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When do we start chanting ‘no?’
Two weeks ago, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan announced on the Money in the Bank pre-show that the neck injury that put him on the shelf and caused him to vacate the championship was more serious than previously thought, and he’d be going in for another surgery. He didn’t know when he’d be back, but he promised that he would, and that when he came back he’d be better than ever.
It might be time to start getting worried about that.
According to Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer, Bryan’s not only undergoing multiple surgeries on his neck … he’s also considering surgery on his SHOULDER. All those compounded surgeries and sad, matter-of-fact statements about him not having any strength in his arms adds up to Bryan being out indefinitely.
The update on Bryan is that he may now also require shoulder surgery, as a full exam has revealed a lot of different shoulder and neck issues. At this point, because of uncertainty as to whether he’ll need surgery and what surgery it could be, he’s out of plans and there is no estimate on when he’ll return. The plan seemed to be the Roman Reigns ascension to being the top guy at WrestleMania 31 whether Bryan was hurt or not, but now the TV is built around Reigns as the major badass.
I’ve picked on Bryan a lot in Best and Worst of Raw columns since his injury, but here’s the truth: I’m doing that to deflect the heavy, heavy sadness of my favorite pro wrestler of all time being on the shelf forever. What happens if Bryan never comes back? What does it mean if the man worked for over a decade to achieve his dreams, only to burn out at his brightest? I know that objectively it doesn’t mean much — WWE’s a business, after all, and the wheel keeps turning — but holy shit is it depressing.
Everyone here at With Spandex wishes the guy the speediest imaginable recovery, and God, if he never recovers, we wish him a life without wincing in pain every time he moves.
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Given the upheaval I have been having in my personal life as of late, this news depresses me more than it should. I really hope he ends up alright and is able to come back, but honestly, guy has to do what is best for his personal health and life.
But as a wrestling fan, I just wish he was back already.
Hey wrestle bro, hope things get better for you IRL.
things are going to get better. it may take time, but as long as you keep your head up, things will get better. i just got over a rough patch myself and trust me, there is a light. you have all the support in the world. i hope things get better for you. <3
and yes, i do wish daniel was back too. i really do. :(
I’m right there with you, sir, on every front. I believe we’ll get through it all.
Thanks guys, much appreciated. I love this place for the love we all share of wrestling, and how cool everyone is.
This makes me a sad panda. :(
I miss him on TV but if he has to go out like this, at least he destroyed WMXXX with two superb matches and went out on top?
So we’re pretending Extreme Rules doesn’t exist I guess huh?
@TheRazz We do that every year anyway
Tryin to put a shine on a turd here, guy.
Allow me to repost what I typed on a thread on caws.ws about this same subject:
This is like…. I can’t even…. IT’S LIKE *censored*ING MOUNT EVEREST AND *censored*ING GETTING SHOVED OFF IT BY SOME DICK RIGHT AS YOU REACH THE TOP. *flails about for a bit*
Fucking Mount Everest?
So injuries are the Damien Sandow to Daniel Bryan’s Cody Rhodes?
I realized after the post I meant “it’s like climbing”.
Personally, I think “fucking” Mt Everest would be more impressive. I mean, lots of people have “climbed” it.
Well that’s no good. That damn flying headbutt is just as bad as it seems.
also they haven’t gone into specifics about the nature of his injury. It’s just speculation but they usually say the diagnosis, I think somethings is really wrong.
Well damn. This sucks. But better a healthy D-Bry than a sick D-Bry.
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This is pretty damn depressing. But I have a lot of faith that Daniel Bryan has the determination and drive to come back from this if it’s possible to come back from.
Maybe it ends up like Shawn Michaels: he takes some time off and comes back better than ever.
I really hope this isn’t leading where I think it is, because if D-Bry is forced to do a sudden Edge retirement just as he reached the top of the mountain it’s going to be the most depressing thing in wrestling since… shit, pick one, there have been a lot of depressing moments.
I’ll cry, I’ll cry a lot. Like so much I’ll need salt tablets and IV’s
Fuuuuck! Just when the man gets to the top. Now we get more Cena.
Can’t he just get a blood transfusion from Cena? I mean that dude has a mutant healing factor or super soldier serum or the infinity formula or kryptonian nanobots or something in his bloodstream.
Great, who let this guy in? STAY AWAY, JERK.
I think all I can muster is a GODDAMNIT. I want that in 1,000 point font, plz.
