WWE News: Daniel Bryan’s Health Problems Confirmed, Future In Doubt
Ever since vacating the Intercontinental championship a few months ago, Daniel Bryan’s future as a wrestler has been questioned. Now, it appears that the chances of him stepping into the ring as a competitor again are slim to none.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling News Observer (via WrestlingNews), Bryan’s health issues are indeed concussion-related. He adds that those issues began after Bryan squared off against Sheamus in a match prior to Wrestlemania 31.
Although Bryan did go on to capture Intercontinental gold at Wrestlemania, he failed to defend his title at the following pay-per-view, Extreme Rules, which raised a red flag among both WWE officials and fans. The leader of the “YES! Movement” last wrestled in a tag team match on SmackDown in mid-April, a match in which he had limited involvement.
Afterwards, WWE slowly began to remove Bryan from advertisements from certain shows, ultimately pulling him from all of his scheduled appearances as the nature of his injuries became more clear.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated that was covered by the Inquisitr, former five-time WWE champion and Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart claimed that Bryan’s wrestling career was over. He added that Bryan, who at the time was believed to be suffering from an injured neck, was actually suffering from injuries similar to ones that caused Hart to retire in 2000.
“Daniel Bryan is finished. He’ll never wrestle again. I don’t think he knows it yet. I feel terrible about Daniel Bryan. For all intents and purposes, he had the exact same thing happen to him that happened to me after Bill Goldberg kicked me in the head [ending Hart’s career]. One day, you learn it’s over. Doctors tell you that you can’t wrestle and you’ll never wrestle again. I lost millions of dollars because of that. I pray that it’s not the same for Daniel Bryan.”
While the 34-year-old native of Aberdeen, Washington, is still involved with WWE as a judge on Tough Enough, it appears that his ailing body may not be strong enough to fully recover just like Hart stated. In addition to the concussion problems, his aforementioned neck issues caused him to vacate the WWE World Heavyweight championship last year in similar fashion to him surrendering the Intercontinental title this year.
If he is able to make another comeback from a seemingly career-ending situation, the company will likely be hesitant to utilize Bryan in a prominent capacity in fear of his injuries rearing their ugly head once again.
[Image via WWE]
