Edge Is Happy And Concerned About Daniel Bryan's Return To In-Ring Competition In WWE
Recently on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, WWE Hall Of Famer Edge weighed in on the in-ring return of WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan. While Edge stated that he is "happy" for Bryan, he expressed concern for the former world champion's physical well-being. Also, Edge took the opportunity to reiterate that he will never be cleared to return to the squared circle.
With respect to Bryan being medically cleared by WWE to return to active competition, Edge expressed some doubt.
"Seriously though, it's a weird thing. Like, I don't know what to make of it, to be perfectly honest." Edge said, "I'm happy for him, I just hope, I hope, he's okay. That's my biggest concern."
With that said, Edge suggested that Bryan wrestling at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans, Louisiana would be poetic in a way, as Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome at WrestleMania 30.
"It was New Orleans where he won the world title really at the peak of his popularity and three years later, here we are going back to New Orleans, the same building." Edge I mean, it's storybook, right? There are certain moments that kind of transcend passed the confines of what pro wrestling is."
Edge praised WWE's ongoing efforts to keep its performers safe before noting that he and Christian have been tweeted about Bryan's return to the ring a lot, given their injury histories.
"I mean, [Bryan being cleared] wouldn't happen unless [the doctors] all agreed." Edge added, "that's a great thing about where the WWE is at and their protocols on things right now. And it's weird. It's almost like [Christian] and I are the ones who'd get tweeted at the most, besides Bryan, about this, and I got inundated, man."
According to Edge, he will never be cleared to wrestle again and that his injuries are worse than the likes of Bryan and WWE Hall Of Famers Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels.
"I got that, 'well, he's back, so you can come back, right?' And I thought, 'oh my God, we're going to get into this again!'" Edge explained, "I greatly appreciate that people would like to see me have one more match, or comeback, or 'Daniel Bryan got cleared, so why can't you?' I will never be cleared. Mine is a completely different injury. He had neck issues, but it wasn't his neck issues that retired him, actually. It was the concussion issues. I never had concussion issues. What I have is cervical spinal stenosis. Look it up. I have stupid neck. Look it up. You can look up 'stupid neck' and it'll probably be a picture of my neck. Just do me a favor. Look it up and you'll realize that the WWE will never clear me to compete again. And I appreciate it, but that's all there is to that. They're different. Kurt's injuries were different than mine, Shawn's injuries were different than mine, and I know they've all come back and done matches. Mine's different. For lack of a better term, mine's worse, so there you go."
Edge pointed out that Bryan was in a much different place in his pro wrestling career than 'The R-Rated Superstar' at the time of his forced retirement.
"Here's my thing: I know I couldn't [be cleared] and I also know I couldn't come back and compete at a high level! So double barrels there." Edge continued, "and that's the thing with where Bryan was in his career, and with what he had accomplished, and what he still wanted to accomplish, and the age difference, and all of those things."
Click here to check out the podcast. If you us any of the quotes from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness