Daniel Bryan is having quite the year in the WWE . A highly respected in-ring performer, the professional wrestler has been a star on the rise for the past couple of years, with things really taking off as of late. He’s going into his main event match against WWE Champion John Cena at SummerSlam this weekend riding a tidal wave of fan support, with the cheers of his trademark “Yes! Yes! Yes!” echoing through arena after arena.

Following WWE’s SummerSlam press conference this week, I spoke to Bryan about his growing popularity, his appearances on E!’s new show Total Divas (where he’s seen with his real life girlfriend, Brie Bella, along with her twin sister Nikki and Nikki’s boyfriend – John Cena) and more.

Yeah, it’s actually really super cool. For me, I was a huge wrestling fan growing up, and Summer Slam was one of the things I couldn’t wait to watch. Some of my favorite matches were at SummerSlam - Davey Boy Smith vs. Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels vs. Vader. When I was growing up, those were the things that made me want to be a wrestler. This is my opportunity to go out there and deliver something that’s hopefully going to inspire people that are kids now, like, “Man, that was awesome! I want to be a wrestler.”You know, I have no idea. It’s one of those things where sometimes you just can’t explain stuff. I don’t know if you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, but some things just become popular. Something happens that puts it over the edge into the mass consciousness, especially within the WWE Universe. That’s what happened at WrestleMania. There were “Yes!” chants before that -- here, there and Seattle, where I’m kinda from, there were “Yes!” chants there. But then when everybody saw it at WrestleMania, it just kind of spilled over. I think more than anything else -- and this is something that they don’t like to talk about -- more than it being about me, I think it’s just fun to do. [Laughs] So it could have been anybody really. Don’t tell WWE that, because they’ll just get somebody else to grow a beard and have them go out there and wave their hands around and say “Yes!” Just because people like doing it, they’ll do it. But yeah, I think it’s just one of those things that catches on, and it just rolls from there.[Laughs] You know what, I have actually done this before. The beard has come and gone throughout my career, and it’s just one of those things. I get tired of shaving, man. Do you know what else I get tired of? Like, suits and all that kind of stuff, like the stuff I’m wearing now. Part of me just wants -- it’s just letting go, it’s just letting go of everything. That’s part of it that I really enjoy. It’s just the idea that “You know what? I don’t care about how I look. I don’t care if I’m handsome. I don’t care if chicks dig me -- I’ve already got a girlfriend, so it doesn’t really matter.” But that’s part of the fun.

Continue to Page 2 as Bryan discusses his role on Total Divas, facing Cena, tagging with Kane and more.