10 WWE Champions Who Forfeited Their Title Due To Injury

Daniel Bryan is no stranger to heartbreak: losing to Sheamus in seconds at WrestleMania, breaking up with AJ Lee, being fired for strangling Justin Roberts with a neck-tie, having his wrestling career cut short by injury (actually, that last one is still a little raw).

Being stripped of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in mid-2014, then, was par for the course. Bryan sustained a neck injury just two months after his coronation at WrestleMania XXX, and - disappointing though it was - the company had no choice but to appoint a new champion while he recovered.

If we had known it would be his last world championship reign - his final run months later largely confined to the Intercontinental title division - we would have probably cried even more than we did at the time.