What happened to Christian?

[Jmare007]

So on March 2014 he suffered a concussion that some claimed was a "career ender". Then late that year he and Edge hosted RAW and both Lawler and Heyman claimed he was retired/had concussion issues. He then denied the rumors of his retirement but we haven't seen him since. I was looking for some news on him and PWInsider reported on December 2014 he had about a year left in his contract.

 

Has there been any news on him since January? Has he claimed he wants or even can wrestle again? His situation is pretty much the same as Daniel Bryan but there hasn't been any coverage on it.

[Slasher]

They have considered him to be retired. He doesn't want to be retired but he probably doesn't want to wrestle so badly he would leave WWE to do it. So I think he is just resigned to the fact he probably won't be used again as a wrestler but hoping things change. Bryan wants to wrestle so badly that he probably could make waves to do it but he probably is waiting for Brie to be out of the way first.

[goc]

I believe Christian was in a situation where he would get a concussion, be out for a bit then come back and it would only be a few weeks/a month and he'd get another one. So I think WWE looked at his age and susceptibility to concussions and made the decision to keep him out of the ring. He was chronically injured for his past year or 2 that he was active.

[goc]

What feels odd to me about people questioning WWE's reasoning and motives for keeping Daniel Bryan or Christian out of the ring for concussion issues is no one seems to say the same thing about Corey Graves. I mean I would imagine Graves had far less over the length of his career than either of those guys but then I don't really know what happened to give Graves his last concussion since they've tried so hard to sweep that under the rug.

[GOTNW]

Maybe that's also why they were quick in giving him a colour commentator job...

[goc]

I'm sure there is SOME kind of smoke to the fire of "something really fucked up happened at the Performance Center with Corey Graves" but it's just odd to me the double standard some fans seem to have about concussions. No one seems to question the fact that Corey Graves had to retire at 30 but with Daniel Bryan we get some goofy conspiracy theories about them keeping him out because they don't want him "overshadowing" the rest of the roster. I mean by Daniel Bryan's own admittance he had so many concussions before he went to WWE that he lost count.

[RCS1988]

Same goes with Santino Marella. He hasn't been around either.

[goc]

I think Santino had neck issues and not concussion problems? He also has his own wrestling/MMA training school and seems to have retired on his own not "forced out" like Bryan or Christian.

[Jmare007]

Who the hell thinks they are keeping Bryan out because they don't want him to overshadow the roster? If it's wrestlingforum I'ma legit laugh out loud

 

With Graves I think it's about his acceptance about his situation, at the end of the day he decided to take WWE's offer at the Performance Center/NXT. With Bryan we know the dude is determined to wrestle again somewhere. But with Christian the only thing we know is that he denied and rejected being called "retired" by Jerry Lawler/WWE.

[Matt D]

What if Graves was just a matter of timing with the ESPN cameras filming for the E:60 special?

[goc]

Who the hell thinks they are keeping Bryan out because they don't want him to overshadow the roster? If it's wrestlingforum I'ma legit laugh out loud

I've seen it in multiple places. Whether it's outright saying that's what is happening, hinting around it or stuff like "well why don't they just clear Bryan so he can take ___'s spot in this match". Especially when there was talk about Cena possibly missing SummerSlam, the "well just clear Daniel Bryan because he is the only one who can save the show!" stuff popped up on the 411mania comments section, a few tweets I saw and obviously WF.

 

Bryan has been pretty vocal about his doctor clearing him so for the "FUCK VINCE MCMAHON~!" types it's not hard to make the leap to "Well the only reason they won't let him wrestle is because they don't like how over he is"

[goc]

Who the hell thinks they are keeping Bryan out because they don't want him to overshadow the roster? If it's wrestlingforum I'ma legit laugh out loud

I have debated creating a "Stupid wrestling opinions you've read other places" type thread but I have not done so for a few reasons. 1. It's not very PWO-like. 2. I would probably be the only one contributing to it and 3. It would most likely make people think I'm more of an asshole than they probably already do.

 

There's plenty of places for material though with WF, TNAMecca, 411mania comments, Wreddit and various others. Just the other day I read someone over on SomethingAwful.com's wrestling forum talking about how they don't ever want to see Goldust again because of him "wrestling his boring 80s-territorial style" and a few days before that someone was saying the vast majority of singles matches would be better if they were triple threats.

