Updated: It looks like reports of Daniel Bryan being stripped of his World Heavyweight Title were premature. Reportedly, Stephanie McMahon actually said on RAW that she is "thinking" about stripping Bryan of his World Title during his time on the sidelines. She teased that Bryan would be asked to "surrender" the World Title next week on RAW. In other words folks, WWE have bought Bryan another week of time to recover to see what state he is in by next week and to give Creative more time to consider the title's immediate future. Breaking news coming in from tonight's WWE Raw tapings in London... Daniel Bryan has officially been stripped of the World Heavyweight Title. The belt is now officially vacant. Stephanie McMahon made the announcement during the show. It was revealed on last week's edition of RAW that Bryan was to undergo major neck surgery last Thursday, missing the current European tour, with an estimated lay-off of at least six weeks. The RAW tapings are still going on in London at the 02 arena so it's not yet clear what the situation is regarding the belt's immediate future. There have been rumours that some kind of tournament might take place at the forthcoming Payback PPV or that a member of the Authority (either Kane, who has been feuding with Bryan these past few weeks and in storyline terms, caused the injury... or an Evolution member in Randy Orton, Batista or Triple H could be used to further the storyline) could have a run with the belt in the short term until Bryan recovers. Of course John Cena is in a feud with Bray Wyatt and perhaps the belt could be transferred over to their match at Payback. Other candidates possibly being mentioned in terms of a title run are elevating a mid carder such as Cesaro or Sheamus. More details regarding the situation are likely to come to light at the conclusion of the tonight's tapings.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
