Pro wrestling veteran Bryan Danielson appeared at Starrcast to discuss several topics, including when he knew it was time to step away from wrestling. He revealed that he made that decision at last year’s Dynasty.
Danielson said, “After the Ospreay match (I knew it was time to step away from the ring). My neck has been bad for 10-plus years. I had a neck surgery in 2014. My neck never really came back to where it was before. I was always kind of in a little bit of pain, and then after I wrestled Will — Will is such an incredible athlete, and I am such a stupid man… He can do things that nobody I’ve ever wrestled can do, and because he can do things that nobody I’ve ever wrestled can do, I put myself in a position where I didn’t actually know what I was doing and didn’t ask him what I should do, and so then I landed on my head, and then from there, my neck just got progressively worse. I’d gotten an MRI right after the match with Shingo (Takagi) that was in the Owen Hart Cup last year and the MRI was not great, and yeah, I questioned whether we should even do what we were going to do. It was at that point and then I stopped being able to sleep for more than three or four hours at a time and then it just got to a point where I was just like, ‘Okay, I can’t go on like this…’ I have two relatively young kids and when you talk about, okay, where you put your focus, where you put your attention is the most important thing in your life, right? Am I putting my focus and my attention on these kids who need me and who need to be loved by me?”
You can check out Danielson’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
