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Yesterday morning, WWE talents toured the One World Observatory at the top of the World Trade Center in advance of tonight's Summerslam PPV. At the event, I had the chance to speak with former WWE World champion turned Smackdown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan. Here is the complete transcript.
MIKE JOHNSON: Mike Johnson here with reality TV star Bryan Danielson [Bryan laughs] aka Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan. What do you think of the view?
DANIEL BRYAN: It's pretty incredible.
JOHNSON: Another thing that's been incredible....that's an awful segue by the way....
BRYAN: [Laughs] Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...is the Cruiserweight Classic, which I think you've done a phenomenal job of voicing and bringing out your emotion as an announcer. I'm curious who are some of the talents that you were most impressed with that maybe you weren't aware of firsthand.
BRYAN: OK, so I had seen Cedric Alexander a million times in Ring of Honor and stuff before. He has never looked as impressive as he has the first two matches in the Cruiserweight Classic.
JOHNSON: The Kota Ibushi thing was special.
BRYAN: Yeah, the Kota Ibushi thing was special and he's done really well. I think Tony Nese did a great job. Like, he's a guy who I had seen before and I was like 'meh', I wasn't thrilled with him one way or the other. I thought he did a great job in both of his matches but then there are guys who I've known who have been great for long time. Kota Ibushi, Brian Kendrick..Oh! Jack Gallagher is a real revelation. I had never seen him before.
JOHNSON: It's like he walked off a CHIKARA stage.
BRYAN: Yeah, yeah, he's so much fun.
JOHNSON: So, obviously General Manager of Smackdown. A totally different role for you...
BRYAN: Uh huh.
JOHNSON: I am sure lots of people have asked you about that but I don't think anyone has asked you about working with Shane McMahon. What's the repor like? What's it like working with him behind the scenes and on camera?
BRYAN: I love working with Shane. Shane is a very positive person. He's great. I had heard this about him when he worked for WWE before. He's a...a motivating person. He's always very positive and in wrestling, that's very rare right?
JOHNSON: Right.
BRYAN: He's somebody who's always lifting people up around him and to me that makes it for a fun work environment and you know, even people who are behind the scenes doing camera stuff...even if they do something that's bad, he'll say 'OK, we need you do this, but great job' and that sort of thing. He's a very positive leader.
JOHNSON: One last question and then we've got to let you go. With all the new roles in the company whether it's "Total Bellas" which is coming or or the General Manager deal with Smackdown, do you feel at peace? I think there's a lot of fans concerned about you and miss you, but do you feel at peace with everything yet?
BRYAN: Uh...soooo...No. [Laughs]
JOHNSON: Do you think you ever will?
BRYAN: It's weird, so it's a weird thing. Like you love something so much but you can't do it but you feel like you can do it. That's the hard part, you know, so, who knows? We'll see.
JOHNSON: OK, well, we wish you nothing but the best. Thank you sir.
BRYAN: Thank you very much.
Follow Daniel Bryan at @WWEDanielBryan.
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