Breaking Down WWE's Most Controversial, Shocking Stories for the Week of March 9

The WWE is on no shortage of shocking or controversial stories as WrestleMania season draws near. It's early March, and just about everyone who's anyone has an obvious program, from Shane Mcmahon's imminent tilt with AJ Styles to Roman Reigns' polarizing potential matchup against The Undertaker. 

The rest of the month, headed into April, figures to be full of surprises, twists and turns, and it's all thanks to the WWE's biggest event of the year. 

Daniel Bryan: On his way out of the WWE? 

Despite "retiring" in a memorable public ceremony in 2016, Daniel Bryan has made no bones about the fact that he likely hasn't wrestled his final match. Bryan has casually thrown around terms like "never say never" during a recent interview with The Gorilla Position podcast (h/t Wrestling Inc), while insisting that he has been cleared by independent neurologists despite the WWE's best wishes.

Bryan continued to fan the flames of a potential in-ring return when he noted, on the free-flowing hit show Talking Smack: "I can't [wrestle] or they won't let me? We'll see in a year and a half; we'll see what happens." 

Bryan loves wrestling too much for his swan song to be a seemingly forced retirement from a conglomerate that may have had his best interests in mind. Bryan has never been at peace with his so-called retirement, often opening up about how hard it is to sit on the sidelines. If Bryan returns, it will likely be in the confines of an independent promotion. Still, watch out. 

Goldberg becomes WWE Universal Champion  

As speculated, Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens in under a minute to become WWE Universal champion as his comeback tour continues to thrive. The part-time star became a world champion just in time for the city of Chicago to turn on him, chanting "CM Punk" during a heartfelt promo while cheering a surprise appearance—and attack—by Brock Lesnar. 

Goldberg and Lesnar figure to headline WrestleMania in a match that will elevate Raw's biggest championship, but it will be interesting to see if the inevitable fan revolt was a one-time thing from an often-reckless Chicago crowd, or if fans are getting tired of Goldberg's squash matches in an era when they are typically spoiled with long-winded simulations of independent wrestling matches. 

Roman defeats Bran Strowman as Undertaker WrestleMania Match Looms 

After the WWE spent months building up the highly successful Monster Among Men that is Braun Strowman, top star Roman Reigns became the fist WWE Superstar to defeat the seemingly unstoppable beast at WWE Fastlane. In addition to his unique new choice in footwear, Reigns caused an uproar for scoring an elusive victory that many feel he may not need. Hopefully, the WWE still has plans to protect Strowman, even through a possible future world championship run that I feel he has earned. 

Meanwhile, Reigns prepares for The Undertaker in a polarizing match. After Reigns' victory over Strowman, who had never been defeated by pinfall or submission, it's anybody's guess as to whether or not he will score an even more elusive victory over The Undertaker. This is what makes Reigns the ideal opponent for The Deadman. 

Miz Fires back at John Cena 

As much as I loved the exchange between The Miz and John Cena last week on SmackDown, I wasn't a huge fan of the predictable formula of the heel setting himself up to being verbally picked apart by Cena. Miz turned that all around this past week on Talking Smack, a place where he has thrived since the brand split, with a scathing rebuttal to Cena's accusations from last week. 

In response to Cena's barbs of Miz stealing his personality, Miz compared Cena to Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark while pointing out that Cena's own thievery of his finisher, his T-shirt and his girlfriend. 

Bars. 

Miz is one of the few WWE Superstars who not only can hang with Cena on the mic, but also has seemingly earned the trust of the WWE to go in deeper than others. As I've been saying since this rumored match was announced, TotalMania should be good. 

Shane McMahon vs...AJ Styles? 

AJ Styles had a potential WrestleMania main event swept from under him, and his consolation prize seems to be a date with Shane McMahon. Though the AJ Styles character should be upset about this development, a match against a McMahon will likely be treated as a higher priority than a world-title match for the B show. 

Styles is the type of talent who can have a great match with anybody, including the highly-athletic-for-a-guy-in-his-40s Shane McMahon. Depending on the stipulation, Styles-McMahon is my dark-horse choice to steal the show. 

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.