BROOKLYN, New York - Wrestling is at its absolute best when it’s real.

Not real like amateur wrestling. Not real like an MMA fight. But real in the sense that there’s an element of reality at the core - an element of believability. It allows fans to fully invest in the characters and the people playing them, as well as the match itself.

This is why one of the most anticipated matches on the SummerSlam card pits Daniel Bryan against The Miz - because through their eight years of history together, there’s a kernel of truth to it all.

Bryan made his WWE debut in 2010 on developmental brand NXT, although it’s not the NXT we know today with its Takeover specials. It was a game show, essentially, with eight ‘rookies’ (from lower in the WWE developmental system) competing to avoid elimination while partnered with eight WWE ‘pros’, who were already on the main roster.

The first season featured many names fans would know, such as season winner Wade Barrett and Heath Slater, but also Bryan - previously known as Bryan Danielson on the independent scene, where he was regarded as one of the best pure wrestlers on the planet.

That didn’t exactly fit NXT, a weird hybrid reality/scripted competition featuring obstacle courses, comedy segments and some actual wrestling.

The main story of the first season ended up being Bryan’s partnership with The Miz, his pro. This partnership was immediately bizarre to anyone who knew of Bryan pre-WWE, because the idea that the ‘American Dragon’ needed to be coached by the star of MTV’s ‘The Real World’ was clearly absurd.

Daniel Bryan and The Miz talking during an NXT show in 2010. Photo via WWE.com. Source: Supplied

That isn’t to say Bryan learned nothing from Miz throughout the process. He told Foxsports.com.au the pair are more similar than most would think.

“One of the things I saw from him was just how hard he works - but I also saw that we have very different views of professional wrestling in general,” he said.

“We’re just very different as far as human beings go. I find it fascinating because we’re very different, but we’re also very similar in a lot of ways.

“When I came in, it was like the office, the management didn’t respect me because I was an independent wrestler, and when he came in the wrestlers didn’t respect him because he was a reality (TV) guy.

“When I came in, I was known as not a very good talker, because I just hadn’t had a lot of experience. When he came in, he was known as not a very good wrestler. And we both had to work to earn respect in certain ways. So you’d think because of that we’d be friends, but we just rub each other the wrong way (laughs).

“It’s fascinating because you can tell in the way that each of us perform - because he was a big wrestling fan - who he liked and I liked (growing up). It’s kind of mirrored.

“So he liked people like The Rock, and even trying to pursue a career in the same manner as The Rock. And I really like Dean Malenko. That has always been my fascination - the wrestling aspect of wrestling.”

Bryan didn’t win that season of NXT and returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2010 - fittingly taking a spot The Miz thought was his in a multi-man main event.

The two then battled it out over the United States Championship, with Bryan defeating Miz for his first title win in WWE, before going on separate paths.

Both eventually main evented a WrestleMania - Miz defending his WWE Championship against John Cena at XXVII but being the third wheel to guest host The Rock’s interference, and Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of 30 in a fairytale climax.

The fairytale ended for Bryan soon after that moment. Injuries and concussion concerns put an end to his in-ring career; he was left stranded, under contract but unable to wrestle, the latter being much more important to him than anything else.

After returning to be the general manager of Smackdown Live, Bryan’s continued presence simply made fans continue to question when he would ever be able to compete in the ring again.

A key moment was in August 2016, when on Talking Smack - a post-Smackdown talk show featuring Bryan - he and Miz had a war of words that had was, in essence, real.

A screengrab from a Talking Smack segment featuring Daniel Bryan and The Miz, via WWE.com. Source: Supplied

“I had asked for my release at that point because I’d been cleared by these other doctors, and WWE medical wouldn’t clear me,” Bryan told Gamespot recently.

“So, he’s bringing up things like, “If you love .. you’re a coward because you’ve said… yada yada… why don’t you go quit, and go do the independents?”

“It’s like, that really gets under my skin because it’s like, I asked for my release, and they said “No.” It’s like, here I am stuck doing this GM thing, and this thing that I don’t like, and it’s like, “Okay, either I’m gonna punch this dude in the face, or I’m gonna walk off,” so it’s one of those things where people can see the realness in that, and I think that that’s very powerful.”

On the night, Bryan did walk off. But he didn’t leave the company. And eventually he was cleared to return to wrestling, with a WrestleMania 34 tag team contest his first bout since his early retirement.

“I thought I’d be a little bit rusty, because I hadn’t been able to get in a ring much once I got cleared. I went down to the Performance Center once, and that was pretty much it,” he told Foxsports.com.au.

