WWE SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan was a guest on Hot 97 FM in New York City on Tuesday morning and noted that the WWE are still standing firm on not being comfortable with him performing as a professional wrestler, after he was forced into retirement due to concussion and medical issues several years ago.

Bryan noted that he has presented a case to the WWE, showing that he is medically fine, but that the company feels that he has had too many concussions, to which he feels that there has been a lot of miseducation about concussions and that he has been working with a concussion institute in Phoenix, where he resides. Bryan said that concussions are not a death sentence and that if you report a concussion, you need to not be physical until your brain is healed from it completely and then, you can come back and not have it haunt you for the rest of your life.

The hosts mentioned that there have been some, who have had terrible closure to their lives because of concussion-related issues and if the WWE may be protecting Bryan’s health, to which Bryan said that he has been cleared by experts that the company sent him to and that they have said that he is cleared to wrestler and that his brain EKG’s have been excellent. The hosts then asked why Bryan wants to return to the ring, to which Bryan noted that he loves wrestling, but does not love all of it, citing traveling as an example. Bryan said that the part he loves is being in the ring, but while he has the job, he does not have the part that he loves and said that he is appreciative that the WWE have given him something to do and while some feel that he should be happy that he has that position, he would like to be able to do what he loves to do.

The hosts asked Bryan if he was addicted to the action, to which Bryan noted is not the case, but mentally, he is. Bryan said that he does kickboxing and jiu-jitsu regularly and is still physical in his life, but noted that he has had a borderline obsession with professional wrestling and thinks about it all the time, stating that he is still thinking about what he can do in wrestling. Bryan then mentioned Tom Brady, who has made tons of money, has a wife who makes more money and that he has a number of SuperBowl rings, yet Tom is still passionate about football and thinking about it all of the time.

Bryan said that Brie is supportive in regards to the situation and noted that he made mistakes by hiding things from his doctors and the WWE and that doing what he did in general is not good as it breeds mistrust between himself and the doctor. Bryan said that he had a seizure in 2012, which he never told the company about and then had another one in 2015, to which he described as a seizure in a hotel room right after he started to date Brie and that he begged her not to tell anyone and she did not, stating that Brie did not even tell her twin sister and that later on, Brie told Bryan that since they were planning a family together, that he had to tell a doctor and said that he had one in April 2015, told the doctors and that led to where they are now.

Bryan said that there are so many variables when it comes to concussions that people just do not understand, discussing the recent study that claimed 99 out of 100 football players had CTE. Bryan noted that they actually had the protein associated with the disease and there is no word whether they actually had cognitive issues, with Bryan wondering how eating tons of proteins could add to proteins on the brain and how steroid use in past generations caused issues. Bryan said that WWE’s doctor, Joseph Maroon, was not even aware that there are nuclear specific scans of the brain and said that if they do indeed find something wrong with his brain, then he does not want to wrestle and that the hard part for him personally is that all these specialists have told him that he can wrestle, but that WWE are stating that he’s not allowed to wrestle.

Bryan said that when he retired, he was initially at peace with it and wanted to make changes in his life, but that being around wrestling and realizing that he can still do it and being around it is hard and said that not being allowed to wrestle feels almost like a disservice to him and a disservice to other people who may be in his situation. Bryan said that in 5 to 10 years, they may be able to diagnose CTE in living people and that is going to change wrestling and the NFL and said that you are going to get to a point where you come out of college and will be tested for it and told that you have to retire at 26, noting that it’s going to change the face of contact sports and that it is going to be a big issue with the NFL’s popularity going forward, because if kids stop playing football because of contact concerns, then it’s going to lead to other sports gaining in popularity and said that his argument is skewed here, because he wants to wrestle.

The hosts noted that Bryan is now 36 years old and that his window for his prime years are closing. Bryan said that the WWE are trying to protect him and their company, but he does not know how many people, currently on the roster, who if they underwent the same testing that he went through, would be cleared to wrestle and be in the same situation that he is currently in. Bryan said that he is skewed and said that we are in an interesting point in history, because for the first-time ever, more people are dying from overeating versus starvation and said that there are studies into how animal proteins hurt different parts of the body, stating that it is something you don’t hear much about, because it is not sensationalism and because there are companies that advertise with companies, noting that he does not want to blend issues. Bryan said that it is an interesting situation, noting that the discussion of his return has helped create the current rift on WWE television between himself and Shane McMahon.