Daniel Bryan retires...

[mjr]

Daniel Bryan has officially retired from WWE...

http://wrestling-edge.com/wwe-celebr...following-raw/

[Jay 2K Winger]

This sucks, but it's probably for the best.

I first got into Daniel Bryan when he was still on the indies, wrestling under his real name, 'American Dragon' Bryan Danielson. I would watch Ring of Honor DVDs to see his matches. In fact, the first match of his I saw was on DVD from "The Era of Honor Begins," the 1st ROH show, where he wrestled 'Fallen Angel' Christopher Daniels and Low-Ki. First match of his I saw live was when ROH filmed the main event for their PPV "Driven," where he took on Nigel McGuinness.

Bryan was one of those wrestlers who could and would wrestle with anybody and put on a compelling match. He could be goofy/comedic or he could be arrogant/evil, and his matches were always great to watch. And it was a ton of fun to clap/stomp to his indie entrance theme, "The Final Countdown" by Europe. It wasn't unheard of for the entire crowd to sing along with the song, and especially screaming out the line "IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!"

Among his indie schtick that never made it to WWE was the fan-chant "You're gonna get your @#$%ing head kicked in!" (NSFW for language, obviously) and a gag he started doing as a heel, where he would stretch out a rope-break or other illegal hold, break at four, and then loudly remind the ref "I HAVE 'TIL FIVE!"

Another one of my favorite Bryan moments was when he put in an appearance at Chikara's "King of Trios 2009," where he was part of Team Uppercut alongside Dave Taylor and Claudio Castagnoli (aka Cesaro). They made it all the way to the finals of the tournament before losing, and they were one of the many highlights of that weekend.

Like many other wrestling fans, I was angry when Bryan got released from WWE following the "Nexus Riot," during which he attacked the ring announcer and throttled him with his tie. It was all part of the show, but it freaked out WWE's sponsors, and to keep the heat down, WWE released him. Bryan just shrugged, went to the indies for a month or two, and returned and started slowly gathering momentum. Even if WWE was not-so-subtly trying to negate it by having Michael Cole, their lead commentator, constantly bury him and call him (among other things) "a goat-faced little troll," the fans still got behind him to the point where WWE couldn't ignore it anymore.

Seeing Bryan finally overcome the Authority at Wrestlemania 30 to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was vindication and unquestionably my favorite Daniel Bryan moment.

I wish him all the best.

[mjr]

This sucks, but it's probably for the best.

I wish him all the best.

You forgot to mention Brie Bella...

I wonder if she's gonna retire soon, too...

Probably for the best for him, though.

[dendawg]

This (WARNING: Tear jerker) is what I'm going to remember Bryan for most of all.