Well the above tweet really says it all, Daniel Bryan has officially announced that he is retiring from in ring action.  Bryan (34) has been out of action since a smackdown taping last April 14th in which he suffered a concussion, shortly after winning the intercontinental title at Wrestlemania.  Bryan had been hoping to gain medical clearance from the official WWE doctor, Dr. Joseph Maroon but had been unable to do so, despite gaining medical clearance from the doctor who worked at last year’s Superbowl.

While it is no doubt heartbreaking to long time fans of Bryan’s work (and I’m at the top of that list), WWE has to be commended here for taking concussions so seriously.  Bryan has been a part of WWE since 2009 and went on to win the World Heavyweight Title in 2011 and winning the WWE world heavyweight championship on 3 separate occasions, the last of which was in grand fashion at Wrestlemania 30.  As big of a fan as I am of Bryan the in ring performer, i’m a bigger fan of Bryan the person and his health and well being have to come first.

This tweet was released a little over an hour ago and I’ve already received a number of text messages from friends asking if this is storyline.  I suppose it’s possible being as Bryan teased a retirement announcement prior to announcing his return to the Royal Rumble back in 2015.  That said, I’d be pretty surprised to see that this is a storyline and I beleive it’s pretty legitimate.  Raw emanates from Seattle, Washington tonight, just a short distance from Bryan’s hometown in Aberdeen.

We’ll have a definitive update as more information is released and full coverage of Raw as well.