Daniel Bryan’s final match as an in-ring competitor took place on April 14, 2015. Right after the match, in which he & John Cena defeated Cesaro & Tyson Kidd, Bryan was pulled from the rest of WWE’s European tour as a “precautionary measure”. After being removed from the Extreme Rules card, Bryan vacated the Intercontinental Championship on May 11. On February 8, 2016, Bryan officially retired.

On February 9, 2016, speculation on when he would return to the ring started.

Though I’ve read Bryan’s book, seen him wrestle in person on multiple occasions & followed his career for over a decade, I can’t say that I know the man. The main thing I’ve observed about him from a distance is this: he shares the same obsession with pro wrestling that most of us have. If you’re on TheChairshot.com using your head, you’re obsessed. If you’re like me & have written millions of words about pro wrestling on various websites over the years, you’re obsessed.

It goes without saying that Bryan has taken his obsession with pro wrestling to a level most of us can only dream of. He became a professional wrestler, and that was the thrust of his life for sixteen years. Many wrestlers juggle multiple things going on in their lives. Bryan didn’t. He lived his life in the wrestling ring.

His dedication to the craft made him one of the best of his generation. He overcame all odds & transcended what many felt was his station in the business. He became a top star in the world’s largest wrestling company. He had to sacrifice his body to get there. He paid the price shortly after he reached the mountaintop.

You have to feel for Bryan. He worked so hard to reach the top of the business, and he wasn’t able to reap the benefits. A neck injury cut off his WWE Championship reign before it really got started. Concussions robbed him of a chance to get back to that place. These were both brought on by years of abuse. He had to take it in order to get to the top. When you’re a smaller wrestler, you have to do more. You have to take more. It adds up.

Bryan’s retirement was an emotional moment.

He didn’t want to retire. We didn’t want him to retire. Heck, I held out hope that it would end with an angle that would surely lead to a Bryan match at WrestleMania. It didn’t happen. Daniel Bryan has remained retired ever since. He settled into the role of General Manager of SmackDown Live, and seemingly has been content to be on the side-

OK, I can’t even type that with a straight face. Bryan is not content to be on the sidelines. He wanted to tear Miz apart for the better part of a year. Miz just kept getting under his skin & Bryan could hardly contain himself. It took trading Miz to Raw to kill that issue, though as their staredown at Raw 25 showed, it might never really die.

The most tense seconds of the night thus far…#RAW25 @mikethemiz @WWEDanielBryan pic.twitter.com/jKgG0hP1p6

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) January 23, 2018

SmackDown lost a lot from Miz’s departure, but the biggest hit from it was it took away Bryan’s obvious opponent for a comeback match. Miz was his true arch-nemesis on the show. Sure, others took issue with some of Bryan’s decisions, but there wasn’t the same feeling of mutual disdain that Miz & Bryan shared. There was something special that was lost with that trade.

They’ve tried replacing it. A lot of effort has been put into this issue between Bryan & Shane McMahon. They’ve had passive-aggressive beef for several months now, with Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn in the middle of it because Shane hates them & Bryan seems to be a bit sympathetic to their plight.

At least he was before Sami & Kevin killed Shane last week.

Let’s be honest. Shane McMahon should not be back until at least SummerSlam after that beating. He will be. In fact, he’ll probably be back in time for WrestleMania to get his revenge because he’s a McMahon by gawd.

The question everybody’s asking heading into this week’s SmackDown is this: How will Daniel Bryan get involved? There seem to be two main options.

Guest Referee

Bryan serves as the referee for a match involving Kevin, Sami & Shane. Maybe a triple threat, maybe a tag team match with Kevin & Sami against Shane & a partner. It’d be par for the course for this angle since either Shane or Bryan has refereed most of Kevin’s title matches.

Tag Team Partner

Bryan books himself as Shane’s partner for the match. Even if he isn’t cleared to compete, they can still book Bryan in the match and then have him do nothing to help Shane.

Turning Bryan heel against Shane makes the most sense given how the story’s been told. Shane’s been a jerk to Kevin & Sami for months, and to Bryan in the process. Kevin & Sami have been relatively nice to Bryan, plus they followed his path to WWE & all that.

The only problem with that is that it would involve Daniel Bryan turning heel on a McMahon. Shane might be the best of the bunch, but most of us aren’t going to buy it. Bryan would be a face no matter what he did to Shane.

I see this ending with Kevin & Sami turning against Bryan. After months of trying to get him on their side, they realize after WrestleMania, where Bryan is a fair referee that doesn’t help them, that it’s not going to happen. So at the SmackDown after WrestleMania, they beat the living hell out of Bryan. They manage to keep things so quiet that we don’t know that he’s been cleared to wrestle. Everybody thinks Bryan is not allowed to get physical, so when he gets beat up for real, everybody loses their minds.

Bryan wrestles Kevin and/or Sami at SummerSlam in a featured match, and everybody rejoices.

Makes sense, right?