While a guest at the Springfield Thunderbirds hockey game, Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan said that if he doesn’t wrestle by WrestleMania, then he probably won’t be wrestling at all with WWE.
The news, carried by Sports Illustrated, comes to no surprise and Bryan will be looking elsewhere once his WWE deal expires if he wants to return to the ring.
“It’s not a black and white answer,” said Bryan of his WWE in-ring return. “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.”
Bryan took his first “bump” in a WWE ring since he was forced to retire at the Clash of Champions pay-per-view when Kevin Owens pushed him over the referee to break the pinfall count on Sami Zayn. Things have been escalating between Bryan and Shane McMahon leading to rumors that the two will eventually step in the ring either together against Owens and Zayn or against each other.
