daniel bryan retires

[The Gaffer]

Still managed to catch me off guard. Quite upsetting news, really, despite what a meteor he was in such a short space of time. Mad to think of how big the yes thing was. Whilst he's obviously nowhere near the star it was as big in the arenas as Austin 3:16 in a certain way. It could take the WWE literal years to have something so hot on their hands again. 

 

Shit day for wrestling. 

[Ambulance Chaser]

Can see it now, Stephanie wearing her 9 inch heels to ensure she towers over the talent, giving Bryan the old I told you so, as he looks all forlorn and drives off out the back parking lot.

 

If it's straight up, then it's a sad day for me, Bryan has single handedly at times retained my interest in Wrestling, His run in ROH actually got me into the company, his matches with Kenta, Morishima, Nigel etc, then in WWE he was a shining light. A real one off, special talent.

[Snitsky's back acne]

How big COULD he have been?
I mean, the 'Yes' chant took on a life of itself but he was an over mother-fucker for a time there.
Sadly, the cynic in me leads me to believe that WWE would never have made him 'the' guy for an extended period of time but, I reckon, had his body held up, he could have done decent business for them for a few years. 

[Cannibal Man]

I get the feeling that good intentions or not, they'd be wise to keep basically everybody, Reigns especially, away from the retirement speech. Nobodys going to buy any kind of endorsement of anybody else and unless he gets to fuck Steph's bollocks in and run HHH's head through an old Victorian mangle no kind of kayfabe twattery is going to cut it. Just let him go out alone and not taint anything.

[The Dart]

He's one of my all time favourites, probably top 5, definitely top 10 so if it is all true then it's a real shame, but selfishly I'm quite glad I will have seen his last ever match (if he never has anymore ever anywhere) live.

 

I was a big fan of his before WWE, but not from Ring of Honor or anything, but from seeing him live what seems like hundreds of times, but is actually 21 times, here.  I was a fan of his reputation I think more, but hadn't actually seen much of him pre-UK.

[Slapnut]

I was hoping this whole "clear me WWE!" thing was a huge work leading to a big Wrestlemania match, but I'm glad he's getting out with his health in tact (somewhat).

 

But fair fuck to him, he's done more in his 5 year WWE career than most people do in their entire career, and he's been excellent.  He's made a tonne of cash, and he gets to go home and shag a Bella every night.  I'm sure he's happy enough.

[Guest]

...so the 60 minute time limit draw with Lesnar is off then?

 

gutted, but obviously not surprised. Bloody realism. Bloody Benoit. I watched both ECW One Night Stands again last night. Feels weird coming back to an era where a wrestler retires for binking their head too many times

With it being crazy wrestling, I still allow myself to speculate when I hear news like this but obviously it appears pretty final.

When I watch Raw tomorrow afternoon, if it really is so, I will have to go on  a big career binge for him. Not looking forward to the reminiscing about it staining the product, but the Yes 'movement' was enthralling stuff. I'm almost weeping for the shock-pop we'll never get. WM30 may be my fav Mania top-to-bottom. His ROH work was scintillating from the very beginning, and he made a terrific heel in his time there too. Looking forward to digging thru his old stuff, most of which I haven't seen in yonks.

 

Hopefully a kushty non-wrestling job in the company awaits him and he can stay a success story

[JNLister]

Given how many people will refuse to believe the retirement even if true, I'd totally be advertising an American Dragon match at WrestleMania and then just have Zack Ryder work under the mask and laugh at anyone who complained.

[Daaaaaad!]

Bryan arrives at the arena today

 

Probably the wrong thing to be thinking about, but how much better and more presentable does he look here?

[Fanny Pack]

I loved Daniel Bryan and im gutted.

 

What a cracking personality. Great matches. Mania 30.

 

Tonight is going to be like that HBK Raw in 2010 all over again.

[Arch Stanton]

Does anybody know if there are plans for Sami Zayn to make his proper main roster debut yet? I thought he might have been full time after the Rumble, but it wasn't to be. Tonight would be an ideal night for it though, what with him being the heir apparent to Bryan's title of the king of the underdogs. It would be a great way to ensure that the crowd are kept on side if there were to be some sort of symbolic torch passing from Bryan to Sami, especially if it could then propel Sami towards a WrestleMania match. The obvious thing to do would be to have Owens interrupt at the back end of the retirement speech, be a dickhead to Bryan, then have Sami make the save as it looks like things might get physical.

 

A real and emotional goodbye followed by short angle between Bryan, Zayn and Owens would be a big hit with Bryan's demographic and the easy away to avoid any kind of backlash that would be likely if you had a Roman or Triple H figure sharing his spotlight.

[Daaaaaad!]

If anyone out there is still thinking this might be a work, this video with The Miz should probably put that to rest.

 

EDIT: in fact there's a fuck load of stuff. Triple H's Twitter, various YouTube clips. Thankfully it looks like we're heading to 'Edge retirement speech' territory rather than 'legit event creates worked storyline that doesn't really work' stuff.

[textonly]

It's a damn shame, but it happens. I hope he's sane enough and happy enough to cope with life without wrestling. An on-screen role isn't out of the question, even if he's not the most spectacular promo. He's over enough to get by for a fair while.

 

I'd take a 2016 Hall of Fame entry too. Fuck, I'm probably more excited by the idea of him giving an emotional speech than I am about Wrestlemania.

[PunkStep]

Does anybody know if there are plans for Sami Zayn to make his proper main roster debut yet?

Rumour has it they're planning to call Zayn and Joe up to the full time roster after Mania. That's what I read on a website that ripped it from Meltz, I think.

[LSM]

Was hoping to wake up this morning to the news this was one big work. I'm genuinely gutted for him and the wrestling fans. Of course health should always come first.

 

Bryan was one of my favourite performers and I always looked forward to watching him. Personally I'll have fond memories of watching a young American Dragon touring the UK with Brian Dixon and All Star Wrestling.