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What's the story?
Daniel Bryan returned to in-ring action much quicker than a lot of people expected, taking all but a month off to recover from an injury. Upon returning, he had a rematch against Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship, albeit in an unsuccessful effort.
The next night, he won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships with Rowan, leading many to ask why he's in a tag team now. Brad Shepard on the Oh You Didn't Know podcast revealed the reason why.
In case you didn't know...
Daniel Bryan reportedly suffered an injury at WrestleMania 35 and the details of it were kept completely in the dark by WWE, who did their best to not reveal any possible information on it.
It's believed that it was a concussion, but there are no reports to confirm the rumours. With Daniel Bryan, injuries are a lot more concerning because he was just cleared for in-ring action early last year.
Regardless, he came back and defeated The Usos to win the vacant SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
The heart of the matter
On the Oh Y,ou Didn't Know podcast, Brad Shepard revealed that WWE is protecting Daniel Bryan by putting him in a tag team (H/T Ringside News).
So Daniel Bryan and Rowan win to give Daniel Bryan a rest I mean we can only presume he’s obviously coming off of neck and back injuries where he had a little time off and they put him with Erick Rowan who is a very large man, but also, very boring then you know it allows him to work those matches and get less physical and obviously that’s healthy for him right now.”
It probably feels like a win-win at the moment for WWE to put Daniel Bryan in a tag team. They did something similar to Sheamus when there were reports of him dealing with spinal stenosis.
It's believed that his two-and-half-year stint with The Bar helped extend his career longevity. As for Bryan, it's not known how long he will be a part of the team, but we can expect him to get back to the main title picture in a matter of months, if not more.
What's next?
Bryan and Rowan don't really have an interesting set of challengers, but it's still going to be fun to see what they can achieve as tag team champions. Who do you want to see challenge them?
