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WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan Announces His Retirement; More Info To Come On Raw

By John Canton • Published 8th February 2016
TJR Wrestling

Daniel Bryan announced on Twitter at 1:07pmET that he is retiring from WWE due to medical reasons and he noted it was effective immediately as well. Here is his tweet.

The story was covered on WWE.com as well.

A lot of wrestlers have been on social media showing support to Bryan. Ring of Honor wrestling, where Bryan made a huge name for himself in the 2000s, also posted this message of support for him.

Bryan has been out of action since April 2015 when he was the Intercontinental Champion. He suffered from a concussion during a match on the European, was sent home and hasn’t had a match since then. Bryan has talked openly about how he’s seen two concussion specialists that gave him the green light, but WWE’s doctors have been reluctant to clear him. Perhaps after all this time they made the ultimate decision to have him retire.

Could this whole thing be a work? Sure it can. He could be in the ring ready to announce his retirement, then a heel comes out, Bryan fights him off and sets up a WrestleMania match with the guy. They could even do an injury angle where he’s taken out for a month, comes back and then fights the guy at WrestleMania. It’s an easy story to tell if Bryan is healthy enough to compete.

We saw a fake retirement angle a few years ago with Mark Henry as a way to keep him strong heading into a WWE Title feud with John Cena. People are joking on Twitter that Bryan should wear a salmon colored suit like Henry did. However, we have also seen Edge retire on Raw about five years ago, so it is likely very real.

I think it’s real. I’d love to be wrong. At the same time, knowing that he can live a healthy and full life is more important than anything else. What if he had more matches, got hurt in a major way and something really bad happened? Of course we, as fans, want him to compete. I just think in today’s world where there’s a lot more concussion information out there that WWE is going to be careful about this and not let this guy risk his health in their ring anymore.

Here’s that awesome Bryan video package that was aired in the build up to WrestleMania 30. If you’re sad like me, this might help or make you even more sad. I don’t know what to think right now because it’s tough.

Bryan will also appear on ESPN’s Sportscenter with Jonathon Coachman on Tuesday. Here’s what Coach tweeted about it.

More info to come after Raw. I’m not writing a Raw Deal live tonight, but I’ll hopefully get around to it later tonight or tomorrow morning. It’s been a rough week for me dealing with a loved one that’s ill, so I’m not sure when I’ll have time.

Thank you Daniel Bryan.