No! – Unfortunately, the rumors floating around earlier today (May 12, 2014) were true and Daniel Bryan has, in fact, suffered a neck injury that will take him out of action for an undetermined amount of time.

He didn’t reveal the extent of his injuries during his promo on tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw in Greenville, South Carolina, but did get emotional when saying he will have surgery this coming Thursday.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back but I do know I will be back.

“YES! YES! YES!”

No announcement was made regarding the status of the WWE world heavyweight championship, so he is not being stripped of the title, at least not yet. They also failed to acknowledge the Payback pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for June 1 in Chicago, which could mean prior reports of his possibly making a return at that show are still possible and WWE simply doesn’t want to rule anything out just yet.

This leaves the heavy lifting to ongoing feuds between John Cena and Bray Wyatt, and Evolution and The Shield.

The WWE Universe got some sad news last night on Raw when Daniel Bryan confirmed that he needs legitimate neck surgery and will be out from 4-6 weeks. This is especially bad news since WWE is finally starting to run with Bryan as their champion/top dog after being reluctant to elevate him for so long. Just like the CM Punk saga opened the door for Bryan to finally reach that top rung, Bryan’s injury and subsequent surgery leaves a large hole that I’m hoping various superstars can fill.

• The Cena/Wyatt feud has cooled off considerably since WWE had Cena win at Wrestlemania, but I have faith that these two can fill some of the void left by Bryan’s absence. Wyatt is at the point where he can carry a feud on promo’s alone, and hopefully Cena realizes that WWE needs him to step it up and drop the comedy shtick and starts investing in this storyline.
• The Shield vs. Evolution continues to be a strong story, and the “Hounds of Justice” are better than they’ve ever been. HHH, Orton and Batista are natural heels and its really impossible to dislike The Shield at this point. Their match at Extreme Rules stole the show and I wouldn’t mind seeing the build to a rematch on the next three Raws leading up to Payback.
• The tag team division is very strong right now, and it’s time to start building some serious teams. The Uso’s are the best team going right now, and are the rightful tag team champions. You also have teams like Rybaxel, Harper & Rowan, Cody & Goldust and even The Ascension in NXT. They’ve been slow building the tag team division for awhile, but now is the time to get it back on the map.
• Secondary titles (IC, US) need to be important again. You have two great workers (Barrett & Sheamus) holding the titles with a slew of challengers just waiting for more spotlight. Personally, I’d love to see a Sheamus/Cesaro feud for the US title and a Barrett/Ziggler feud for the IC title. These are four guys that can give you 15-20 minute of solid, heavy hitting psychological matches. It even leaves room for triple threat/fatal four way matches with guys like Del Rio, Van Dam and Swagger.

The possibilities are endless for WWE right now, and even though you never want to see a guy get sidelined with an injury, they have enough talent to keep putting on quality shows. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here.

– Ryan