In recent weeks, WWE has been telling the story of Daniel Bryan not being the same since he lost to Universal Champion Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
Drew Gulak and Heath Slater have been making appearances on SmackDown in segments with Bryan during the last couple of weeks with the story being that Gulak has been offering to help with in-ring mistakes.
I am told that this is Daniel Bryan’s idea and the reason why Gulak and Slater have been appearing on SmackDown lately is that Bryan suggested for them to be used in a storyline with him since he is friends with them and knows that they are underutilized.
“Bryan pitches a lot of his own ideas,” a WWE source said. “Sometimes Vince [McMahon] and Bruce [Prichard] will turn down an idea but a lot of the things he has pitched have been used on TV.”
The same source said that Daniel Bryan is someone who will probably have a job offer to work behind-the-scenes whenever he is ready to retire from in-ring action as he’s seen as one of the smartest wrestlers in the company and everyone respects his wrestling knowledge.
Bryan appears to be in a holding pattern right now as he is currently not in a major storyline. There has been talk of having him face Sheamus at WrestleMania to play off of Sheamus’ 18-second win at WrestleMania XXVIII in 2012. The 18-second win caused a fan backlash on social media and the “YES” movement was born that led to Bryan getting a bigger push.
