Daniel Bryan Remaining on Sidelines a Result of WWE Being Overprotective

A warrior at the ready, a wrestler awaiting the feel of the canvas under his boots, Daniel Bryan finds himself crashing into the blockade that is WWE's hesitancy. 

Bryan's concussion history and long medical record are partly to blame for him not being in action right now, but so are the lawsuits WWE is dealing with, as is the company's desire for good public relations. SummerSlam is without a major star, not because he's not able to compete, but because WWE is timid about what might happen.

In May, Bryan walked away from the ring following an emotional but vague address, leaving the Intercontinental Championship on the mat behind him.

Fast-forward over two months, and he still hasn't returned. An undisclosed injury turned out to be a concussion, but Bryan says that he's fully healed.

He told Maggie Gray of Sports Illustrated that a doctor cleared him:

In an interview on Busted Open (h/t Wrestling Inc), Bryan further explained, saying, "I am cleared by the neurologist in Phoenix that I've been going to see. It's not like he's a quack doctor. He was the neurologist for the Super Bowl who has no problems in clearing me with no limitations."

Then what's the problem? Why isn't Bryan twisting his foes' limbs back or kicking them in the chest?

PWInsider's Mike Johnson has heard that WWE is being wary with how it handles the former world champ. He writes, "As it has been explained to me, WWE has been concerned about how often Bryan has gotten injured in such short periods of time and is extremely cautious about clearing him to return."

Credit: WWE.com

Being cautious in the case of concussions is smart. It's great to see that WWE has gone from scripting chair shots to the head to being more protective of its talent's gray matter. But they are overdoing it with Bryan.

Run the tests, go through the protocol, and either cut him or let him compete. 

Corey Graves got to the point with his concussions that WWE moved him to an announcer's role. Is Bryan really at that point? He's certainly had more than his share of head injuries from his pre-WWE days, but they haven't been occurring so close together that one needs to put him in the same category as Graves.

Bryan hasn't wrestled since mid-April. That means he's been on the shelf for over a month longer than Dolph Ziggler was when he suffered a particularly nasty concussion in 2013. His concussion was so severe that it affected his memory, leaving him in a daze.

Ziggler told WWE.com, "I didn't know what day it was; I didn't know what month it was. I've had a couple of concussions before and just had a headache. I've never not remembered entire days, like someone in a movie."

Still, he was back in about a month, back to the grind. Ziggler did go on to suffer another concussion in 2014, but WWE simply went through the appropriate steps again, waited for The Showoff to heal and then put him back to work.

A different landscape surrounds Bryan now, though. WWE is fending off plaintiffs claiming that working for the company put them in danger, especially when it comes to head injuries.

In April, TMZ reported, "Three wrestlers have sued the WWE on behalf of all current and former wrestlers who have suffered serious brain and other damage as a result of 'egregious mistreatment' by the organization." 

That served as a pile-on. WWE was already dealing with another case. Early this year, Vito LoGrasso and Evan Singleton (who wrestled as Adam Mercer) filed a similar lawsuit, per CNBC.

These cases have the WWE on edge so much that it has reportedly asked Seth Rollins to keep his Curb Stomp finisher on ice. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Wrestling Inc), the move is said to be "on hold" while the lawsuits are ongoing.

The finisher is not any more dangerous than some of the high-impact moves wrestlers perform every day. It's just that it looks dangerous. Rollins' doesn't really drive anyone's head into the mat, just as Undertaker doesn't drill his opponent's head into the mat with the Tombstone Piledriver, but that would be hard to explain to a jury or a judge who is not familiar with the ins and outs of wrestling.

And so just as the WWE is biding its time with the Curb Stomp, trying not to make it look like it is creating an unsafe work environment, Bryan is being asked to take a long seat on the bench.

Perhaps there's the fear that if Bryan gets another concussion right as plaintiffs are arguing that working for WWE leads to concussions, there will be legal ramifications.

If WWE's concussion protocol is sound, however, and if it is taking reasonable precautions, there's no reason to not allow Bryan back into the ring. He's at risk of a head injury, sure, but so is Ziggler and every person who steps between those ropes.

The company can't leave Bryan in limbo until the slow-going legal process takes its course.