Daniel Bryan seems to be inching closer towards the comeback he’s been longing for. He recently revealed to The Trentonian that he’s going through the process to try to get cleared for an in-ring return.

Bryan, who hasn’t wrestled in the WWE since April of 2015, has an extensive history of concussions that has made the WWE apprehensive about allowing him to perform again. He has never hid the fact that he wants to wrestle again, and it’s possible the WWE has began to soften its stance on his status after he was (kayfabe) attacked by Kane in a dark room on last week’s RAW, which was the company’s way of not showing him taking bumps. Bryan said his tests have produced positive results, but he understands the WWE’s hesitation.

“I’m trying to get cleared as we speak,” Bryan said. “All my tests have come back fantastic, better than people who have never had any concussion-type stuff. But it’s a weird thing. We’re in a weird situation politically with the climate around concussions; right now, it’s very difficult. WWE would love to have me back, but is that the smart thing for me as a business to bring me back? If I was to come back, and they let me back, would they get a lot of flak for it? They have a ton of stockholders that they’re responsible for. It’s more than just, ‘Is he healthy to do it?'”

The recent return of Kurt Angle, who also has an extensive injury history, has possibly helped Bryan’s case for a comeback. In September it was reported that Bryan had been training his wife Brie Bella for her own comeback. Bryan has also implied that he will be seeking opportunities outside of the WWE if they refuse to give him the chance to wrestle again. He said the situation is complicated because of the nature of the wrestling business, but he’s staying positive.

“There’s more than that to the whole situation,” he said. “All the concussion doctors think that I’m healthy enough to do it, and that I should be able to do it — well, I don’t want to say all of them, I’m sure there’s somebody out there who doesn’t think that — but there’s a lot more than goes into it than just that. That’s the unfortunate situation with giant corporations and big business in the United States.”

Source: WrestlingINC

The odds of Daniel Bryan returning to wrestling get better every day … as he explained this week that there was a “huge, huge misunderstanding” with the test that originally forced him to retire.

Bryan discussed the situation on this week’s E&C Pod of Awesomeness and said he was originally cleared to return to action by his doctors and teams of concussion specialists assigned by WWE in Phoenix and at UCLA, but WWE officials still wouldn’t let him wrestle again.

Daniel then began experimental, non-FDA approved testing at Evoke Neuroscience in New York City that came with bad news. Doctors said he had a lesion in the back part of his brain.

Bryan said, “I’m just like, ‘Holy sh*t. A lesion.’ I’m like, ‘That’s it, I’m done. I’m finished.’”

A week later Vince McMahon asked Bryan to give his retirement speech on Monday Night Raw in Seattle. Days after his speech, he was contacted by one of the doctors who originally cleared him asking what had happened.

Bryan explained, “I told him what happened and I said, ‘They found a lesion in the temporal-parietal region of my brain.’ He goes, ‘Wait, hold up, a lesion?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And I don’t know what lesion means to you guys, a lesion to me means you have a cut. I have a cut on my brain. He goes, ‘No. Lesion, in medical terminology, is a very vague thing. It just means something is there. We don’t know what it is, so we call it a lesion in the temporal-parietal region of your brain.’”

According to Daniel, it turns out all “lesion” meant was his reflexes in that part of the brain were slower compared to the athletes they usually tested. Compared to a normal person, Bryan was fine. “So I have average reflex time. I was like, ‘Oh no. I don’t think they understand. I’m just an average person, I’m not a real athlete!’ It’s just like, ‘Oh no, there’s been this huge, huge misunderstanding!’”

But the current GM didn’t blame the doctors at Evoke, nor did the the revelation make him want to return to wrestling. At the time he was still trying to have a baby with his wife, Brie Bella.

But once he became the general manager of Smackdown Live, the itch to return came roaring back.

“So all of a sudden I’m around it and I’m not being able to do the part that I love the most. And then they had me out there for an AJ Styles-Dean Ambrose match and it literally tore my heart apart.”

Bryan continued, “And then I was just like, ‘You know what? No. I’m not okay with this.’”

He then began working with the Joe Namath Neurological Research Center in Florida to improve his brain function. They began running tests which showed Bryan had the brain of an average college football player — banged up but not at high risk for brain damage — and thanks to the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treatments (HBOT) he’s been receiving, which we reported on earlier this week, his brain could be fully healthy if he undergoes more treatments.

Bryan said, “There’s this vast improvement. And Brie sees the vast improvement. And then Dr. (Barry) Miskin thinks within 120 total treatments, so 80 treatments more, that my brain could get back to where if you looked at it from any other spectrum, you would think that I’d have never done any contact sports in my entire life.”

Bryan said “there’s no reason why I can’t return to doing what I love” and hopes to come back to wrestling in a part-time, 50-100 matches a year schedule.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Check the full interview at the link below. His concussion comments begin at the 2:02:00 mark.

http://app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/133071/51164888

 

Daniel Bryan teased returning to the ring once his WWE contract expires next year.

During a heated exchange with The Miz on Tuesday’s Talking Smack episode, The Miz made fun of Daniel Bryan for not being able to wrestle because of “his head.”

“I can’t or they won’t let me?,” Bryan replied. We’ll see in a year and a half, we’ll see what happens.”

Bryan was forced to retire in February of last year due to multiple concussions and a lesion on the brain. Dave Meltzer noted in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer that Bryan “was rushed” into that retirement speech by Vince McMahon. While it’s unlikely that WWE will clear Bryan to wrestle by next year, Meltzer noted that one of Bryan’s goals has been to work in CMLL and to do an angle building to a hair vs. hair match at their anniversary show.

During an interview with Jonathan Coachman on ESPN SportsCenter last September, Bryan noted that he had been cleared by several concussion specialists, however was flagged by one test. He said that the more he learns about that test, the more he thinks that it should not have forced him to retire. He aded that he feels 100% and feels everyday that he can wrestle.

Meltzer added that Bryan has a new ring style in mind that would be lower risk while still allowing him to have interesting matches.

Bryan has not wrestled since April 14th, 2015. He teamed with John Cena to defeat Cesaro and Tyson Kidd in a dark match at a SmackDown taping in London, England.

Source: WrestlingINC