Everyone wants to see Daniel Bryan make a return to the ring but a diagnosis from WWE’s doctors ended his in-ring career. But on the Road To WrestleMania, it looks like there could be some stirrings of his return to the ring which really should happen sooner than later.
Daniel Bryan is currently in a strange situation with Shane McMahon on SmackDown Live as the two remain the show’s authority figures. They seem to be disagreeing and not getting along very well. While discussing a possible opponent for Shane McMahon at WrestleMania on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that there is still a lot going on in the situation which could mean a return for the Bearded GOAT is still a possibility.
“Are they each gonna get a guy or have Shane wrestle somebody?” Meltzer said about possible outcomes being each man pull a McMahon/Trump where they have a feud but pick people to compete as their wrestling avatars. Then he said, “Are they gonna clear Daniel Bryan?” When asked by Bryan Alvarez if there’s anything going on in that situation Meltzer continued saying, “Daniel Bryan could get cleared, could they clear him? There’s a lot going on there but who the hell knows? I mean that’s the deal with it.”
Alvarez asked if there’s something to this idea of Bryan coming back to the ring and Meltzer replied, “oh yeah, oh yeah” but continued saying that there’s nothing that can be talked about at this juncture. Daniel Bryan thinks he can wrestle but Dr. Maroon won’t clear him to compete. “There’s always something new going on in this story,” Meltzer said but no decision has been made. It could be any moment that Dr. Maroon changes his mind though because Bryan has been going to doctors in Florida and is continually working on bettering his health, keeping strong, and going to different specialists who might clear him to present more evidence to WWE’s top physician.
“If Dr. Maroon changes his mind, it changes. That may happen tomorrow, that may never happen. I have no idea. No one knows including probably Dr. Maroon. Unless he’s just made up his mind that he’s never gonna clear him. Which Daniel Bryan has been told that over and over that he’s never getting cleared but he still thinks there’s a chance.”
“He thinks he’s doing great and he wants to get cleared and unless something happens that’s unforeseen the guy’s either gonna be wrestling in WWE or he’s gonna be wrestling out of WWE come this fall. But nothing’s changed but there’s always stuff going on there,” Meltzer concluded.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to allow Bryan to come back. After all, he did say if he’s not performing by WrestleMania then he’s going to leave the company and WWE knows he’ll wrestle elsewhere. Although his appearance is still scheduled for WrestleMania Sunday at Axxess, that kind of thing could be easily switched around if WWE’s doctor clears him to compete.
But maybe WWE and Dr. Maroon don’t want to reverse their decision because they are afraid of public perception or the precedent it might set for future cases. After all, we’re still talking about WWE which is the publically traded colossus of pro wrestling. But Daniel Bryan’s in-ring return seems to be inevitable, it’s just a matter of where he’ll be applying his craft.
If you use a portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription
