10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Sept 21)
10. Daniel Bryan Had Accepted His Retirement Pre-GM Gig
Everyone who has followed WWE religiously over the past few years knows Daniel Bryan's heartache to glory comeback story. Throughout that entire saga, the wrestling media maintained that Bryan would rather leave WWE if the company wouldn't let him wrestle again, and those rumours were fuelled by some of Daniel's own interview comments.
They were only sort of true.
The truth is, Bryan had accepted he would never wrestle again when he emotionally told fans on Raw in 2016 that his dreams had died. He said so on Booker T's Heated Conversations podcast, and revealed that WWE's decision to bring him back as SmackDown General Manager stoked the fires of unhappiness that led to his return.
Before donning the sports jackets and becoming an authority figure, Bryan had started to accept his lot. He'd already signed up for a permaculture design course at college, hoping that'd keep his mind off wrestling.