Christian Talks Reaction To His Injury That Led To Retirement

Corey Graves invited Christian on After The Bell, and the two talked about their close connection with one another. They discussed how their career-ending injuries happened around the same time, and Christian noted his reaction to the injury and the potential talks of him coming back.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow," Christian said. "It's taken out of your hands. You don't have a say in it. Medically, you're not cleared to compete. You're on a non-contact list. It was a bit shocking, but in a weird sense I was almost kind of expecting it when it happened. So when I talked to the doctors and 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, it's never quite the same. 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.

"People talk to me about Daniel Bryan coming back. They said, 'hey, if he can do it,' and I said, well, first of all, we're in different situations. He's 10 years younger than me. 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. 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 kind of over-achieved in a sense. I did more than maybe I was projected to do. So I was content with the things I had accomplished. 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."

Christian has previously told Booker T about how different his injury was compared to Edge when talking about the idea of him getting cleared one day. He also spoke on our WINCLY podcast about not being someone that hangs around for too long. There was no fanfare for Christian's retirement, and he explains why that was the case saying that was something he would never have wanted.

"It's strange to think that one day you're wrestling, and the next day you're not," Christian admitted. "You almost have to step back for a little while, and it was hard for me to watch the shows being a competitive person because it's competitive when you're inside those walls. You want to be the best. A lot of people have talked to me too saying, 'oh, you never got to come out and you never got a ceremony. You never got to go out and say goodbye.' First of all, I 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.

"It's also hard when there's that chunk of time that goes by, a few months, and you're doing these tests and different things. Then months down the road they say,' OK, you know what, you can't do this anymore.' Now to come back on TV and be like hey, remember that thing where I was gone six months ago? I'd just been off a long time. It seemed like weird timing. It just, for me, didn't need to happen."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit After The Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.