Smackdown Live star Daniel Bryan, who is one of the most celebrated fan favorites in WWE, will see his contract with the company expire on September 1st, and as of this writing Bryan has yet to re-sign a new deal.
We reported over the weekend that despite Bryan not having signed a new deal, with just under two weeks left on his current contract, he is more than likely going to be re-signing with WWE.
“I think at this point it’s 90-plus-percent. I would say it’s likely I will sign with WWE,” Bryan said in an interview on The Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast.
“I have not re-signed yet, but it could happen as soon as the end of this week, and it might be a couple more weeks or whatever it is,” the former WWE Champion added.
Daniel Bryan then spoke with FOX Sports ahead of WWE SummerSlam and noted the process of signing a new contract with WWE has taken longer than expected because, for the first time in his career, he has hired a lawyer to oversee contract negotiations.
“This is the first time in my career, ever – the thing that’s taking so long with all of it is I’ve never hired a lawyer before to look at a contract, so this is the first time I’ve done it, so it just takes longer than usual (laughs),” said Bryan.
In an interview conducted with Sky Sports over the weekend, Bryan further revealed that in closely looking at his contract, WWE does in fact have an option to roll his deal over for one more year should the company decide to do so. This would make it impossible for Bryan to leave the company when his current deal expires, even if he does not re-sign a new contract.
“But what we just found out recently is that WWE has an option year so that could have kicked in too,” Bryan admitted.