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Is Daniel Bryan Nearing The End Of The Road?


Fantastic

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I watch a lot of hockey so I'm pretty familiar with concussion stuff. For those wrestling fans who don't really follow other sports it might not be well known that concussion recovery time is extremely hard to predict. And sometimes concussions caused by the smallest bumps can linger forever while concussions from a huge impact will go away within weeks. One guy's concussion recovery time really has no correlation to another guy's even if they were caused by similar events.

 

The unfortunate thing is that the nature of concussions...the unpredictability of the recovery time and the intangible nature of the injury...probably conflicts pretty heavily with Vince and WWE's mentality expecting guys to rush back or work through injuries. Like I'm sure they follow some sort of concussion protocol at a basic level but I imagine that mentally they haven't really bought in to the importance of it in the same way that the NHL or NFL have.

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So with Bryan openly admitting he tries to hide it when he gets a concussion, my theory is that he got one before they left for the European tour and somewhere along the way someone figured it out. He was probably working the whole tour with a concussion. I am not sure how the medical staff became aware of it but I'm guessing they did and either decided immediately to pull him from the tour or ran him through some tests and then did so. Either way if it IS concussion related I'm sure they've run him through a battery of tests and the results are what is keeping him from coming back.

 

As open as WWE was about just how bad Edge's neck situation was, if it was neck related I can't see them hiding it. I mean they kind of openly said on TV "Edge could die if he takes another bump." I don't see them taking the "wait and see" approach they seem to be doing now if it was his neck. If it was the nerve issue again then I don't see why they wouldn't have already sent him off to Denver to get treatment. With concussion awareness being where it is now, the only injury I could see WWE trying to hide is that one of their top stars has had so many that he's now having serious issues recovering.

 

If that is the cause of it I don't see how that doesn't lead to him retiring VERY soon. I just don't know if Daniel Bryan would willingly do it though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, it wasn't his neck and it wasn't a concussion. PWInsider is saying it's his shoulder that is causing him trouble. Dude is really breaking down, I still don't see him retiring but I hope he has a nice run in Tough Enough and then takes a year off to fully rest and only then see if his body can take a comeback.

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yeah another bit from the PWI report is they want him to be on TV in some way so they can promote his DVD. That's why he is on TE. I actually think he could be a completely functional announcer but I doubt we see that

 

yet another example of the paradoxical relationship the company has with him. They clearly value him and want him to be featured but just not as a tippy top guy. Still very strange

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  • 1 month later...

it's been confirmed that Bryan is out with "career threatening" concussion issues. The company tried to keep the lid on it. Man he should just retire. This is sad

It's not something to brag about and say I told you so but to me that seemed like it was the only thing it could be from the very start. Didn't know why they would try and keep any other injury a secret. It's very sad news though because it's not something he can get surgery & do physical therapy for. It's likely the end of his career.

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Bryan's a weird case where no matter what may have occurred they're sort of insulated from at least some of the responsibility by his interviews. He's explicitly said that he's tried to hide concussions from them, that he's fought with them about stopping matches, and there's that crazy stuff about learning to work without being able to use his hands. I don't know if a coverup was necessary.

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I don't know about that. Certainly he bears responsibility for himself but the WWE is responsible for the culture where guys feel the need to rush back from injuries and/or needing to hide them. The Punk interview is the strong counter-point for anyone trying to absolve the WWE.

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My impression is they were hiding it because it would more or less validate CM Punk's statements that the concussion protocol in WWE is bullshit. Looking at the timeline of events it appears that Bryan got hurt, did their concussion tests and passed, and when he tried to keep wrestling he had more symptoms.

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I thought the story was that Bryan didn't tell the office about his symptoms, and kept working until they noticed the symptoms. I could have that wrong though.

 

I recall Dave first saying he had a concussion right after it happened, then when he worked a few more shows he was all "well I guess not since he's still working", then after he disappeared he turned into Cryptic Dave being all "well I can't really say but it's probably what everyone thinks it is"/

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I don't think Bryan Alvarez or Dave mentioned the word concussion until after he got pulled from the European tour. There was talk about Sheamus "working too reckless in spots" and how Daniel Bryan needed several stitches to close a cut, almost immediately after the match happened, so it's likely that people within the company knew he had suffered a concussion at the time. At the very least, he would have had to have been checked over by WWE's medical staff due to the cut and they should have spotted the concussion then.

 

Dave turned into Cryptic Dave over the last couple of months was likely because WWE were privately telling people that the story was false to those who inquired about the story. Their tack now is just to hide behind the statement that "Daniel Bryan is not medically cleared to perform."

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I've been dipping back into some WWE shows from summer 2013 and it's ridiculous how over Bryan is. No matter who is at fault (and you can make the case for both parties), they really had something with him until they went one bullshit finish too far in his matches with Orton. You listen to that Summerslam crowd and they're ready to anoint him as king of the known universe. It'll really suck if he has to retire but if it's beneficial to his health, then there's really no other option. But man, Bryan could have been it, man. Imagine Bryan vs. Lesnar. I'm giddy just imagining it.

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I've been dipping back into some WWE shows from summer 2013 and it's ridiculous how over Bryan is. No matter who is at fault (and you can make the case for both parties), they really had something with him until they went one bullshit finish too far in his matches with Orton. You listen to that Summerslam crowd and they're ready to anoint him as king of the known universe. It'll really suck if he has to retire but if it's beneficial to his health, then there's really no other option. But man, Bryan could have been it, man. Imagine Bryan vs. Lesnar. I'm giddy just imagining it.

 

It was going to headline Summerslam last year, had Bryan not been forced to vacate the title due to the last injury. I do seem to recall Dave saying something along the lines that it wasn't going to be any more competitive than Cena/Brock ended up being at the show. So basically, all along they were planning to have Bryan get squashed by Lesnar. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

Cena losing that squash match was the beginning of one of the best things to happen to Cena's career in recent memory. Following on from that feud and dropping the world title, Cena became a fixture in the upper mid card, had a good start in a feud with Rusev (I say start, because it quickly returned to "Cena wins lol"), then following capturing the US title, has been stellar ever since. He puts people over big (Owens), has refined his in ring repertoire, gives that belt prestige, and has competitive matches that are making tons of guys look good, even if they are on the losing end.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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