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What's the story?
Daniel Bryan was a recent guest on Chris Jericho's podcast, Talk Is Jericho. The episode that premiered on Tuesday, May 9th, and Jericho revealed to Bryan and the rest of the world that he was the contingency plan for the tag team match at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans.
In case you didn't know...
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens were aligned for several months, and the partnership led to a fair amount of success. That partnership would come to an abrupt end at the highly entertaining "Festival of Friendship" that occurred in February of 2017.
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The heart of the matter
Just two weeks before WrestleMania 34, the WWE announced that Shane McMahon was hospitalized. The true nature of the hospitalization was never revealed, but the WWE said he suffered from diverticulitis and an umbilical hernia as a result of the storyline attack that Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn delivered the week prior.
If Shane was not medically cleared to wrestle, Chris Jericho was going to fill in and be Daniel Bryan's tag team partner. This was a fact that Bryan did not know until his appearance on Talk Is Jericho, but he stated he was aware of Shane's medical situation and that there was a contingency plan in place.
Jericho was not a part of the Road to WrestleMania as he was on tour with Fozzy at the time. Interestingly enough, Fozzy had a show on WrestleMania night with a WrestleMania watch party to follow. Thankfully for everyone involved, everything happened to go as planned.
What's next?
Chris Jericho returns to New Japan Pro-Wrestling next month to face Tetsuya Naito at Dominion on June 9th. The match will be for Naito's IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
As for Daniel Bryan, it is unknown what is next for him after losing to Rusev this week on SmackDown Live for a chance to qualify for the Money In The Bank Ladder Match. It remains to be seen if there will be a final chance opportunity down the road for those who lost their qualifying matches.
Author's take
When Shane was legitimately hospitalized, I immediately thought Jericho would have been a great replacement due to his history with Kevin Owens. Considering Fozzy had a show that evening, I wonder if Jericho would have said yes to the match even if Shane couldn't go.
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