Here’s when I’m unclear on this story…
Was Bryan having this arm-weakness and whatnot *before* his initial neck surgery, or was that surgery a massive f*ck up? I mean, originally they thought he’d be back in six weeks — the initial injury couldn’t have been that bad. If it was a botched surgery, hopefully Bryan makes up for a shortened career with a big fat malpractice lawsuit.
If I remember correctly, I thought I heard that what finally made him get the surgery was that he was starting to notice symptoms in his arm. I could have that wrong though.
The arm weakness was a pre-existing condition. He had had a couple of bad stingers and lost feeling on more than one occasion. Remember that match with Randy Orton with the weird non-finish ending?
He’s in the same boat as Peyton Manning – the arm weakness led to them looking at his neck and doing a surgery, which didn’t fix the problem, so they’re going to have to go back in and do (at least) another surgery.
I just keep telling myself that he’s going to make a full recovery and go on to do whatever the pro graps equivalent of what last season was for Manning.
Hopefully without the CenaHawks part.
+1 Murray
This sucks. I can’t imagine how it must feel to work so long to get to the top, to potentially have it taken away like this.
I’m not superstitious, but in a recent article, David Shoemaker pointed out a video-game-cover curse similar to the Madden curse. It’s hard not to wonder about that.
Alternately, let’s watch carefully to see what happens to whoever eventually beats Cena for the WWE WHC. It’s possible that Cena put a curse on those damn belts, so no one but him can hold them.
Correlation Causation. Just about every wrestler sustains an injury every year
Now all I can imagine is Cena hiring Papa Shango to put a curse on the belts, then celebrating with a HOOOOOOOOO TRAAAAAIIIIIN!
@Twinkie: True, but it’s not just injuries. Orton got his second wellness violation after the WWE ’12 cover, and WWE ’13 coverboy Punk is MIA.
That’s in addition to Rock tearing every muscle in his body, and everything that’s happened to Bryan.
I understand they’re all coincidences, but so is all the “Madden curse” stuff.
Guys, Cena’s on the cover of WWE 2K15. “Hallelujah, Halllelujah!”
@Johnny Slider Cena is immune to cover jinxes.
Damn it. Next you’ll tell me this goat I sacrificed was for nothing too, huh?
@Johnny Slider “Next you’ll tell me this goat I sacrificed was for nothing too, huh?”
I feel so bad for laughing so hard at this
@Johnny Slider …. that goat wouldn’t happen to have a smoking hot wife, shaggy hair, a beard, wear read underwear and scream yes with the masses would it? If so, YOU BASTARD!
brock lesnar is next in line to win the straps at summerslam
God, I hope so. because I won’t be able to take it any other way! in fact, I might not even be as excited for it as I wish I could because a Lesnar win would mean another Cena rematch even after it, and an extended feud between him and Heyman’s client… and I just can’t bring myself to enjoy most of what Cena can show any of his dreadful on-screen personality at…
I kinda hope he comes back with Jax arms and just starts lariating people to death.
It took me a minute to get this, because I kept thinking, “What, tattooed?” and then I remembered there is/was a Mortal Kombat character Jax and you weren’t referring to the SAMCRO president.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccckkkkkk…..
*puts laptop down*
*stares off into the middle distance*
I guess one optimistic question- would he be the only ever undefeated world champ? Sorry guys, trying to make lemonade out of some lemons here.
He lost to Orton from MITB at Summerslam. That’s a loss
If we are talking about people who never lost to lose the title, CM Punk never lost his first title
Michaels is probably the king of never losing a title by loss.
He’ll be the only undefeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion (at least until Cena takes the belts to the grave 1.2 million years from now).
*Cries a lonesome teardrop* Man this blows….
Darkest timeline :(.
Sorry kids, time to lose your smile and play that sweet sweet music, “I’ve known you all my life, at least that’s how it seems. I see you a young man, living out a dream. You say you’re leaving me and I just don’t understand. Before you walk out my life, I have one last demand… Tell me a lie, and say you won’t go. Look at me now and hold me even though. Tell me a lie. And please don’t walk away, no more yesterday….”
*clap clap clap* *almost wipes a tear*
beautiful.
I really wouldn’t put so much credence into Meltzer.
Yeah, when has he ever been right about anything?
Who did his surgery? I’d have gone to Peyton Mannings doctor. Dude looked great last year. Of course different sports and all that.
The Steelers’ team doctor performed the surgery.
@wackazoa Manning’s arm strength still wasn’t what it had been prior to his multiple surgeries. I too am hoping for that kind of recovery however.
