WWE News: The Latest On Daniel Bryan’s Condition — Will He Miss ‘Extreme Rules’?
Last week, it was reported that WWE had decided to take Daniel Bryan off of the European tour due to injury, and it was later reported that Bryan was suffering from a concussion. Now, it appears that Bryan isn’t suffering from a concussion, and WWE doesn’t exactly know what’s wrong with him. The only official statement that WWE has made regarding Bryan’s condition is that “he’s banged up.”
Bryan has been getting some heat backstage due to his refusal to change his in-ring style since his return in January. WWE wants Bryan to protect himself better and stop taking so many chances in the ring. Also, it appears that Bryan is banged up because of his physical match with Sheamus on the April 2 SmackDown.
Right now, Daniel Bryan is scheduled to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Bad News Barrett at this Sunday’s Extreme Rules, but his status at this point is questionable, as WWE is considering pulling Bryan from the card to prevent further injury. Bryan is also scheduled for a six-man tag team dark match that will take place after tonight’s RAW, but that is subject to change as well.
Yesterday afternoon, Bryan posted on Instagram that he’s “focusing on the positive,” which has a lot of WWE fans thinking that Bryan’s condition is worse than WWE is making it out to be. But if Bryan does end up wrestling on tonight’s show, then it’ll be obvious that he’s doing fine, and that he will wrestle at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
There have been rumors that Daniel Bryan may end up needing the second surgery that he avoided this past summer. If that’s true, then Bryan will either be stripped or lose the Intercontinental Championship at some point in the near future.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer compared Daniel Bryan to Chris Benoit when he returned from his neck injury in 2002. Benoit refused to change his in-ring style, with the mindset of if he couldn’t continue to wrestle the way he wanted to, then he would retire. It’s possible that Bryan feels the same way that Benoit did.
The concern over Daniel Bryan’s health could prevent WWE from putting Daniel Bryan back into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship picture anytime soon, if ever, because they don’t want to be put in the same situation that they were in following last year’s WrestleMania 30, where they had to strip Bryan of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
[Image via WWE]
