entire career. He helped me get into England and Japan. He did all this stuff and he didn’t have to. He has been an awesome mentor for me. He is a great wrestler but he is really funny in the backstage segments and I think we could do some hilarious stuff together.

Who would you say has given you your best matches in WWE?

I’ve had some really great matches with CM Punk and I’ve had some really fun, physical, brutal matches with Sheamus. I’ve also really enjoyed wrestling The Shield.

Follow Doug McDonald on Twitter