Nobody loves wrestling more than Daniel Bryan, and certainly nobody who’s currently not allowed to wrestle wants to be doing it more than him. He retired from in-ring action nearly two years ago, but he’s been talking about getting back in the ring and teasing future matches ever since. He’s expressed interest in fighting WWE newcomers like Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles, but if WWE doesn’t clear him it’s also possible he’ll return to Ring of Honor when his contract ends in September 2018. Even his wife Brie Bella (who’s planning her own comeback) seems certain he’ll make it back to the ring.
In a recent conversation with Sports Illustrated, Bryan said that he expects to have a good idea of how his future will go by WrestleMania time. Because if WWE wants him to return, it will probably be there, especially with the show returning to New Orleans, where he won the day at WrestleMania 30.
I assume that if I don’t wrestle by WrestleMania, I probably won’t be wrestling with WWE at all. That’s my assumption. It’s not a black and white answer. There are a lot of issues with me getting cleared by WWE. They have a very strict protocol, which is a good thing, but the timeline of all that happening was not the best for me. It’s an interesting situation that will develop.
The thing he doesn’t say here, but you can almost hear him thinking it, is that if WWE doesn’t want to let him wrestle in April, that will give him five or six months to plan his return to the indies in the fall, once his contract is up.
