As "WWE" went off the air Monday night, the crowd was chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" But it wasn't to celebrate the return of Daniel Bryan, leader of the "Yes Movement" and arguably the most popular pro wrestler of the last half-decade.
On Monday, Daniel Bryan announced his official retirement. He came to the ring at the end of "WWE" -- the main event slot -- and gave the best promo of his career. He explained how he came to his difficult decision:
"I've been wrestling since I was 18 years old. And within the first five months of my wrestling career, I'd already had three concussions. And for years after that, I would get a concussion here and there, and it gets to the point that when you've been wrestling for 16 years, that adds up to a lot of concussions," Bryan said. "And it gets to a point where they tell you that you can't wrestle anymore. And for a long time I fought that because I had gotten EEGs and brain MRIs and neuropsychological evaluations and all of them said this: That I was fine and that I could come back and I could wrestle."
"I trained like I could come back and I could wrestle," Bryan continued. "I was ready at a moment's notice if WWE needed me, I wanted to come back and wrestle because I have loved this in a way I have never loved anything else. But a week and a half ago, I took a test that said that maybe my brain isn't as OK as I thought it was."
Chants of "Thank you, Bryan" rang through the arena. Bryan turned it around on the crowd.
"I am grateful because wrestling doesn't owe me or anybody back there, it doesn't owe us anything," Bryan said. "WWE doesn't owe us anything. You guys don't owe us anything. We do this because we love to do this. And then, it was strange, because I did this because I love to do this; and then all of a sudden, you guys just got behind me in a way that I never thought was possible."
He talked about his dad getting to see him win the title before he died, and about meeting his wife, the wrestler Brie Bella. He led the fans in one last "Yes!" chant. And then he hugged his family and some fans and walked up the ramp, where Vince and the whole roster was waiting for him. And then it was all over.
In all, it was an uplifting moment, a chance to send off one of our idols in the best way possible. The wrestling world is too full of tragic deaths and diminished capacity dotages; and even those that live full lives rarely get to walk away wrapped in glory. And yet it was at the same time the most heartbreaking moment in ages. It's a terrible loss for fans and the business and for Bryan himself that he's done in the ring. He's a treasure, and WWE is worse off without him.
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