Daniel Bryan Addresses the Future of His WWE Career

Daniel Bryan returned to WWE television on this week's Friday Night SmackDown for the first time in months, teasing a feud with Seth Rollins before popping up on Talking Smack. On top of some fun interactions with Sami Zayn, Bryan addressed what his goals for the remainder of his career will be. Byran is now 39 years old, the father of two kids and both he and Brie Bella have indicated his days as a full-time pro wrestler are quickly dwindling.

I kind of have this bucket list of things I have left to do in my career. And one of the things I've always wanted to do is, because I was Intercontinental Champion before but then was shortly after forced to retire, my idea has been using the Intercontinental Championship as a championship that gets defended regularly, if not weekly, on SmackDown against everybody.

He then listed off wrestlers he still hasn't had the chance to work with, including Gran Metalik (who he believes is one of the best luchadors in the world), Big E, Chad Gable and Zayn (but without Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura interfering).

"I am at a point now, in my life and career, where I want to test myself against the best performers in WWE," Bryan said. "Whether that's against people I haven't faced yet, and even people I have faced, because we've all evolved."

He also addressed having "less spring in my step" in his last match before taking his hiatus against AJ Styles in June.

"As we evolve, I look at wrestling a bit differently. This is my martial art with a focus on the artistic side," he said. "This is a test of myself. When I go out there for an interview or match, its a test of me, and my opponents are giving me examples on what I need to work on as a human, an athlete, and a wrestler."

Bryan was a guest on The Bellas Podcast back in March, in which he stated his workload could change by late 2020, i.e. the immediate future.

"WWE has been great. They're going to give me six-week paternity leave, which so few places in the US do that. So I'll get to be home those first six weeks. After that, it's not long until my contract is up. We've been talking about what we do from there. To me, in my mind, it's almost like, I think I'm done being a full-time wrestler," Bryan said at the time. "I love being dad. I will always love wrestling and I will always want to do wrestling. But when I say 'always want to do wrestling,' that means maybe once a month or once every couple of months."

Which matches do you want to see Bryan in before his career wraps up? Let us know down in the comments below!