Daniel Bryan is a former World Champion but was only cleared to make his return to the ring back in April after spending more than two years on the sidelines.
Bryan has spent the past few months making the most of his return to action by having some fantasy matches on SmackDown Live, before he was finally pushed back in the main title picture back at Super Show-Down.
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Daniel Bryan managed to defeat The Miz in less than two minutes in Australia and earned the right to face AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at Crown Jewel, a title shot that Bryan didn’t want to cash in on.
Bryan will not be part of Crown Jewel when it streams live on the WWE Network tomorrow, and according to The Wrestling Observer, he informed WWE well in advance that he wouldn’t be stepping on that plane.
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Bryan’s reluctance to travel to The Middle East isn’t so much to do with the recent controversy, even though that would have added to his decision, it was more about the fact that he found out how homosexuals were treated in Saudi Arabia and that Sami Zayn wasn’t allowed to perform in the country because he’s a Syrian Muslim something that he regarded as racist.
Bryan requested to lose his match against The Miz back at Super Show-Down because he knew a title shot was looming at Crown Jewel, but obviously, WWE didn’t grant him this request and instead allowed him to win the match and then cash in his shot on SmackDown Live instead so that he wouldn’t be forced to travel to a country who’s beliefs he disagreed with.
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It is also reported that Bryan wasn’t being punished with the loss on SmackDown Live, that was the scheduled end at Crown Jewel so WWE just pushed the match forward and has no ill will towards Bryan for making this decision.
