Talking to UK-based SportBible.com, Daniel Bryan recounted how he absolutely hated the idea of being the Smackdown General Manager while he was sidelined and not cleared to wrestle.

“It was weird because as the GM they would play my music, sometimes I would get a really good reaction and it would make me smile sometimes but it didn’t make me happy,” Bryan said. A big part of the reason he hated the GM job was because he was surrounded by everything he loves to do…but couldn’t do anything physical.

“It was very difficult. I disliked it, strongly. I would try and leave as soon as I could and if I found out they might not have a segment for me on TV, I would be texting the writers being like, ‘Hey can I just stay home’ – a portion of that is not liking it and portion of that is because now I’m being away from Brie and my baby to do something I’m not passionate about. That was a weird mental thing for me,” Bryan said.

The former champion also went over the difficult process of getting cleared by WWE and how he still doesn’t feel his optimum level yet.