WWE superstar Daniel Bryan was promoting WWE 2K15 at IGN recently as he spoke about his health issues, his wife Brie and her match with Stephanie McMahon.
Here are some of the highlights.
IGN: I’ll get out of the way the question that I know you’ll have to deal with all day, which is, how’re things going? When might we see you back?
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Daniel Bryan: Right, yeah. I don’t know how things are going. For example, I was supposed to have a second surgery scheduled for Tuesday, but they postponed it to do some more testing — and this has been the frustrating part for me. The nervous system is very complex. So there’s been debate about, “Okay, does he need a second surgery? Does he not need a second surgery?” And people have kind of been going back and forth on it. Then finally we decided, “Okay, he needs the surgery.” We’re going to go get the surgery — no, wait, nope! We’re going to go do some more tests. So I would obviously prefer to not get the surgery, but if I’m going to do it, I want to do it as soon as possible, because the sooner I do it, the sooner I get back. The surgery they’re talking about doing is a three-month recovery. I’ve already been out three months, so that’s another three months. So you’d like to get that done as soon as you can — if it needs to be done. If it doesn’t need to be done, let’s not do it! What they want to do is they want to take the nerve from down a along my elbow and then move it over, and then put it under my forearm muscle there [pointing at arm]. So it’s, like, rewiring me. [Laughs] I don’t like that at all
IGN: Meanwhile, a lot of big stuff is happening with your wife. What’s it been like to see what’s going on for her?
Daniel Bryan: Oh my gosh, I’m so proud of her. Her and Stephanie – the main event to RAW, two weeks in a row! That hasn’t happened with Divas in years. Now she’s in what’s, in my mind, the second-biggest match in SummerSlam, and Divas just don’t get that opportunity very often. So I’m really happy for her, really proud of her. She’s worked really hard. A lot of people don’t understand how hard the girls on Total Divas work. They’re on the road, the same as the rest of us, and then when they get home, they’ve got to be filming this whole time. So it’s a very hard life with very few days off, and she’s finally getting rewarded for that, so that’s really nice.
IGN: On the flip side, her opponent being Stephanie, is that just a funny, surreal thing for you? Stephanie has in-ring experience, but it’s been quite awhile — and you know Stephanie as one of your bosses.
Daniel Bryan: Yeah, and it is funny, because there is something borderline-therapeutic about being able to slap your boss, I think. And because there are so many frustrations we have as wrestlers, it’s like, THWACK! You can see, when Stephanie and Brie slap each other, it’s like, “Holy cow!” [Laughs] I’ve been on the opposite end of a Brie slap on WWE Television before, and I was like, “Holy cow! Why would you do that?” I have a ruptured eardrum in my left ear — it happened in 2007 from a Japanese wrestler named Kenta, who WWE actually has signed. So we were doing a story where I had kind of been dating the Bella Twins, but then they found me with Gail Kim or whatever, and then Brie slapped me. I just asked her, “Okay, please, just don’t slap me in the ear?” The first thing her little hand does is, WHACK! Right in the ear. I was like, “Oh my God!”
IGN: So, I have to ask… You got brought into the Brie and Stephanie story the other day on RAW in a very interesting way.
Daniel Bryan: Wait, by “interesting,” do you mean “stupid”? [Laughs]
IGN: Well, you know, it’s wrestling… anything can be brought into it! [Laughs] So for you, was that like, “Okay… I guess that’s going to be an element”?
Daniel Bryan: Yeah, to me, it’s groan-worthy. I don’t think it added anything to the story. It was just like, “Ugh!” But, you know, they do what they do, and you just gotta roll with the punches. It’s funny, because I feel like sometimes you just have to overcome these things more so than anything else. Like, Brie and Stephanie have to overcome that flaw. To me, that was a flaw in the story. The story was so good, and then here’s this flaw in it. But it’s whatever. It doesn’t hurt my feelings or anything, you know? It’s entertainment. It’s not real, so okay.