10 Ups & 7 Downs For Daniel Bryan’s WWE Career
6. Retirement
On February 8, 2016, at the close of a candid, revelatory, and emotional speech, Daniel Bryan announced his retirement. The segment was just f*cking brutal in its highs and lows; Bryan was both crushed and grateful, as tormented onscreen as he was behind the eyes.
Neck issues had plagued his headline run, but his history of concussion issues had caught up to him. Having suffered seizures, memory loss and numbness, Bryan could no longer hide from himself what he had hidden from his wife and employer: this was the end.
Though he couldn’t reconcile it as such—so much so that he didn’t—Bryan’s career was longer and more successful than most. From, yes, high school gyms to the main event of stadiums, Bryan had turned the page on an actual storybook even the most cynical, Oscar-hungry studios would balk at for its neat, packaged melodrama.
Though agonising to accept, the development could not be denied. In striving to become the greatest artist of his generation, Bryan smashed his head against guardrails, against the canvas, across other heads. He left everything in the ring, and the ring claimed all of it. Bryan titled his autobiography Yes! My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania.
In typically humble fashion, he’d almost sold himself short.