Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer says that if this isn't a work (and that's looking less and less likely) than he's heard there's a decent chance that Danielson gets hired back by WWE once this all blows over. What do you think about that possibility? Good write-up by the way.

I agree that the WWE probably shouldn't have let go of Bryan after this one offense, but again, I can also understand why some people would find the image shocking. I think what separates this from the JBL/Jericho and Cena/Orton cases is that this was done to a non-wrestler. Also, I think that they have been informed about what was acceptable beforehand. If you watch video on the incident, Heath Slater looked like he was going to choke Cena on the broken ring ropes for a second, but then dropped them. That seems to suggest that he may have remembered something.

The big question that I have is had his actions not been caught on camera, would he have gotten in trouble? Indeed, I thought he had Roberts in a submission hold at first, but after a second, I realized that he had ahold of his tie.

Apparently, John Cena made some comments on his Twitter account. He sounds like he didn't agree with the release either. Perhaps he may get involved to help bring Bryan back.

As well, from what I've heard and read, the WWE does want to bring him back once things blow over. Have you heard anything about this, Kev?

I agree Kevin,

I just hope he can come back and the NXT faction will not be the same without Daniel Bryan. He is truly one of the key elements of that group.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Kevin, but I would think that WWE firing him (rather than him quitting) would void any no-compete clause. Am I mistaken? You certainly would know better than I would.

I'd rather see him wrestling Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, or Matt Morgan than dancing with Vladimir Kozlov, playing dress-up with The Great Khali, or teaming with Hornswaggle anyway!

I try not to get mad at wrestling because, well, it's wrestling, but this makes me pretty mad.

"For example, it’s OK to hit someone in the back with a chair 18 times or run someone over with a car, but choking someone with a tie is not OK."

__________________________________

You forgot to mention crotch chops. Or does the company assume that the recently expanded demographics of women and children do not know what that gesture means? True, it's not an act of simulated violence, but if I were a sponsor, I would frown on it more so than on a chokehold.

Kev, what are the chances this is all a huge work to get the internet talking and further the NXT angle?

I've also noticed that the only two things edited out of the replays are him choking Justin Roberts and him spitting on Cena, so those have to be the reasons. plus, if they were "working" us, they would've fired all of the NXT talent that same day. BD just made a segment meant to be "shocking and realistic" even more real. All of those guys would've been future endeavored, making them real outlaws. and thus the angle would mean more. now it shows a chink in the chain, so to speak, it shows us that they aren't those things...

Sacking Bryan for this is massively ridiculous, no matter how important the complainant is (thinks they are). And the fact that it is because of Benoit is even more ridiculous. Political correctness has actually gone so far in the USA that it is nothing more than a joke.

viva la raza

NO ONE LIKES PG so TAKE IT OFF!!!!

Days where stone cold said HELL!!! without getting bleeped or DX said every name in the book. WHERE HARDCORE was in EVERY SHOW!!!!

I went to a wwe house show and almost fell asleep....i went to a TNA show and was blown away....

PG IS KILLING WWE

The unfortunate part of all of this is that I thought everything Danielson did during the Invasion angle made it that much more intriguing.

We'll see how much WWE pays for this release tonight on Raw I guess.

nice post , though you may have already read cena's elaborate tweet expressing dissapointed and infact going so far to say that he will sign a petition to bring bryan back !! if this doesn't shout work then I dont knw what will ?? !!

though if its legit , CENA has gone against the company and shows he is a class act ( though the face going against the WWE is being tooo naive for me )

Also read some wrestling sites , they are reporting that :

According to several sources within WWE, John Cena's latest tweet concerning Bryan Danielson's WWE release has garnered Cena quite a bit of heat amongst the boys in the locker room. The general feeling amongst the talent is that they are all part of a major work, as Cena has been curiously outspoken about the release of Bryan Danielson. It is unlikely that a WWE star would ever publicly criticize a decision made by the company, so a lot the guys in the back feel that Cena is in on something that they are not aware of.

All I can say is that barring Bret's return , i cannot remember the last time I was so excited to tune into RAW :) and that can only be a good thing :)

I really think that after what Cena said on Twitter this has to be a work.

There' something else that I've not seem mentioned else. If a wrestler is caught using drugs, they get not one but two warnings. Is the WWE management not capable of simply telling Bryan not to do the same thing again? Why do wrestlers caught taking drugs get two warnings while Bryan doesn't? Linda McMahon's political opponents should be jumping on this blatant double standard: how is pretending to choke someone a more serious offence than actually taking drugs?

