Many people thought (and probably think) that the Daniel Bryan injury angle was partially a work and the WWE knew long ago Bryan would be available by the Royal Rumble. Rumors about retirement and multiple surgeries people just assumed was part of the WWE PR machine, but if you believe Bryan (no reason not to believe him) it wasn’t a work at all.
Bryan says he was starting to think that his career might be over and doctors didn’t know what to do to about him losing all the strength in his arm. But, then a visit to the Carson Palmer’s doctor changed everything.
In this exclusive interview with Bleacher Report, Bryan explains how it all happened.
B/R: I remember hearing you were going to be out for a couple of months. And then all of the sudden, a couple of months turned into eight months and even rumors you’d never return at all. It sounds like quite a journey. Can you walk me through how we ended up where we are today, with you returning to SmackDown this Thursday?
Bryan: It actually happened in the summer of 2013. I was in a match with Randy Orton and did a suicide dive out of the ring and missed. My head hit the guardrail, and I felt a shooting pain go down my arm.
B/R: That wasn’t enough to stop you. I think we all remember your path to glory at WrestleMania 30. Was there something that made you reconsider just working through it?
Bryan: Around May of 2014, after all the WrestleMania stuff, all of the sudden it went from shooting pain down my arm to weakness. When that happens, that’s when you need to fix it right away, or it could be permanent.
B/R: You’re a professional athlete. What constitutes weakness?
Bryan: Like, it was so weak—Brie and I don’t have automatic locks. We actually have to turn the key in the car to open it. And I was so weak I couldn’t even unlock the car door.
B/R: Wow.
Bryan: Yeah. And that’s when they said, “No, you need to go get surgery now so that this doesn’t get any worse. So I went to get the surgery and they were expecting only a six- to eight-week recovery. But the strength just wasn’t coming back.
The theory was the nerve had been crushed for so long it might not come back. So we were trying all these different things. There’s a nerve that runs from your neck all the way down to the end of your hand. So there was talk of a second surgery on my neck, there was talk of a surgery on my arm, on my elbow.
There was just so much weakness and sometimes this shooting pain. But the doctors really couldn’t agree on what to do. I was set to do the elbow surgery because we couldn’t think of anything else to do.
B/R: Obviously that didn’t happen. What did?
Bryan: I saw a naturopath who works with Carson Palmer, a quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals who was having a horrible shoulder problem. He could barely even pick up a football. Then, all of a sudden, he was able to play.
That’s because he saw this guy in Denver who does something called “Muscle Activation Technique.” And so I went and saw that guy, and for the first time in months, after just one visit, I had strength in my arm.
B/R: That was all it took?
Bryan: It only lasted about five days. But then I went and saw him a second time, and it’s lasted all the way until now. It’s been very interesting, very confusing, very frustrating. But the last month has been very hopeful.
I was at this point where I wondered “Man, is this ever going to get better?” I was actually facing the fact that I might not be able to come back to wrestling. And then it’s almost like a miracle healing. And that’s been pretty exciting to me.
If you recall Palmer’s shoulder wasn’t getting any better at all, then he saw this doctor and next thing you knew he was back on the field like nothing ever happened.
I get the feeling this doctor is going to make a lot of money from athletes in the future.