5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (March 23)
Once you go Bryan, there's no point in tryin'.
Daniel Bryan's fans had long ago given up hope.
Retired by WWE, an in-ring return was inconceivable even on Tuesday morning. With the long-term severity of concussions a more widely-understood issue in recent years, the risk was thought too high. Bryan announced his retirement on February 8, 2016. In the two years since, various reports flooded the wrestling internet, each containing the same set of information as the last: Bryan, cleared by the world’s leading neurologists and concussion experts, underwent experimental hyperbaric oxygen treatment in an attempt to heal his brain. It read as quack treatment. It may yet turn out to be a landmark advancement in the treatment of brain injuries.
That WWE would clear Kurt Angle, paper neck and Hasbro posture and all, brought into stark focus Bryan's impossible plight. Impossible is no longer the word:
Daniel Bryan. Is. F*cking. Back.
As first announced by WWE.com, and not a sad attempt to pretend legitimate outlets cover WWE unless paid to do so, Daniel Bryan was this week cleared to resume in-ring activity. Hilariously, on the same day, so was Big Cass. Wait a day, for Christ’s sake. I suppose you can’t teach common sense. What an afterthought it portrayed him as.
Anyway, enough about him…
5. YES! YES! YES!
Daniel Bryan required experimental oxygen treatment to heal his brain. His fans required oxygen masks upon learning that, after a two-year absence, the most popular North American wrestler of the decade is resuming his in-ring career.
Every last second of his SmackDown appearance was phenomenal. His return speech was both emotional and inspiring, his dismissal of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn loaded with conflicted, believable pathos. When the time came to get physical, it was as if Bryan hadn't spent the previous two years on literal gardening leave: eliciting the adrenaline and sympathy that only he can command, Bryan literally threw himself back into the role by flooring Owens and Zayn with corner dropkicks before teasing his new repertoire with a jaw-dropping snap German suplex imported from New Japan Pro Wrestling. He also sold expertly for a cartoonish heel duo that now translates as a genuinely menacing main event-level threat. His taking a powerbomb on the apron underscored that this is a full-on return.
Is this the happiest wrestling week ever? Beyond Bryan's belated rebound, the Bray Wyatt character is potentially no more (more on that imminently). What next? Will The Revival receive a long-overdue push? Rusev? Will the dreary and unnecessary Jonathan Coachman succeed in his inadvertent attempts to get fired?
Since he plugged his own business on RAW, a no-no, you'd think, then perhaps - especially since he has named it 'Coach 'Em Up' which, given the looming ESPN scandal, is drastically misjudged.
It's like if Vince McMahon rebranded his company as the Problematic Steroid Abusers in 1992. It's just as bad a PSA.