"Once his non-compete is up, TNA will likely be all over him"

Not so sure that that's a good thing. Everyone thought it was a great coup when TNA got Desmond Wolfe, yet here they are, jobbing him out time and again to some comedy wrestler who got super powers from a ring.

I now think you KEV, are part of the work. Many valid points by posters. Why did the camera man show the "stramgle"? isnt there a director telling him to get THAT shot? Wasn't Cena being scarily brutalized? wouldnt Bryans twitter account immediatly be closed if the WWE set it up, or, would he really still use it?
ISNT WRESTLING THE greatest?!!

I think it's a work, and one reason is the explanation that this has anything to do with Linda McMahon's campaign. No political operative worth hiring on a senatorial campaign would tell you that the footage of Bryan choking Roberts would make any difference whatsoever. The reason being, there is more than enough damning footage in WWE's history. The only thing WWE could do in the present to make a difference to the campaign would be something truly shocking, like an angle glorifying Islamic fundamentalism or pedophilia. Monday's footage isn't that. It was just too similar to a million other things WWE has aired to warrant any political notice.

The fact that Cena (the "face of the company," as you point out) defended Bryan on Twitter also points to this being a work. I respect Dave Meltzer, but I just don't believe this firing is legitimate.

Lastly, to Michael in Virginia: Almost all performers who are "released" by WWE have been what you or I would consider "fired." It doesn't affect their noncompete agreements.

While I don't agree with Danielson receiving the "best in your future endeavors" route, I do think he had to be aware of the policy. Heck, I am aware of the policy and remember when it was brought in. I thik he is paying dearly for a brain fart. LIke all said, hopefully when this blows over he can come back.

What kills me about this, is WWEs ratings are suffering, and this for the first time in a long while, made the following Monday anticipated. The NXT faction attacking Raw was something to tune in for to see what is going to happen. As far as PG wrestling, have the kids go watch Spongebob, and if your mommy and daddy can't explain to you life vs fiction, the the politicians are right. "Video Games make murderers."

There was also a hilarious rumour going that Triple H forced Bryan out of WWE because his actions on Raw caused HHH's children to cry during Raw and he feared for everyone's children, which is so ludicrous that it only bears mentioning so that we can all mock it together.

Some how I knew Triple H will get dragged into this

I'm in two minds over this story. Part of me thinks that Danielson's release is real, and he's being the sacrificial lamb.

Part of me thinks this is all some devious social media experiment on the side of the WWE.

Let's look at this objectively. After last Monday night's RAW, it was being widely being reported that WWE execs were delighted with the performance of the WWE Rookies in the show's closing segment. The segment drew instant heat on the internet, with thousands packing the forums, Youtube, Twitter, newsgroups etc. saying how amazed and impressed they were by the angle.

And now this story has broke, and the fire has been fuelled, TNA's Slammiversary PPV has been lost in the background, and all eyes are on RAW tonight again to find out the truth.

WWE.com has made a huge push with social media over the last few months. Dozens of their stars - and ALL the NXT Rookies - have been signed up to Twitter accounts, and regularly attempt to engage their fans.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Danielson's Twitter account name change, the subsequent announcement of his release and John Cena's following backing of the guy on Twitter are all part of an experiment by the WWE, in how to effectively utilise social media to generate hype for their events and engage their fans.

After all, who better than the Internet Wrestling Community's number one hero, Bryan Danielson to use as a test subject?

If this is all an elaborately planned storyline, it could be amongst the best work the WWE has done in years.

If it's legit, and Danielson HAS been released.. well, the backlash seen online over the last two days should show all by itself how badly the WWE has dropped the ball.

If the reason he was let go was due to outside pressures I think that is pretty weak. I think though that it could end up working well for WWE. Say after his 90 day no compete is up he starts showing up at WWE events in the crowd and starts attacking guys to start off a return angle. It could end up making him hotter than the NXT angle could have.

Hey Kevin, do you read the FCW TV taping recaps. Danielson performed at the taping after Raw. To me that lends a lot of credibility to the outside influence thing. If WWE themselves were going to fire him I don't think it would have taken until Friday night and I don't think he would have been performing at the FCW show.

Just for work/shoot sake, how can a wrestler that lost on NXT even "be under contract?" I was led to believe that Wade Barrett was the only one of the 8 that technically is employed by WWE ... and the others were just there to tear up the ring and the company last Monday. Leading me to believe (and hope against hope) that this is a work.

