Daniel Bryan spoke with Brian Fritz of Between The Ropes about this Sunday’s Summerslam event live on pay-per-view, his time with the company, if he was worried he wouldn’t be brought back after being fired last year, the CM Punk storyline, if he’s allowed to use the term ‘pro wrestler’ since Punk is using it, what it meant to win Money in the Bank and more. Highlights from the interview include:

On how he would describe the first year and a half with the company: It's been a roller coaster ride. I've been hired, called a rookie, fired, brought back, brought back, main eventide Summerslam last year, won the U.S. Championship, wasn't on TV much for a while, got drafted to Smackdown and now I'm Mr. Money in the Bank. (laughs) So, it's had a lot of ups and downs.

Thoughts on CM Punk's infamous promo from a few weeks back: I thought it was awesome. And more so what I thought was awesome about it is that he just went out there and he just spoke his mind. That's the great thing about CM Punk is he doesn't care if I like his promo, he doesn't care if the fans like what he says, he does't care if the WWE office likes what he says. He's just going to go out there and say what he thinks. And I think that's what's made this thing so captivating. That and now there's two WWE Champions for the first time and they're facing off in the main event of Summerslam. I think it's going to be really exciting.

On the success of himself and CM Punk in the WWE and what that means for others hoping to get an opportunity there: What I think it says is that there are a lot of guys out there that you wouldn't necessarily look at and say "hey, this guy would be a great WWE superstar". But they've put in their hard work and they've gotten really good at what they do and if you give them an opportunity, they would do really well in the WWE. That's what it says about both of us. There are a lot of guys out there who maybe because of the way they look or because people don't think they would be very marketable that WWE may not hire them. But, I think with CM Punk … he's not the most marketable looking guy out there but he captivates crowds. I'm not to the point where CM Punk is as far as captivating WWE crowds yet but I do a fairly good job considering how little time I've been in WWE.

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