Last night, arguably the most popular athlete in the WWE, Daniel Bryan, announced his retirement on Raw. In front of a packed house in Seattle, with millions watching at home, the leader of the “Yes!” movement said his goodbyes to the squared circle.
Here’s his entire speech from last night’s Raw.
Daniel Bryan’s Retirement Speech
After Bryan’s speech, and with the live feed over, the celebration continued on the WWE Network. The entire locker room, including Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and Triple H, paid their respects to Bryan.
Now, Bryan might be done in the WWE but allow speculation to run amok for a couple minutes. Bryan has been pushing to get pack in a WWE ring for months. Sidelined with multiple concussions and a neck injury, WWE refused to clear Bryan. Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported recently that Bryan even attempted to give notice to the company but was prevented from doing so.
According to Meltzer:
Bryan’s contract has been frozen due to an injury, a provision in Superstar contracts that helps WWE make up lost time when a talent is sidelined. The company was at odds with former WWE Champion Rey Mysterio due to this same clause. As is pertains to Bryan not having the right to give notice, based on the available talent contracts, that appears to be true. The contract can be pretty much permanently frozen unless Bryan takes the WWE to court.”
Outside doctors have cleared Bryan to wrestle. People internally are hesitant because of already-pending lawsuits against the company. Let’s throw in the fact that, honestly, the WWE has never really known what to do with Bryan since he doesn’t fit their mold of a north of the typical 6-foot tall, gym-rat world champion. Daniel Bryan is a 100% fan-made superstar and the WWE doesn’t like to be told who to push, they’d rather push a superstar on fans whether we like it or not.
Daniel Bryan could possibly be done with the WWE but he might not be done with wrestling.
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