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Unless you were completely off of the grid in the last 12 hours, you know by now that Bryan "Daniel Bryan" Danielson was released by WWE last night. According to numerous WWE sources, the firing is legitimate and they are being told to move forward as if Bryan is gone (even to the point that he is now edited out of most of the footage from the NXT attack that happened on last Monday's Raw).
The reason we have been told for the company releasing of one of the most talented performers in the business is that he choked Justin Roberts on the show (and damn, don't I remember Heath Slater trying to do the same thing to John Cena with the ring ropes during the same angle).
Danielson's heinous offense was so egregious that he was fired, not given a warning or guidance to that fact that even though he has wrestled all over the world, things here in PGWWE, where the company matriarch is trying to become a US Senator, are just a tad did different than everywhere else you have been. You may be used to pro wrestling, where things are supposed to look realistic, but this is PGWWE, where we don't know the difference between the actors who play characters in The A Team movie and the people themselves.
And Bryan, don't give us that "You didn't know it wasn't OK to get physical" line of BS either. WWE is not a wrestling promotion friend, they make movies. They entertain. Clearly, what you did to Roberts wasn't entertaining to kids, I guess. And don't even tell me that you saw a Raw recently where Edge snuck up on Randy Orton and bashed him with a door. That's OK because everyone knows that a tie is much more deadly than a door. Certain felonies are perfectly acceptable in WWE but others aren't, got it? Me either.
What makes matters worse is that Danielson was a major cog in the best angle that WWE has done in years, and I mean many years. He was a guy who came into WWE with all of his fans skeptical of how he would be used and instead he quickly became THE star of NXT. We all knew he could work, but damn he also showed the world that he could do promos and show great personality too. Now, if WWE.com is to be believed he is gone, and he will probably take a lot of the joy of that great angle with him.
Of course, where WWE is concerned I am always skeptical. At first, I had hoped that this was just part of an angle to further the NXT invasion. Perhaps it still is, but given that they posted the news on their website near midnight on a Friday, which is the black hole for companies to release news that they want read by the fewest amount of people, I don't think that will be the case.
Then I wondered it perhaps he kicked Superman Cena too hard in the head (you know because in wrestling it's OK for some people to get hurt but not others). If that turns out to be the case, and again I am just wondering because WWE doesn't feel that its "Universe" deserves explanations to important things related to the company, then there will be a lot of skewerings of WWE and/or Cena coming in the near future.
Given that the company worked most of its employees as to what was going to happen at the end of Raw on Monday, we can hold out hope that this is an elaborate ruse, one that will impugn what credibility WWE.com has left but that doesn't really matter. Perhaps it's the next step in the nWo shoot style angle that began on Monday. If that is the case, it's fine by me. WWE.com isn't exactly the site I go to when I am looking for the straight dope on WWE anyway.
But if that is not the case and Bryan has been let go for, in effect, being a pro wrestler, then this company has completely gone off of the rails and Vince McMahon can look forward to more conference calls where he has to try and explain dipping ratings and dropping PPV buyrates to concerned stockholders. If that is the case, here's a hint Vince. Before the call, go into the bathroom and stand in front of the mirror. The answer will be looking back at you.
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