10 Biggest WWE Changes Since Daniel Bryan Last Wrestled

Daniel Bryan’s upcoming New Orleans WrestleMania return represents the sort of miracle that hasn’t really happened in wrestling since his last Bourbon Street sojourn.

Then, Bryan’s ascent was a remarkably normal-for-pro-wrestling WWE Title win - once the company booked him in the main event at least.

This, though, is something different altogether. The ‘Yes Man’s return to action is a personal triumph for the man enveloped by a professional success story for the machine. WWE’s typical bluster about talent preservation and protection rarely stands up to scrutiny, but the winding road Bryan has travelled since he last had his bell rung in 2015 reflects an effort to save performers from themselves in matters of physical and mental well-being.

Bryan’s own story is not yet complete, of course. Any concussion, knock or niggle could trigger a heartbreaking reconsideration, but in his happiest possible career scenario, a long and fruitful future awaits back in the squared circle.

The wrestling world is an incredibly different place from the one he left behind, but much of it is just seeing through the vision of a one he helped craft before his own first departure.

There'll never be a boom period resembling the one that propelled Vince McMahon to global wrestling dominance in the 1980s and brief mainstream acceptance at the dawn of the new millennium, but the industry as a whole is irrefutably thriving.

WWE took an enormous gamble cannibalising their pay-per-view business with the advent of the Network in 2014, but the streaming model has at least locked in a largely satisfied core audience, generating an alleged need for more content output than the organisation have ever threatened to deliver.

New Japan World is NJPW's slightly clunkier version, but it too has seen impressive growth as super-fans old and new flock to the service to bone up on inarguably the most consistent product of the last decade. They haven't had to cash out a pay-per-view audience to attract users, either.

And the independent scene hasn't ever been as vibrant, with companies old and new offering diverse work to wrestlers for the benefit of very willing, t-shirt purchasing punters. It's made the performers draws again - they are judged as much by how many tickets their face on the poster shifts, and the industry is better for it. Bryan Danielson's grin and beard would have flogged thousands. WWE couldn't have had that.