With all of the hysteria surrounding Daniel Bryan’s miraculous return to wrestling, it’s been easy to ignore the business side of his career. However, until he signs a new WWE contract, Bryan may remain stagnant on SmackDown.
Bryan’s current contract expires September 1. And according to PWStream, the uncertainty of his status will keep WWE from handing to former World Champion any juicy opportunities.
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Per sources: Daniel Bryan is still yet to sign a new deal with WWE. As such, the company are tentative with their plans for him moving forward.
— PWStream (@PWStream) May 28, 2018
It’s impossible to know the specifics of Bryan and WWE‘s contract talks, but imagining Bryan leading YES! chants outside of a Vince McMahon owned ring seems silly. We’ll conjure a guess that a contract is ready to sign, but both sides may be hammering out the finer terms.
However until Bryan inks the deal, WWE is right to withhold any major opportunities. While lame duck contracts have provided some of the most dramatic moments in WWE history, chances are, this contract scenario will be void of drama.
It’s sound business for WWE be leery of sticking Bryan in Championship matches against AJ Styles. Afterall they probably still have PTSD from Medusa tossing her WWE strap in a Ted Turner owned trash can. While it’s fun to imagine Bryan doing this at “All In,” he doesn’t really seem like the type of guy to put on such a charade.
We’d like to think that Bryan will only wrestle in WWE until the end of eternity, but Bryan himself discussed his terminating contract during an interview with Al Arabiya.
“No, no. I had somebody say that to me on my Twitter. They said, does your contract expire on September 23rd? And I was like, how do people even know that. But no, my contract actually runs out September 1st, which is actually the day of the All In show, but it’s funny because that doesn’t compute. I was in the Bahrain Comic-Con the last two days, and we did Q&As, and at each one, somebody asked me about that. They said, ‘are you going to be at All In’? I’m not. I don’t know what to tell you. But yeah, my contract is up September 1st,” he said.
We’ll keep an eye on this situation, but we’ll have a good indication of Bryan’s status after his match with Samoa Joe on SmackDown. The winner will earn the final spot at Money in the Bank on June 17. Right now, we’ll guess Big Cass interferes to cost Bryan, furthering their feud and the meta-storyline of WWE subduing his opportunities.
