12 Wrestlers Who DESTROYED Their Bodies For The Business
7. Bryan Danielson
Imagine the horror of feeling your retina literally detach. That happened to celebrated workhorse Bryan Danielson during a 2007 ROH match vs. hard nut Takeshi Morishima. Undeterred, Danielson kept wrestling then went off for surgery afterwards. This was obviously ill-advised, but Bryan was a trooper till the end and didn't want to throw in the towel. It was only his sight that was on the line, y'know?!
In 2016, due to a myriad of concussion issues and neck-related injuries, Bryan retired from the ring when with WWE. He'd return in 2018, but the company promised to be extremely careful with Danielson and take precautions every time he wrestled. Sometimes, that led to a bit of aggro from Bryan himself backstage. Keen to spread his wings and enjoy his wrestling outside WWE, he left in 2021 and jumped to AEW.
Fans have been concerned about Bryan's wellbeing since that first tearful retirement speech in 2016, but the worry heightened a few years ago once it became clear that Danielson was pushing his body to the limit all over again with some shocking acts of violence in AEW. In late-2024, Bryan eventually ended his full-time wrestling career by signing off with a loss to old stablemate Jon Moxley at WrestleDream. He'll surely be back for more matches someday, but probably on a part-time basis.
That'd be for the best, because Danielson has done significant damage to himself through wrestling since his debut. He's a lauded worker, but no human being gets away with the kind of punishment Bryan has put his body under between 1999-2024.
It'd be impossible.