Aberdeen, Wash., native Daniel Bryan, one of the biggest stars in WWE of the past decade, has been cleared by doctors to return to in-ring action more than two years after his retirement, WWE announced Tuesday.
The timing of the news is fortuitous for WWE fans as the company's biggest event -- WrestleMania -- is less than three weeks away. Bryan is likely to be on the card.
Bryan, whose real name is Bryan Danielson, announced his retirement in Seattle on February 8, 2016, citing repeated concussions.
During Tuesday's edition of Smackdown Live, in which Bryan serves as the general manager, he told fans about how his wife and fellow wrestler Brie Bella urged him to pursue his dream of returning to the ring.
"She's the one who encouraged me to start going to see specialists," Bryan said.
Bryan had repeatedly said in interviews that his own doctors had cleared him to return to the ring, independent physicians specializing in head and neck injuries said that they would clear him to compete. His last hurdle, which seemed like one that might never be cleared, was getting approved by the WWE’s own doctors to return to the ring.
While the WWE has never publicly said why they previously wouldn’t clear Bryan, the speculation was that after years of media scrutiny over the way that the company handles treatment of injured performers, they didn’t want to risk a permanent and/or debilitating injury or worse happening as a result of a performance in one of their rings, possibly on TV.
Bryan had also previously been open about the fact that his contract as an outside the ring performer expired in September of this year, leading to speculation that he would wait until it expired to return to action outside of the company.
WWE appeared to set up an arc at the end of Smackdown Live Tuesday that may ultimately lead to a tag team match at WrestleMania between Bryan and Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
KING 5's Travis Pittman contributed to this report.
