10 Emotional WWE Moments That Made Fans Cry
4. Daniel Bryan Is Forced Into Retirement
As far as modern wrestling retirements go, you’ll struggle to find one that left more people gutted than Daniel Bryan’s. WWE’s beloved folk hero announced he was stepping away from the ring in February 2016, first breaking the news on Twitter, before appearing on Raw to cut one of the most passionate, heartfelt promos of his career.
It was impossible not to feel for Bryan as he revealed the true extent of his concussion problems. The past few years of his career had been plagued by medical absences, but few understood just how deeply they ran until that night. DB broke down before his home state audience, and while his fans had had most of the day to prepare for his speech, none were ready for the weight of its impact.
Coming on the back of one of wrestling’s most incredible underdog stories, Bryan’s retirement was absolutely crushing. His popularity was organic and real, coming through genuine admiration and in spite of regular mistreatment from his employers.
Bryan built the kind of following that can’t be recreated in a creative meeting, and in an era of increasingly bland and unlikeable babyfaces, we may never see his like again.