4 Ups And Downs From Last Night’s WWE Smackdown (Jan 15)

4. Daniel Bryan Not Winning Clean In First Match Back

It should have been easy to figure out. Daniel Bryan was hyped up for his first match back after missing eight months due to a serious neck injury. A match with Kane was the right call because he’s a veteran that could work a safe match with Bryan. Even though Kane is one of the biggest guys in WWE, he has always been considered a safe worker.

Their match was a good battle with Bryan starting out on fire, Kane dominating for much of it and then Bryan making the big comeback. The crowd really came alive when he was doing his patented moves.

For the finish, Bryan tried to apply the Yes Lock on Kane. Before he could really lock it in, Jamie Noble & Joey Mercury (also known as J&J Security) went into the ring to attack Bryan. That forced the ref to ring the bell for the disqualification finish.

Bryan got the win in this competitive 13 minute match, but it wasn’t the clean win that he should have had. That’s also because he had another match we’ll get to later. The point is still relevant because this was the first match back that he should have won clean. They could have done the attack post match to set up the attack.