SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan was recently a guest on The Bear Hug It Out Wrestling podcast. You can check it out here:
On SmackDown being a two hour show vs RAW being three hours:
“To me, the best part about it is it’s only a two hour show. It’s a lot funner to watch. It’s a lot easier to watch. But there’s also, we’re trying to really put the wrestlers first, the Superstars first, so that’s one of the things we’re really doing for the show. We’re trying to make a more exciting show than RAW.” Bryan added, “but Shane [McMahon] and I are working really hard each and every week to make SmackDown must-see viewing.”
On wrestlers losing money after the split:
“It’s interesting because some of them don’t like it because everyday that you’re on the road and not working, you don’t get paid, so you’re spending money and not getting paid. So it just becomes like a, ‘okay, so now I’m making less money, but spending the same amount of being on the road and that sort of thing’. But pretty soon, we’re going to start doing SmackDown live events on Monday nights, the same night as RAW, so then that’s going to even out a bit. And I think that extra day on the road at home makes a huge difference. I mean, there’s a huge difference between leaving on Friday and coming home on Wednesday and leaving on Saturday and coming home on Wednesday or leaving on Friday and coming home on Tuesday. So I think it’s going to be better for the health of everybody.”
On who he was most excited to draft:
“I was really excited to [draft] two people. I’m really excited to get Dean Ambrose and I’m really excited to get AJ Styles. So, I’ve known AJ Styles for a long, long time. We wrestled each other for the first time, I think, in 2003, so yeah, 13 years ago, so it’s neat to see him on this stage.”
(All transcribed quotes courtesy of Wrestling Inc.)