How lame of the WWE to fire Danielson. The whole idea of the angle involved the violence. Without the stunned fan reactions, the angle doesn't work, and they write it off as a failure - instead of doing what they've been doing all week - using it as the reason to stay tuned tonight on MNR. They had to do some over the top stuff to get that reaction. Danielson was just doing his job - what they wanted him to do - very well. Getting fired for it makes no sense. If I'm him, I bolt to TNA now.

Hey Kev, can you see Vince, due to increased bending to outside pressures, become the Al Davis of wrestling. Where his organization continues to flounder until he steps down. If Linda's political aspirations are behind this release then it is an incredibly bad business decision. You basically hamstring your most talked about angle in a while because of an outside, non-business influence. Sure you appease them but you hurt yourself at the same time. That's like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It doesn't make much sense.

What about the person who aimed the camera at the choke-hold? Is he fired too?

This is so stupid, and if it's not a work, Bryan should be hyping up that he took on the WWE, spit in its face, and he's not done yet (meaning TNA is next). TNA would be wise to begin thinking out a storyline for his debut (should it happen).

You guys have to remember that Justin was a ring announcer and not a wrestler.

well i doubt wwe is going to be the loser - bryan is hardly mr irreplaceable and where is he going to go to if he has cut his ties witht he wwe?? TNA or independant - come on! hardly where he wants to be is it - if he wants to make it in the wrestling business its wwe he needed to be in.

I think you'll find there is more to it than that you have described too - wwe wouldnt cut off its nose to spite its face - if bryan was that good then they'd have made sure he went nowhere. look at what they did with hardy, umaga etc - they stuck with them so i think there will be more to this (attitude, apptitude etc etc)

You know who's fault this all is? The ring announcer. He did an incredibly job selling the choke. It definitely looked real on TV.

It sounds like this is not a work. That's horribly sad for the momentum of Bryan Danielson and the compelling angle that he was bringing to the WWE programming.

I am, however, reminded that Vince once bowed to pressure to release Shawn Michaels. After it all blew over, Shawn was brought back and look at how that turned out.

Here's hoping that Bryan can follow in his teacher's footsteps.

Could the pressure for action aganits Daniels come from Justin Roberts? That choke looked insane and maybe he was threatening leagal action. I can see taking some "shots" from performers when you're just a rinng annoucer unless previously discussed for more, but that tie choke was kinda brutal. Maybe going off-book was not a good idea on Daniel's part and Justin took offense to it? Just saying...

Bryan choked out Roberts the same way Benoit choked his family to death. Surprised more people haven't picked up on that yet ...

I think it was a work for two reasons. 1) The truck didnt have to send the shot of Danielson choking out Roberts to the viewers at home. They could have focused on one of the other cameras catching some of the destruction at ringside. And 2) at one point Darren Young had the ropes in hand and it was pretty obvious that he intended to choke Cena with them. One of the other guys let him know that was taboo and he just tossed the ropes aside.

Leads me to believe that the guys knew the rules going in, and that we will surely see Bryan Danielson back in the WWE soon.

Yeah nobody has picked up on that TD *rolls eyes*

You're a bit slow mate!

wwe made a mistake by making wade barrett say daniel bryan had remorce and the messed up there best angle since the attitude era

i agree to with everybody. bryan did go a little bit to far with the choking of justin roberts. but really? they fire him because its too violent for pg? sooner or later, someone will get suspended because they john cena with a chair. He is basicially untouchable to the company. vince turned his back to all the adults and teenagers who made this company booming. now i see hornswoggle doing sh*t and great khali dancing. of course the kids love it, but the male adults dont! there is probably someone in the cmpany that agrees with all of us but doesnt want to sa it because he might get fired.

If he were truly released, his link on WWE would read 'unable to be found', but it is still there. WWE is using Twitter just to see what kind of a reaction they can get. It's genius, and WWE hasn't been guilty of anything smart in a long while.

If Bryan Danielson was really fired, why is there no info on the WWE corporate site?
http://corporate.wwe.com/news/releases_2010.jsp

Let me start by saying i love the wwe......but with that being said ...they use the talent like sheep or cattle they tell you what they want then if you upset certain groups or offend the wrong people they get rid of you .......remember miss kitty...they told her to go topless on ppv and she did people got upset and she was fired ...fair???

well the ppv were cena choked out randy orton with handcuffs was planned but Daniel Bryan choking justin wasnt planned in anyway and he knew it so he deserves the consequences he is facing right now