An update has surfaced regarding the final months of Bryan Danielson’s run in WWE as Daniel Bryan.
According to a new report at Fightful Select, sources within WWE spoke highly of how Danielson conducted himself in the final weeks and days that led to his departure from the company.
Apparently the decision to add Danielson to the Universal Championship match at WrestleMania 37 was a last-minute call made by WWE. He was not even in consideration in the original plans, which were made back when Edge won the Royal Rumble 2021 match to move on to the title bout at WrestleMania.
Around the time of the Royal Rumble 2021 PPV, there was reportedly never any serious talks behind-the-scenes to have Danielson win the 30-man over-the-top men’s Royal Rumble match.
Regardless, he ended up in a spot along with Edge and Roman Reigns in the WrestleMania 37 main event. It’s also worth noting that WWE sources praised Danielson’s professionalism in his final program with Reigns before leaving the company for AEW.
One source apparently claimed that “he handled things so well that a lot of people didn’t think he was actually leaving or taking any time off. We couldn’t have asked for more.”
Reigns beating Danielson on the April 30 edition of SmackDown was his final in-ring appearance for WWE, and company officials claimed he was praised behind-the-scenes for his work in the match and the post-match angle for “making it look as good as possible” despite knowing he was on the way out.
The same Fightful Select report also notes that in late 2020, a possibility was there for a tag-team run with Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens, with Owens commenting about never being a tag-team champion in WWE.
The idea for a tag-team with the two was pitched around this time, however there were never any firm plans in place to give the two a run as a tag-team.
WWE sources claim that the door is open for a potential return for Danielson at some point in the future, if he were so inclined to do so, as he left the company “on very good terms.”
Prior to his AEW in-ring debut against Kenny Omega, The Players Tribune published a column that was written by Danielson himself dubbed, “Thank you, WWE.”
