The Daniel Bryan backstory has been present in the WWE for a while now. The basic premise is that Bryan was forced to retire from in-ring competition due to concussion issues. While Bryan wasn't ready to retire and he had doctors telling him he was okay, the WWE wouldn't medically clear him as Bryan was having seizure episodes thanks to the lingering effects of taking one too many hits.

Since his retirement, Bryan has been quite vocal about his desire to make a return to wrestling. He's still part of the WWE as the SmackDown Live general manager but it's clearly not where his heart is. Behind the scenes Bryan has been working with concussion specialists in an attempt to heal himself and make a wrestling return. All of this is real life and not a WWE storyline. Well, at least it was.

via wrestling-online.com

It appears there may be some changes coming to the Daniel Bryan saga. In an interview with Peter Rosenberg recorded on Dec. 19, Bryan started his interview as he starts most interviews that ask about his injury status. According to Bryan WWE still hasn't cleared him. But, as the interview goes on, things get interesting.

Bryan says, "It’s an interesting situation. But that has also caused a little rift between me and the commissioner, Shane McMahon, who is Vince McMahon’s son, because there’s like, I don’t know, there’s all this stuff going on. We work together really well, but we also have some beef.”

RELATED: 5 BIGGEST WWE RUMORS OF THE WEEK - SHEAMUS & DANIEL BRYAN

What's interesting about this comment is that it's being presented in a way that follows the storyline actively going on between Bryan and Shane on SmackDown Live. That's not typical of a WWE Superstar talking about injuries, especially one that is keeping him from pursuing his dream of being an in-ring performer. Bryan also hasn't been shy about talking about other promotions and going there if he can't wrestle in the WWE.

With this change of language and context by Bryan, is he setting up the potential for there to be a story here between Shane, Bryan's concussion issues, and the WWE? Would it lead to Bryan making an in-ring return? After all, did Bryan foreshadow the future when he told Shane to fire him if he was going to fire anyone?

Perhaps the interview just took a strange direction and people are reading more into it than they should. That said, Bryan took a bump in the ring at Sunday's Clash of Champions event and he's speaking like his concussion issues have something to do with Shane-O-Mac. That's almost too coincidental not to be noticed.