Daniel Bryan recently spoke with Fansided.com. Below are some highlights:
Your injury might have kept you out of the ring and off most WWE programming, but the YES! Nation was able to keep up with your life outside of the ring through E! Network’s Total Divas. What has doing the show been like for you and your career?
Bryan: It’s interesting because it’s exposed me to an entirely new audience. I went from somebody who didn’t even own a television, to somebody who is now on reality television. It’s just a strange change in circumstances. It’s funny because people who watch Total Divas aren’t necessarily WWE fans, but they’re becoming WWE fans [through Total Divas].
I was in Chipotle and this mom and daughter walk up to me, and you would never peg them as being people who would watch Monday Night Raw, but they came up to me and they’re like “Oh my gosh, are you Bryan?” and that’s how I know that they’re watching me on Total Divas and not WWE. WWE fans say “Are you Daniel Bryan?” where Total Divas fans say “Oh my gosh, are you Bryan?” and I’m just like yeah. So this mother and daughter tell me, “We love Total Divas and now we occasionally watch Monday Night Raw, and we occasionally watch Smackdown and now we want to see the big events like SummerSlam and WrestleMania,” so I think its given me exposure to a lot of people who I normally wouldn’t get exposure with.
Looking past WrestleMania 31, what are your hopes and goals for 2015?
Bryan: I have a lot of hopes and goals for 2015, one of which [has a lot to do with Smackdown]. With Smackdown coming to Thursday and with me coming back, I would like to be the main guy on Smackdown and have Smackdown start beating Raw in the ratings. That’s really what I want. I’ve been very open about that with management, and told them “let me be the face of Smackdown, give me the opportunity to show what I can do and by the end of the year Smackdown will be getting just as many viewers as Raw if not more.”
Now that you mention becoming the face of Smackdown and leading the Smackdown brand on to larger ratings, if you had the chance to become the Smackdown General Manager -be it for one night or for a longer period of time- what would be the first thing on your agenda to bring back to Smackdown?
Bryan: That’s interesting. I would like to have the King of the Ring tournament on Smackdown. The King of the Ring tournament is something that the WWE used to do on a usual basis, and they’ve gotten away from it.
One, I love tournaments. Two, I think if you do the tournament exclusively on Smackdown the fans will get really excited about it and they’ll get geared up for it. Then crowning a King of the Ring champion on Smackdown, I think that would be awesome. That’s one of the many ideas I have for Smackdown in 2015.
