WWE Superstar and the number one contender to the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, Daniel Bryan, recently spoke with the official DirecTV website to promote the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view. Below are highlights from the interview:

On finding out he’d be facing John Cena for the title 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?'”

On his relationship with CM Punk: “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.”

On his pro wrestling training: “I ended up training with Shawn Michaels. He’s the best. I left the night I graduated from high school, drove to Texas and trained with Shawn for a year. When I look back, I was so poor – I mean living on 20 dollars a month for groceries. I couldn’t fathom that now. It was tough but it was a lot of fun.”

On his idols: “I loved Dean Malenko and Eddie Guererro. Bret Hart was always one of my favorites. I’m also a big Seahawks fan and the guy who I really loved was a wide receiver named Steve Largent, who ended up being a politician in Oklahoma. He was always so respectable and was never about himself, he was about the team. A lot of people like the brash players but I like people who focus on the team and downplay what they do.”

Check out the complete interview online at DirecTV.com.

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