Daniel Bryan Talks Finn Balor’s Injury; Says Nakamura & Samoa Joe Should Be On WWE’s Main Roster

Smackdown Live General Manager, Daniel Bryan, was today’s guest on Michael Cole’s weekly WWE.com interview. During the interview, Bryan was asked for his thoughts on Finn Balor having to relinquish the Universal Title. Balor received a shoulder injury during his SummerSlam match with Seth Rollins. He underwent successful shoulder surgery on Tuesday (August 23) and he’s scheduled to return to action in about six months.

Bryan’s biggest problem with the Balor situation was that he should have been on WWE’s main roster a long time ago. This is what Bryan had to say:

“The most tragic part to me is it [the injury and subsequent surgery] happens as soon as he gets up here. I think one of the things that really upsets me about the whole situation is that Finn Balor should have been up here a year and a half ago, right? I understand that NXT is a very important part of our programming, a very important part of the [WWE] network, but he was a superstar when we signed him. Some people have to adjust to the WWE style, but that takes no more, for a guy like Finn Balor, no more than six months. He’s in the prime of his career right now. He just turned 35 the day he debuted on Raw. He should have been here a year and a half ago.”

Bryan also mentions how he fears the same fate for Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura. They are also, as Bryan states, in the prime of their careers and should not be spending their time taking bumps in NXT.

“Samoa Joe should already be here. Shinsuke Nakamura should already be here. Those are guys in their primes and their down on NXT right now and they should be here, right? Either on Smackdown Live or on Raw. The longer we wait, the more bumps they take, the more bruises they get and the more susceptible they are to injury. Everybody knows there is a finite amount of hits you can take in your career. You don’t know what that number is and the more times you take those hits down in NXT, the less you’ll be able to take here.”

You can watch the rest of Bryan’s interview with Michael Cole below. Bryan goes on to talk about why a match with Brock Lesnar was always his dream match and why the Kota Ibushi vs. Cedric Alexander match from round 2 of the CWC gave him goosebumps.

Picture used above is courtesy of WWE.com.