Daniel Bryan is "hurting", WWE protecting him on their European tour

Details are currently thin on the ground, but according to Dave Meltzer on his latest Wrestling Observer radio show, Daniel Bryan is "not doing well" and is "hurting", which explains why he wasn't booked to wrestle on television on Monday Night Raw this week and he's predominantly been working in six-man tag team matches on WWE's European tour so far.

The assumption would be that Bryan's neck isn't holding up well to the demands of bumping several times a week that comes with the job of being a full time wrestler.

If that's the case, then that would be sad but unfortunately not altogether surprising news. When Daniel Bryan claimed that a naturopath had miraculously cured his arm strength problems with "Muscle Activation Techniques", there was naturally a healthy dose of online scepticism. Personally, it was reminiscent to how Kurt Angle opted for Dr. Hae-Dong Jho's minimally invasive neck surgery over the established technique of disc fusion in the spring of 2003. Although it cut down his recovery time from at least a year to just two months, not long after returning to action, Angle required further surgery after a chairshot to the head undid all of Jho's work.

Indeed, Vince McMahon was rumoured to be equally as sceptical; Bryan's health supposedly played a large part in the decision to keep him out of the main event picture for the foreseeable future, because WWE weren't convinced that he had made a full, long lasting recovery from his nagging neck problems. Even Daniel Bryan himself admitted to being a little nervous about his neck holding up to the dangers of participating in a multi-man ladder match days before WrestleMania 31.

If Daniel Bryan had complained about being hurt before the start of WWE's European tour, then it might have been wiser for WWE to have held him off the tour for his long-term health and wellbeing. This situation frankly sounds like it bares some similar hallmarks to how CM Punk allegedly worked a gruelling tour of Europe in November 2013 after suffering a serious concussion in a match with Luke Harper the day before flying out overseas:

"I worked Luke Harper in a match and I got hit with something and it fucking rung my bell and I got a concussion. But we were leaving for Europe the next day. So Doc was leaning on me going 'do you want me to... do you have a concussion or can you go to Europe' kind of thing. And I was just like 'you fucking... you pigs. I'll go to Europe. Whatever.' That's on me. That's my fault. I probably shouldn't have. After the European tour, the whole European tour, I'm dry heaving after every match. I mean, luckily I was in tags. It was me and Daniel Bryan vs. The Wyatts and they were awesome, and they were fun -- the parts I remember -- but I'm on all fours after every match and I'm either puking for real or I'm just dry heaving because I don't have anything in my stomach. I have no appetite. I don't know what is up and what is down. I can't sleep. I can't fucking train. It's like a bus, a hotel, a cold building."

I've said it once, but I'll say it again: you can't help but feel that WWE really needs to look after their top talent like Daniel Bryan better.