2014 has been a very turbulent year for WWE star Daniel Bryan, as fan support -- and a belief he wasn’t being given the spotlight he deserved -- became a central storyline on WWE programming, culminating in a huge, jubilant win for Bryan at WrestleMania. However, shortly after, Bryan was forced to take time off (and drop the title he’d just won) as he needed neck surgery for injuries sustained earlier in the year.

This Sunday, at SummerSlam, Bryan’s wife, Brie Bella, is involved in a high profile match against Stephanie McMahon. While Bryan hasn’t been seen on WWE programming lately, he does still continue to do promotion for the company while he recovers and on the heels of his Comic-Con appearance last month, I spoke to him about when we might see him back, his wife’s big match and more – including how the Brie/Stephanie storyline recently involved Stephanie claiming Daniel Bryan cheated on Brie.

Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella on WWE RAW.

Yeah, that whole day was strange, because I started off today doing a panel with Hulk Hogan, Paul Heyman -- and then Sting comes out . So that was very strange. Then we did a signing, me and Hulk Hogan. Then we announced that I was doing a book. Then I fly home, and then my house gets burgled! [Laughs] It was a very, very bizarre day.Right, yeah. I don't know how things are going. For example, I was supposed to have a second surgery scheduled for Tuesday, but they postponed it to do some more testing -- and this has been the frustrating part for me. The nervous system is very complex. So there's been debate about, "Okay, does he need a second surgery? Does he not need a second surgery?" And people have kind of been going back and forth on it. Then finally we decided, "Okay, he needs the surgery." We're going to go get the surgery -- no, wait, nope! We're going to go do some more tests. So I would obviously prefer to not get the surgery, but if I'm going to do it, I want to do it as soon as possible, because the sooner I do it, the sooner I get back. The surgery they're talking about doing is a three-month recovery. I've already been out three months, so that's another three months. So you'd like to get that done as soon as you can -- if it needs to be done. If it doesn't need to be done, let's not do it! What they want to do is they want to take the nerve from down a along my elbow and then move it over, and then put it under my forearm muscle there [pointing at arm]. So it's, like, rewiring me. [Laughs] I don't like that at all.Yeah, I've been pretty zen about it, and mostly because I'm very happy that the surgery happened now as opposed to before WrestleMania. Our doctor told me last year that I was going to need this surgery, the next surgery. He said, "It's going to happen. It's just a matter of time." I was happy that it happened after WrestleMania. Before, you don't get that great moment. And I've been very fortunate because I've been wrestling for 15 years, and this is my first major surgery. I've been very fortunate in that regard too. So I've taken it in stride, although it's obviously very frustrating.Oh my gosh, I'm so proud of her. Her and Stephanie – the main event to RAW, two weeks in a row! That hasn't happened with Divas in years. Now she's in what's, in my mind, the second-biggest match in SummerSlam, and Divas just don't get that opportunity very often. So I'm really happy for her, really proud of her. She's worked really hard. A lot of people don't understand how hard the girls on Total Divas work. They're on the road, the same as the rest of us, and then when they get home, they've got to be filming this whole time. So it's a very hard life with very few days off, and she's finally getting rewarded for that, so that's really nice.Yeah, and it is funny, because there is something borderline-therapeutic about being able to slap your boss, I think. And because there are so many frustrations we have as wrestlers, it's like, THWACK! You can see, when Stephanie and Brie slap each other, it's like, "Holy cow!" [Laughs] I've been on the opposite end of a Brie slap on WWE Television before, and I was like, "Holy cow! Why would you do that?" I have a ruptured eardrum in my left ear -- it happened in 2007 from a Japanese wrestler named Kenta, who WWE actually has signed. So we were doing a story where I had kind of been dating the Bella Twins, but then they found me with Gail Kim or whatever, and then Brie slapped me. I just asked her, "Okay, please, just don't slap me in the ear?" The first thing her little hand does is, WHACK! Right in the ear. I was like, "Oh my God!"Right, yeah! [Laughs]Wait, by "interesting," do you mean "stupid"? [Laughs]Yeah, to me, it's groan-worthy. I don't think it added anything to the story. It was just like, "Ugh!" But, you know, they do what they do, and you just gotta roll with the punches. It's funny, because I feel like sometimes you just have to overcome these things more so than anything else. Like, Brie and Stephanie have to overcome that flaw. To me, that was a flaw in the story. The story was so good, and then here's this flaw in it. But it's whatever. It doesn't hurt my feelings or anything, you know? It's entertainment. It's not real, so okay.

Continue to Page 2 as Daniel Bryan discusses watching wrestling on his time off, his thoughts on Total Divas and his big WrestleMania moment.