Daniel Bryan’s WWE contract is set to expire on September 1st and as of this week, the former WWE champion has yet to sign a new deal.
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While most are still expecting Bryan to re-sign in the end, according to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, he had not signed as of Wednesday. However, Dave Meltzer reported recently during an episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that “there’s a lot of weird stuff going on.”
Bryan has been removed from some upcoming live event cards, which is actually a move that has taken place to try to satisfy Bryan as he has been vocal about wanting a lighter workload in his next contract. The company is trying to do what they can to make him happy and eventually sign that new contract but it has yet to happen.
Even so, Bryan is still continuing to be advertised for upcoming events following September 1st. WWE has a tour of Europe in November that he is being promoted as participating in, as well as Super Show-Down in Australia in October and a show at Madison Square Garden on December 26. As always, WWE cards are marked as “card subject to change,” so if Bryan does not re-sign, they were in their legal right to advertise him for those shows while he was still under contract as promotion was created.
During this week’s edition of SmackDown Live, Bryan and Miz closed out the show with an excellent back and forth war of words. Miz got some digs in on Bryan, saying that he should just not re-sign with the company, again referred to him as a hero of the indies, and really just ran him down like a good heel is supposed to do. Meltzer notes, though, that some of those lines were probably thrown in by management due to their frustrations with the current contract situation.
Bryan versus Miz has yet to be confirmed for SummerSlam, though there is no doubt that the match will be happening. Given that the feud takes back to the duo trading words on Talking Smack two years ago, it is actually one of the longest and well-built feuds the company has going for them. If Bryan is out the door on September 1st, it would have been foolish to have not pulled the trigger with the feud.
It’s certainly up for debate whether WWE would have pulled the trigger on the Miz/Bryan match this early had he re-signed earlier. It’s definitely a story they could have built even slower, perhaps with an encounter at WrestleMania next year. However, Bryan’s contract situation kind of forced WWE’s hand and a SummerSlam match was a necessity at this point.