[Loss]

I actually think there's something to it. Vince has no plans to build around Bryan and will never build around Bryan no matter how over he is. In the case of his pet project Roman Reigns, Bryan's presence was more of a hindrance than a help, and that's even with Bryan putting him over convincingly in an excellent pay-per-view main event. I don't think that's the sole reason he's being kept on the shelf, but I also think it's naive to say that isn't a factor at all. It's one of many factors, I think -- maybe not the primary factor driving decisions about his future. But I think it's there somewhere.

[Grimmas]

If you don't want Bryan to be the main guy, then just put him in a blood feud. Not hard.

[Woof]

I'm actually curious as to why they haven't given Christian a shot at commentary somehwere. They plug Byron Saxton into at least three different shows (Raw, Superstars, NXT) as well as PPV pre-shows and he brings zero to the table in terms of personality, ring experience, or broadcasting skill. Christian is very easy on the mic, quick witted, and was a guy who got by through most of his WWE run thanks to his ability to tell basic stories in less flashier matches (his E&C days excepted, of course). Seems to me he'd be perfect in the Lawler role they're trying to shoehorn crank JBL into.

[Jmare007]

He's going to be on Austin'ts podcast on the network. Would be nice if we get an update on him.

[The Chief]

Yikes, I wanted to see how much time he's missed during this run and it's a lot:

 

Comes back healthy in 2009. Stays healthy the first couple years, goes down with injury Fall of 2010.

 

Comes back after Mania in 2011, gets hurt again in December.

 

Comes back in time for Mania in 2012 and gets announced as a member of Team Johnny but only wrestles one match before he's out again and gets replaced. Can't recall if it was the same injury or something else.

 

Comes back for real a few weeks later in May, but goes back on the shelf in August

 

Doesn't come back until June 2013, but only for 3 months as he's out again in the Fall.

 

Comes back after the Rumble in 2014 and sticks around until Mania. Gets announced for the Andre Battle Royal but gets injured again in the middle of a TV feud with Sheamus and doesn't make it to Mania. He actually doesn't make it to any more matches because to this date he hasn't wrestled since. The 03/24/14 Raw is his last match, winning a Fatal 4-Way match against Ziggler, Del Rio and Sheamus for the right to challenge Big E for the IC Title. The Big E match never happens.

 

No official announcement is made of his status. He pops up here and there on network specials and podcasts and hints that he wants to return when he's cleared. It isn't until a December 2014 Raw that Jerry Lawler mentions in passing that Christian has retired.

[Slasher]

If you don't want Bryan to be the main guy, then just put him in a blood feud. Not hard.

Oh is that all? Wow that's so easy to do. It isn't like he has a million concussions and therefore they would be at risk of hin suffering more injuries. Nope not at all.

 

Snark aside, the fans would overinvest in his blood feud and expect that to be a stepping stone before bringing him back in main events. Blood feuds have to end at some point...then what? Put him in yet another blood feud and do so until he retires? I think this is actually a great out for them. They look "good" for showing care for a guy with an extensive injury history-especially after the Punk stuff happened all the while getting the opportunity to not worry about walking on eggshells around him in terms of booking. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought they could cool him down for two years or more then brought him back in as a part tjmer and not worry about people overanalyzing his push.

[goc]

I really don't think there is some grand conspiracy to it other than "we know this dude's concussion history and we don't want him to turn into a Corey Graves situation who has openly tweeted he now only has 85% brain function."

 

It's easier to hide a Corey Graves injury situation from the media and the public than it is a dude who just main evented WrestleMania less than 2 years ago. They definitely don't want to give that lawyer who is going around getting old wrestlers to sue WWE over concussions any big ammo like that.

[Jingus]

It'd be nice if WWE had some equivalent to the All Japan/NOAH Curtain-Jerking Six-Elderly-Man Tag match. Take banged-up fellows like Bryan and Christian, put them against some washed-up-but-still-over guys like the New Age Outlaws, and then have them work six minutes of comedy spots and heavily-teased "the crowd always pops for this one trademark move" stuff before sending everyone home with a happy ending. You could do that every week forever, just changing up the participants based on who's currently available/healthy. But sadly, the company's dumbass "you've got to give 101% every night!" workaholic philosophy means that they'd be totally blind to the merit of letting a few people half-ass it (while still entertaining the casual fans).

[goc]

It ain't just the company. I really don't think the fans would accept that especially the smarkier ones. There are still plenty of "main event or bust!" people out there for Bryan.

 

I also don't think Bryan himself would go for it. Nothing about his history makes me think he is a guy who would willingly go out there and not try and go 100% every night regardless of what his body is telling him.