For the past decade, Daniel Bryan has been one of WWE's top stars. Bryan's overwhelming popularity with fans saw him propelled to the main event of WrestleMania 30, where he managed to defeat legends like Batista, Randy Orton, and Triple H in the same night. Bryan also main evented WrestleMania 37 as well, fighting both Edge and Roman Reigns in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Universal Championship. Despite this, it seems Daniel Bryan will be left out of the upcoming WWE 2K22 video game.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter said that video game developers have been sent a memo by WWE that they are not to include Daniel Bryan in their games. Presumably, this would include the upcoming WWE 2K22, currently in development by 2K Sports and Visual Concepts. This supposed memo is being used to provide further evidence that Bryan is jumping ship to All Elite Wrestling, WWE's rival promotion, as rumored.
Recent reports have indicated that Daniel Bryan has signed with AEW, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to WWE considering how hard Bryan has been pushed in the company over the years. According to Meltzer's reporting, one of the reasons why Bryan has decided to sign with AEW is that it will allow him to wrestle for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as well, hence why WWE was reportedly trying to forge a working relationship with the company. It seems those efforts were unsuccessful, however.
Daniel Bryan isn't the only big star that's rumored to be making an appearance in AEW soon. Reports from reliable sources indicate that CM Punk is AEW bound as well, which is significant since Punk has not appeared in a pro wrestling ring in a major capacity since leaving WWE at the beginning of 2014. CM Punk joining AEW would arguably be an even bigger deal due to how long he's been gone from the professional wrestling business.
While CM Punk hasn't been featured in a WWE video game for years, WWE 2K22 losing Daniel Bryan will undoubtedly hurt its roster. But WWE 2K22's loss is the AEW video game's gain. An untitled AEW video game is in active development for consoles from former WWE game developer Yuke's, with involvement from WWF No Mercy's director as well. AEW is clearly going all out with its video game, and being able to promote it with the likes of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan would be huge.
It's unclear when the AEW video game will launch, but WWE 2K22 is expected to be out by the end of the year. There's been some brief WWE 2K22 gameplay footage shown, but the game has otherwise been kept secret. Usually WWE fans can expect video game news around SummerSlam, so more information should come to light sooner rather than later.
WWE 2K22 is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.