“I helped train Brie for the Women’s Royal Rumble in January, but that was in a 16-foot ring, a really small ring, and I wasn’t allowed to even take any falls.

“Once I got in the ring, it felt like it all just came back. Naturally it took until Kevin Owens powerbombed me - that I was the first time I went (noise like he had just been winded).”

Now at SummerSlam, the match that was being built even when it was impossible has became possible. Even still, there are realities hanging over it.

Daniel Bryan and The Miz during a promo segment on Smackdown Live. Photo via WWE.com. Source: Supplied

Bryan is reportedly out of contract on September 1, just two weeks after SummerSlam; but he told Foxsports.com.au there were just a couple of things left to sort out on his new deal - including how much time he will spend on the road.

He explained the main obstacle to his re-signing was that this is the first time he has hired a lawyer to handle his contract.

“There’s a couple of things like that (how much time I get to spend with my family),” he said.

“This is the first time in my career, ever - the thing that’s taking so long with all of it is I’ve never hired a lawyer before to look at a contract, so this is the first time I’ve done it, so it just takes longer than usual (laughs).”

“My last contract I think I signed in 2012. So then, I wasn’t married - Brie and I were together, but I wasn’t married - so you’re just trying to get all of your ducks in a row, especially because I’m older, and married, and have a baby.

“It’s the responsibility and it’s crazy because a lot of us as WWE superstars, we end up not getting lawyers to look at our contracts, we just look at it and go ‘oh, ok, what’s this number, what’s this number? Oh fine, whatever,’ without reading the fine print.”

Some fans were confused as to why a long-term story, such as that with Miz and Bryan, was being delivered at SummerSlam rather than the WWE’s biggest show, WrestleMania.

Although Bryan doesn’t seem particularly fussed either way.

“A lot of people have said that to me,” Bryan said.

“There’s two shows that can contend for second-biggest for WWE throughout the year - SummerSlam and Royal Rumble.

“And now there’s some other huge events that we’ve been doing, like the show in Australia, so it’s like that’s now muddying the waters as to what are our biggest shows. We just did a show in Saudi Arabia (The Greatest Royal Rumble) in front of, I don’t know how many thousands of people. And they’re hoping for 70,000 people in Australia.

“So at what point does SummerSlam or Royal Rumble no longer become the second-biggest show of the year, and now why wouldn’t you say, ‘why don’t you save this match for Australia, in front of 70,000 people, the first time we’re doing a show of this size in Australia’?

“So there’s always room to say ‘you could have saved it for this, or saved it for that’. I think SummerSlam is a perfectly acceptable place for it to happen because for me as a kid, I actually liked SummerSlam more than I liked WrestleMania. And I have a lot of fun history at SummerSlam too.”

And at this point, fun is all Bryan really cares about - including for October’s mega-show at the MCG, Super Show-Down.

“People ask me, ‘what goals do you have, what do you want to achieve in your comeback since you’ve main evented WrestleMania and done this and that’. I don’t think in those type of terms,” he said.

“I liken it a lot to a musician - ‘well, what goals do you have for your music now?’ Just to evolve as a musician. To evolve as a painter or anybody who pursues any kind of artistic endeavour and is like, ‘well, I want to evolve in this’. Or I think in terms of, this would be fun.

“So what I’m hoping for from the show (Super Show-down) is to go out there, have a great time, have fun in front of hopefully 70,000 people. Because I’ve wrestled in front of 17 people.

“CM Punk and I wrestled a 45-minute match in front of like 30 people. And when you’re wrestling in front of 30 people, this is what it’s like - we’re wrestling our butts off. In front of 30 people.

“And you can just hear this guy in the front row going, ‘eugh. These guys aren’t very good, are they?’ And it’s just, he’s not even shouting it, he’s not shouting you suck, he’s just talking to the guys next to him, ‘these guys aren’t very good, are they?’. And it’s like, I feel like we’re OK! (laughs)

“So going out in front of 70,000 people, where they already perceive you as stars, is an incredible feeling - stepping out with that sort of energy. And it’s always great when we go to Australia because the energy with the fans - they’re rabid, they’re ready for it.

“So to be able to go out there, feel your feet, breathe in, experience the moment, that’s what I want more than anything else.”

Watch SummerSlam this Monday on the WWE Network and via pay-per-view on Main Event.

WWE Super Show-Down comes to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 6.

Max Laughton travelled to Brooklyn courtesy of WWE.