@insulinjunkie72 Bryan must be crazy – there’s legit beef between the Seahawks and the Steelers because of the awful officiating in Super Bowl XL, and the Seahawks came out and congratulated Bryan immediately after Wrestlemania. The surgeon probably had it out for him! *puts on tinfoil hat*
So wrestling’s biggest assholes in years turned out to be on-the-screws right about their favorite target. Please get a checkup Big Show :(
“hello darkness my old friend”
WHY CAN’T WE HAVE NICE THINGS?
take Ryder’s working body parts and put them onto Bryan’s broken parts
So, so sad. I hope he heals up and comes back to be as awesome as ever, but if not: “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away”.
In any case, I hope he and Brie have a kickass life, they deserve it.
“but if not: “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away”.”
I wish he actually did so, in my memory…
Damnit. Bryan’s neck issues continue to…drag on.
What a fucking bizarre bummer-ass year. Also, if you would have asked me a couple years ago, “Come up with the reasons why both CM Punk and Daniel Bryan would leave the company indefinitely in 2014” I’d probably have guessed correctly with, “Punk gets fed up and walks out, Bryan’s style finally takes its toll on his body.”
Indeed, the problem with Bryan’s exciting, Japanese-influenced style is that those Japanese wrestlers’ bodies are usually pretty trashed by the time they hit their thirties.
Even more so than your typical American worker.
@insulinjunkie72 Probably the biggest problem is that doing a hybrid style heavily influenced by Puro + about a 100 additional dropkicks and suicide dives per match in a WWE schedule which haves a workhorse like Bryan perform for about 300 days a year (sometimes multiple times during a night) is downright self-destructive.
I’m serious when I say I’ve watched this like 100 times since it happened…
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We are heading into Arn Anderson territory and not in any of the billion good ways.
Well, Meltzer is a known liar and probably a baby shaker, too, so take all this news with a grain of ring dust. But wharves, the industry isn’t slowing down without him. #pushcena
Get better Dragon
meh. Shouldn’t have shaved Wade Barrett’s beard. I mean if this was say JTG or Scott Stanford or Bayley then yeah I’d be worried but it’s just a man who made it to the top. I mean he’s got a beautiful wife and it’s just a few surgeries, so what if he never wrestles again we’ve always got … and … and… in the main event scene.
So in 2014, Punk retired, The Shield broke up, Bray Wyatt got fed into the Cena mill, and now we may have lost Bryan forever. What did we gain? About 15 total minutes of Bo Dallas and Stardust. Fuck me running.
Also 3MB broke up, and Aksana, Yoshi Tatsu, JTG and the Tag Team Division all got future endeavoured.
YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH ABOUT BO!!! Dude is amazing. I dont know if it is a even trade, Bryan for Bo, but it could be a WHOLE HELL OF A LOT WORSE!
Bo is as good as Bryan used to be before 2013… which is VERY, VERY MUCH! like, THE MOST FUN!, you know? like, THE BEST.
Also Barrett got injured.
The lesson here, as always, is that the Bella Twins always ruin everything.
Agreed
I know it’s different sports, but how many surgeries did Peyton Manning have a couple of years back? And if I remember correctly, he has arm weakness too, hence why the Colts let him walk. Well, that, and Andrew Luck was coming down the pike, but still.
I think the final tally was 4 neck surgeries, and he’s still not close to 100%. He also missed over a year.
He just broke the single season passing TD record last year. If he’s not close to 100%, then that’s scary.
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I hope a million headbutts drop and a million YES locks
a million missle dropkicks and a million body slams
Cause you never, ever, know when it’ll be your time to go
Stem cells to the rescue? Fly the man overseas and talk to some people who worked voo doo magic on Peyton Manning.
this sucks a lot. really sucks. :(
Might actually be the real Disco Inferno.
This is definitely the darkest of the all the dark timelines that ever darked. :(
Here’s to hoping he’s back to kneeing people in the face soon.
Just substitute Bryan Danielson in for Mrs. Landingham and this is how I feel about the situation:
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+1,000 for West Wing reference
At least we had that incredible run and the huge payoff at WM30 to look back on. I believe he’ll be back. He’s got that fire to do so.
Meltzer isn’t the most accurate guy lately, so, I’ll wait and see.
*is in denial*
/but seriously, Meltzer has been wrong quite often lately.
It might be for the best if he comes back at his full capacity. The yes engine was losing steam.