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Daniel Bryan is riding high right now on a wave of popularity that hasn’t been seen by a new guy in the WWE in a long time. Bryan will cap this all off by headlining SummerSlam against John Cena and recently sat down to talk to Direct TV about it.

The thing I love about Bryan is that what you see is what you get. He is a very humbling young man, just as humble today as he was when I met him years ago on the independent circuit. This always makes for an interesting interview because while you aren’t going to get the headlines that a CM Punk or Randy Orton offer, you’re going to get answers from a guy that is grounded, intelligent, and insightful.

Bryan talked to Direct TV about his current spot at the top of the WWE roster and getting the gig to wrestle Cena at SummerSlam.

“It was incredible and humbling. I have been wresting for a long time and most of the time it was in front of very small crowds who couldn’t care less about who was coming out there. I have wrestled in front of 13 people! And just hearing the reaction of the people in Brooklyn who were shouting “Yes! Yes!” – it was very surreal. Like “is this really my life?”

Bryan has had a real fun run with Kane as WWE tag team champions and according to the WWE superstar, it was very special to team with the Big Red Machine.

“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.”

It is fun to talk dream matches or dream partners when it comes to Bryan because he is so talented and versatile. Bryan has an interesting but not so surprising choice for dream partner and dream opponent.

“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.”

Bryan is often compared to Punk for a lot of different reasons. Bryan thinks that while both are very different, they have a lot in common.

“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.”

Check out the entire interview as he goes more into his match with Cena, competing with Brock vs. Punk for Match of the Night, his favorite opponent, idols growing up, and more over at DirectTV.com.

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