There has been a lot of speculation over the past several weeks about Daniel Bryan and his in-ring future. There has been speculation about a match between him and Shane McMahon based on the current storyline on Smackdown Live. Daniel has also been adamant in recent interviews that he thinks that he can return to the ring.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribe here), Dave Meltzer provided an update on all of the rumors and speculation surrounding Bryan.
WWE has confirmed to Meltzer that Bryan hasn’t been cleared to return to the ring. Meltzer says that Vince McMahon has made it very clear that the decision will only come from Dr. Joseph Maroon, who is the Medical Director of WWE.
Meltzer says that the current storyline involving Shane & Daniel is not leading to a match. He says that this could change if Maroon does end up clearing Bryan and there has reportedly been talk of Daniel Bryan wrestling at SummerSlam next year and working a limited schedule if he does get cleared.
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Daniel is said to be very set on wrestling again when his contract with WWE expires next year.
There was also some increased speculation about Daniel returning to the ring since he is booked to be the special guest referee on the December 26th episode of Smackdown in Chicago (could be a dark match or on TV). As a special guest referee you are usually involved in the match physically so speculation started brewing. Meltzer says that the reason is not for anything in-ring related but because ticket sales needed a boost.
Moral of the story is that Maroon holds the cards here, not Vince. It will be interesting to see what happens as we get closer and closer to Bryan’s contract expiring.