The wrestling world is still reeling from the announcement that medical reasons have forced Daniel Bryan to retire. For example, we can’t stop writing about it.
If anybody knows about a legendary pro wrestling career ending suddenly, it’s WWE Hall of Famer Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart. His career ended in an instant. In a 2015 interview with Sports Illustrated, Bret accurately predicted something that most of us refused to accept, even as recently as 10:30 p.m. on Monday: Daniel Bryan was never going to wrestle again.
“Daniel Bryan is finished,” said Hart. “He’ll never wrestle again. I don’t think he knows it yet. I feel terrible about Daniel Bryan. For all intents and purposes, he had the exact same thing happen to him that happened to me after Bill Goldberg kicked me in the head [ending Hart’s career].
“One day, you learn it’s over. Doctors tell you that you can’t wrestle and you’ll never wrestle again. I lost millions of dollars because of that. I pray that it’s not the same for Daniel Bryan.”
While calling Bryan’s career over in the summer of 2015 might not qualify Hart for Nostradamus status, but read this and tell me he’s not completely right:
“I saw him in a lot of his matches after he came back from the injury, and he was taking suplexes on the back of his head, powerbombs, and other really dangerous moves,” said Hart. “I know he wanted to test it out, but I think he may have pushed himself too hard. He’s like Dynamite Kid in the sense that they’re both tough and neither wanted to admit that injuries got the best of them. He’s finished forever, but I don’t think he’s even realized that. He’s probably thinking, ‘Maybe it will get better in a few months,’ but unfortunately, I don’t think it will.”
Between this, the Owen DVD and Hulk Hogan, we should probably start listening to Bret more often.
h/t to Reddit
