2014 was quite the emotional roller coaster for Daniel Bryan fans. His career might be over! But wait, Brie Bella says he’s okay, except no, he still doesn’t have strength in his arm. He needs neck surgery, no wait, it’s elbow surgery, no it’s neck surgery again – argh! Then, all of a sudden, Bryan was okay and ready to be in the Royal Rumble! It all felt very abrupt, but obviously Bryan’s return was something that was in the works for some time behind the scenes, right? Ha ha, no.
In a recent radio interview Bryan says WWE was informed he was on the mend the weekend before he announced his entry into the Royal Rumble on Raw, and in fact, he still wasn’t medically cleared when he made the announcement. So, when was he medically cleared? Literally the day before his first match back…
“They threw me into the fire as soon as I got back. I got cleared on a Monday and on Tuesday I was wrestling. My first match back was on Smackdown, and they ended up putting me in two matches that night, and it’s been off to the races ever since.”
Thankfully, despite all the distressingly realistic neck-selling Bryan has been doing, he says he’s been holding up well since his return…
“My body feels pretty good. The strength in my arm is stable, it hasn’t gone down at all since I started back. That was one of the major concerns, that once I start getting thrown around again the injury might flare back up again, but it’s been good, it’s been solid.”
Bryan also had a few words to say about the negative response to Roman Reigns at the Rumble…
“I think a lot of people blamed it on the Royal Rumble being in Philadelphia this year but that’s not entirely true,” Bryan said. “What happens is a lot of people fly in to see the Royal Rumble. It’s one of the top pay-per-views of the year. It’s the start of WrestleMania season. In different places people are going to react differently. In certain places I might get booed more than Roman.”
Sounds like Bryan’s in a solid, healthy place right now, although that said – Bryan, buddy, could you maybe stop doing the corner dropkick spot where you land on your head? Just for my sanity.
