Christian On Being Forced to Retire, How Difficult It Was For Him and Why He’s Not Looking to Return

Christian appeared on the most recent After the Bell and discussed his retirement in late 2014 due to injuries, as well as why he won’t be making a return. Christian’s WWE career came to a quiet end when he spent time on the shelf due to concussions and was eventually moved to the alumni section of WWE.com. Since then, he’s made sporadic non-ring appearances for WWE in addition to his Edge & Christian Show with Edge, but has no plans to try and return due to his concussion.

Speaking with Corey Graves, Christian explained what that time was like for him and why his situation is different from that of Daniel Bryan’s, who returned after his own concussion-related retirement. Highlights and the full audio are below:

On being forced to retire due to his concussion: “Yeah, I mean like I said, we’ve talked about it before. It’s a tough thing to swallow, you know? It’s a bitter pill to swallow. I mean, kind of being told that — it’s taken out of your hands, right? You don’t have a say in it. Medically, you’re not cleared to compete, you’re on a non-contact list, it’s all these things. So it was a bit shocking, but also in a weird sense I was almost kind of expecting it when it happened. So when I talked to the doctors and [he] said ‘Hey, it’s like any prize fighter. You can have a chin made of granite and get hit a ton of times and nothing happens, but that one time you get a bad one, you’re never quite the same. And it’s easier to get them after. So at this point, it’s not a question of if you’re gonna get another one, it’s when.’ And that’s all I needed to hear.”

On not making a return: “And like you said, you know, people talk to me about Daniel Bryan coming back. And they said, ‘You know, if he can do it, maybe–‘ I said, well, first of all, we’re in different situations. And he’s what, probably 10 years younger than me? And so I was 40 years old when this happened, or about to turn 40. I wasn’t 30. If I was 30 maybe I would have a different mindset about. But like you said, I accomplished a lot of things that — basically, the only thing I never accomplished was main eventing WrestleMania. And let’s be honest, how many people actually get a chance to do that? But I really kind of maybe even overachieved in a sense and did more than maybe I was ever projected to do. And so I was content with the things I had accomplished. And at that age, I never envisioned myself as the guy that hung on for too long also, so I didn’t want to get in that territory either.”

On the time being a difficult one for him: “But yeah, it’s strange to think that one day you’re wrestling, and the next day you’re not. And it’s like, ‘Man.’ And you almost have to step back for a little while. It was hard for me to watch the shows and those sorts of things. And being a competitive person, because it is competitive when you’re inside those walls. You know, you want to be the best.

“And lot of people have talked to me too, saying, ‘Oh, well you never got to come out and you never got a ceremony, you never got to go out and say goodbye.’ And first of all, I’ve never felt like I was one of those guys that needed to do that. That wasn’t really my thing. I don’t know if I even wanted to do that anyway. But it’s also when there’s a chunk of time that goes by of a few months. And then you’re doing these tests and these different things, and then months down the road they say, ‘Okay, you can’t do this anymore.’ Now to come back to TV and be like ‘Hey, remember that thing when I was gone six months ago? Well guess what?’ It was just, I had been been off a long time. It just seemed like weird timing. It just didn’t, for me, need to happen.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s After the Bell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.