08/02/2022
, February 8th 2016, WWE presented Monday Night Raw from Seattle, Washington. The show featured Daniel Bryan announcing his retirement from professional wrestling, as a result of the cumulative effects of multiple concussions throughout his career. “Trust me, I don't want to be doing this any more than you guys want me to be doing this, but the truth is I've been wrestling since I was 18 years old. And within the first 5 months of my wrestling career, I'd already had 3 concussions. And for years after that, I would get a concussion here and there, or here or there. And then it gets to the point when you've been wrestling for 16 years, that adds up to a lot of concussions. And it gets to a point where they tell you that you can't wrestle anymore. And for a long time I've fought that because I had gotten EEGs and brain MRIs and neuropsychological evaluations, and all of them said this, that I was fine, and that I could come back and I could wrestle, and I trained like I would come back and I would wrestle, and I was ready at a moment's notice if WWE needed me, I wanted to come back and wrestle, because this. I have loved this in a way that I have never loved anything else… So it is with a heavy heart and the utmost sadness that I officially announce my retirement.”
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