Daniel Bryan recently spoke at the Play Fair toy convention in New York City; you can read some transcribed highlights (credit: Justin Barrasso / Sports Illustrated) below:
Bryan was asked about who his first opponent back would be. Bryan said:
“It depends on whether WWE clears me to wrestle. That will change my opponent.”
While he said ‘no comment’ in regards to whether he’d ever considering jumping to New Japan in light of the new Chris Jericho versus Kenny Omega match, Bryan did say current WWE Champion AJ Styles would be an appealing opponent:
“One of my favorite guys to watch at WWE is AJ Styles. So, on the WWE stage, I would like to wrestle AJ Styles, only because I wrestled John Cena before.”
Bryan also said he wishes he would have had a chance to face off with Shawn Michaels:
“I was really disappointed I never got to wrestle Shawn Michaels. He trained me and that was the one match I never got to have.”
Bryan said as much as he did in wrestling, he still is a little doubtful that he has already accomplished all of his goals in wrestling:
“I don’t know if I ever accepted it. It’s just one of those things where your life evolves, everything changes, and you take steps toward your goal.
Nobody even came up to me when I was a kid and said, ‘Hey! You look like you’re going to be a pro wrestler!’ Someone came up to me in a store not too long ago and said, ‘Wow, are you Daniel Bryan?’ I said yes, and he said, ‘Oh, I thought you’d be bigger.’”
Bryan also named which current NXT talent has caught his eye:
“It’s hard to pick one person, but I really like Drew Galloway. Drew was let go by WWE, but he went out on his own and made a name for himself by wrestling his butt off all over the world.”
