Daniel Bryan Just Announced He’s Returning To WWE At The Royal Rumble

We really thought this was going to be a retirement headline.

Since mounting injuries caused him to step away from WWE in June, the story of former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan has been, “when’s he coming back?” There’ve been conflicting reports all year; some people said he’d be back soon, while others said he could be gone for another year.

On Monday afternoon, Bryan tweeted this and got everybody worried:

And per an announcement made on Monday night’s episode of WWE Raw, we now know the answer. Bryan got choked up talking about the passing of his father, being away from WWE for the second half of 2014 and how doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

A lot will be written about this — by us, especially — but for now, our only advice is to take long, deep breaths and weigh the value of a man’s physical health and happiness (and existence, frankly) against his entertainment value. For longtime fans, the man gave us almost 15 years of top shelf pro wrestling. If his time has to be now, at least he went out on top main-eventing WrestleMania, winning the WWE Championship and getting married to a model.

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Good God I’m glad we don’t have to end the story there. Daniel Bryan is ready to compete, and will return to action at the 2015 Royal Rumble. This is how I feel right now:

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