While John Cena was written off of Crown Jewel with a brief Bobby Lashley segment on Raw, Daniel Bryan took a clean loss to AJ Styles and he tapped out to the WWE Champion.
This finish and the post-match attack from Samoa Joe led many to wonder if the company is punishing Bryan for his decision, though latest reports reveal that this isn’t the case.
Bryan Alvarez talked about the upcoming show during the latest Wrestling Observer Live and he revealed that Bryan wasn’t punished.
According to him, the tap out finish we saw was the original plan for the Crown Jewel event, which the company moved up to SmackDown.
Though he also noted that the company doesn’t appear to have any big plans for the former Champion for the rest of the year. So after this loss we can expect Daniel to move away from the title picture.
Although the decision to move up the finish was probably made on the fly after Officials failed to convince Bryan to wrestle at the show. So it can’t be considered their reaction to his refusal.
Whether or not the company actually punishes him for this will be revealed in upcoming times and Officials’ reaction to his decision should be reflected on Bryan’s storylines in near future.
