We may be facing a future where Daniel Bryan never wrestles again, at least in a WWE ring.
As coping mechanisms, a lot of fans have considered other possibilities for the fan favorite underdog. WWE is certainly happy to keep him busy, whether that be judging Tough Enough of co-starring with his wife Brie Bella on Total Divas. That's lead others to suggest other work inside the company, such as as a trainer at the Performance Center, or an announcer on Raw or SmackDown.
Bryan, on a public relations tour of Asia (once again proving his worth to Vince McMahon's empire, even if we've seen our last YES! Lock), says he's not ready to think along those lines. He told Malaysian website Pass the Popcorn:
They [WWE] asked me a bunch of stuff of what I'd like to do like announce or be a trainer at NXT. I'm sure at some point in my life I would, but right now it would be too soon.
A really interesting comment from the interview comes elsewhere however, when discussing a couple of his friends who are dealing with the first major injuries of their career. Bryan counsels Seth Rollins and Cesaro to not rush back to the ring:
I would say just make sure to be healthy when you come back and don't rush it. But man, Cesaro, I've known him for years and this is his first major injury. For a guy who's been wrestling that long, that's pretty incredible. Rollins had neck surgery when he was on the independents but other than that he's been relatively injury free.
The former WWE champ then seemingly unintentionally draws a parallel between himself and a couple of guys who had lengthy, relatively injury-free independent careers dealing with a big health setback while on the biggest show in the game:
He [Rollins] and Cesaro are the two guys who actually wrestled more matches than anybody in the WWE. I mean in 2013, the year before my neck surgery, I wrestled more matches than anybody on the roster by a long shot. I did 227 matches that year and that's what happens when you're one of the work horses and are out there doing all those matches, you're bound to get injured.
Have we seen the last of Bryan's in-ring career? And considering a WWE Superstar's workload, are we just lucky we got to see him for as long as we did?