For many months, SmackDown Live has centered around an ongoing struggle between Commissioner Shane McMahon, General Manager Daniel Bryan, and the way they interact with the wrestlers they’re in charge of, namely Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. WWE has quite clearly been building to a match involving all four at WrestleMania 34 but because Bryan hasn’t been cleared to wrestle, it’s unclear what that will look like.
Unless something has changed and he will be wrestling.
The National in the UAE straight up asked him and got this response:
“I don’t know and I don’t think they know. I think it all depends on whether or not I get cleared. As of this moment, as of today, I am not cleared by WWE. I have done everything in my power. Everything they have asked me to and I have gone above and beyond as far as ‘Ok, what doctors do you need me to see. Send me to any doctor you want, any doctor that you want and lets get their feedback on what is going on with me’. So far every doctor has cleared me that they have sent me too and so there is a chance. I used to think that the percentage of the WWE ever clearing me was low. I think with the stuff that I have done it has gone a little higher but I don’t know how much higher. With how everything is there is one day to go if I don’t get cleared [storyline wise] and then there is another way to go if I am cleared. I am hoping to be cleared but I don’t know which way it goes.”
That’s intriguing, to say the least.
Over at the Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer had this to say:
“A few weeks ago we had received certain information about strong moves by him to attempt to get cleared and last week, as noted by the tease in the Observer this week, the specifics that if he is cleared he would be in the tag team match was noted.”
So we’ve moved from “he isn’t cleared and therefore not wrestling” to “he’s still not cleared but trying hard to get cleared and if he does get cleared he’ll be in a tag team match.” It was a hard “no” and now it’s a big fat “maybe.”
SmackDown last week featured Owens and Zayn injuring McMahon just after he announced he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence as Commissioner of the show, but not before booking the two in a singles match against each other at WrestleMania 34. He also said Bryan will return to television next week and will be running the show himself.
So we’ll know more sooner rather than later.
Stay tuned.
