Daniel Bryan is medically cleared to wrestle again, and all is right in WWE. Well, more or less. After his emotional comeback speech and horrible beatdown on Tuesday, WWE revealed behind-the-scenes information from Bryan himself on when the leader of the “Yes” movement was actually cleared.
When Bryan retired in 2016, it was a shock to the entire wrestling world as the ultimate babyface was gone from the ring. Instead of Bryan sitting home on the shelf, he stayed active, becoming the Smackdown GM. (That was reportedly partially due to him not wanting WWE to freeze his contract, but still.) When he wasn’t on shows, was flying off to see specialists with the hope that one day he’d be cleared by WWE doctors to get back in the ring.
A video on the WWE YouTube channel released Wednesday shows Bryan nervously writing down notes before his already-famous comeback promo. In the video, he again praises his wife Brie Bella for mixing the concern for his long-term health as well as supporting his dream to get back in the ring. Bryan also reveals that he wasn’t medically cleared by WWE doctors until Monday night, and that he hadn’t fully processed all of the emotion.
“It’s interesting because I thought about this moment so much in the past 6 months or whatever,” said Bryan. “OK, ‘Imagine what would happen if you actually did get cleared?’, and it still seemed kind of like an impossibility. Now that it’s here it still seems kind of unreal and I still feel kind of unprepared for it. It’s hard because legitimately I just got cleared last night.”
With Bryan back in the fold to possibly compete at WrestleMania 34, it looks like a date with both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are in the cards as both viciously attacked Bryan to close the show on Tuesday night. Most likely, Bryan will return to the ring with Shane McMahon in tow to do a pseudo-Authority angle.
At the end of the day, it’s great to have Bryan back for the many different matches that can happen that fans never thought they’d get the opportunity to see. More importantly, this scratches an itch for Bryan himself that nothing else could.
