8 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Mar 20)
2. Yes? YES?! YES!
Has Daniel Bryan lost his mind, or are the floating fragments that once caused fits and seizures contagious? In a gloriously heartfelt promo, Bryan explained the long emotional and physical journey he'd been on for the last two years in building up to the incredible on-mic reveal of his medical clearance.
One of the most natural performers to ever grace WWE's main event scene, Bryan effortlessly blended fantasy and reality in marrying the vital real-life support of his wife up with a return to the ring on 'The Grandest Stage' with his own tear-strewn point-at-sign moment.
Loaded with catharsis, buoyancy and organic hope for his renewed future as an in-ring star, it had everything that made his original 2013 push so era-defining.
Best of all, the return was perfectly woven into the blue brand's biggest angle, and so it should have been. Bryan's been a troubling passenger in Shane McMahon's emotion-heavy war with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and he promised to finally take the wheel in the show's closing segment.