Daniel Bryan scheduled for WWE Raw and Smackdown next week (Jan. 12 - 13, 2015)

There were a few faces that fans had hoped to see who were absent from the first Monday night Raw of 2015.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar had returned to menace Edge & Christian last week, and to stand with The Authority at the end of the night.

Many were looking for a couple of logical Authority foes to return, such as Randy Orton or even (the vigilante) Sting.

While there's no word on the latter two (outside of the murmurs that The Viper is indeed hurt and won't be seen until at least Royal Rumble), and we know Brock has to come back to start building to his now triple threat title match at that pay-per-view (PPV), we didn't have anything definitive on last week's surprising news that former WWE champ Daniel Bryan would be returning to action in January.

Now, PWInsider reports, and WWE.com's events pages confirm, that Bryan is booked for not only the January 12th Raw in New Orleans, but also the Smackdown taping the next night in Baton Rogue.  The January 13th show will be the first Thursday night edition of the blue brand since 2005.

Can Bryan save us from The Authority?  Or the WWE doldrums some of us are expriencing?  Though it's pretty clear he won't be wrestling, next week we'll start to find out whether the answer to those question is YES, or NO!