Those of us expecting a return to the squared circle for Daniel Bryan in the future got some bad news on Monday. Bryan announced on Twitter that he was retiring effective immediately, and would be on Monday’s episode of Raw in Seattle to explain his decision.
Due to medical reasons, effective immediately, I am announcing my retirement. Tonight on Raw, I'll have a chance to elaborate. #gratitude
— Bryan Danielson (@bryandanielson) February 8, 2016
The 34-year old wrestler has dealt with concussions in recent years, and hasn’t wrestled since participating in a tag team match on the April 14th edition of Raw nearly ten months ago. Bryan also missed seven months in 2014, meaning that he’s only been active for a total of four of the last 21 months.
The former indy wrestling darling had a strange career in WWE. After debuting in 2010 as part of the first series of NXT on WWE programming, he was released later in the year following an incident in which he choked ring announcer Justin Roberts with a tie.
WWE brought Bryan back a few months later as part of “Team WWE” in their SummerSlam tag team match against The Nexus.
Throughout his career in WWE, Bryan was often the victim of poor booking, culminating with an 18 second loss to Sheamus at WrestleMania XXVIII that saw his World Heavyweight Championship reign ended after 105 days. After two cup of coffee runs as WWE Heavyweight Champion in 2013, Bryan finally claimed the prize for what seemed like the long-term at WrestleMania XXX before the concussion issues led to him being forced to step away from the ring.
It’s a shame to see his career end this way, but it’s not a surprise at all. I first saw Bryan wrestle live more than 13 years ago, and his style has grown more and more physical in recent years. Combine that with WWE’s expanded schedule (compared to the indies), and you have the recipe for a shortened career.
Of course, this could just be part of a storyline – but given what we know about Bryan’s injury issues and the backstage politicking between Bryan and WWE’s doctors, I’d be willing to bet this is the end of Bryan’s career.
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