Did You Know: Daniel Bryan's Retirement...

[Bob-O]

I'm seeing news today about Daniel Bryan suffering another concussion at Wrestlemania this year, and while serious, did you know the issues that had WWE force him out of the ring were completely unfounded?

Wrestlers get banged around, especially those working the style of a Daniel Bryan, so concussions happen and they happen a lot. What sports entities (WWE, NFL...) are actually trying to get away from is the brain damage that comes along with them. You can get concussions, but passing "protocol" means that you've recovered cognitively back to where you were before the concussion. If you don't get back to that point, it's time to hang them up.

There's several methods of establishing this. At the time of Daniel Bryan's retirement, WWE used a method of "baseline comparison". Talents were called to do the testing from a healthy state, so when concussions occur they could re-do the testing and compare it to the "healthy numbers", if you couldn't get back to that you didn't get cleared for impact.

In Daniel Bryan's case, he had not completed his baseline tests at the time of his injury, so they had nothing to compare him to. Instead of using another WRESTLER'S results to see where was at, the protocol of the WWE APPROVED FACILITY was to run the numbers against a generic criteria for a "combat athlete"... an MMA fighter or a Boxer... which when all those reports came out that Daniel Bryan had been cleared by several doctor's to return but "not WWE's"... that's why. Because while he had average brain function and reflexes, they were not that of an MMA fighter, he failed... over and over... keeping him out of action, despite being told there was nothing wrong with him by every other doctor he saw.

[Big Red Machine]

Yes. I did know this. It was part of all of the peculation that he was going to leave when his contract was up last September.

[XIV]

Yes. I did know this. It was part of all of the peculation that he was going to leave when his contract was up last September.

And that finally clearing him was the only way to keep hold of him.