Daniel Bryan Steps Back Into The Ring After SmackDown, But As A Referee

As the tension between SmackDown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon and his General Manager Daniel Bryan begins to heat up on-screen, it seems that Bryan continues to slowly return to more physical roles in WWE as he once again stepped back in the ring as a guest referee, for the second time in two weeks.

Bryan was on hand to referee the six-man tag match that happened after SmackDown went off the air and it pitted Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles up against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Jinder Mahal.

This was just minutes after Owens defeated AJ Styles in SmackDown Live’s main event after interference from Shane McMahon seemingly cost the WWE Champion the match.

Of course, Bryan is still a firm fan favorite and even managed to get a huge pop from the WWE Universe after he counted the victory for the face team and then performed the “Too Sweet” gesture with AJ Styles.

It’s interesting that WWE is allowing Bryan to continue to be part of matches in a much more physical way as speculation begins to heat up regarding a match between McMahon and Bryan at next year’s WrestleMania. Even if WWE are unable to clear Bryan for the match, at least the company are still trying to ensure that Bryan is as close to the action as possible which is exactly what the former World Champion wanted.