By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Daniel Bryan took to Twitter to defend his wife Brie Bella following the concussion she accidentally gave Liv Morgan on last week’s WWE Raw. “I am proud of how strong my wife is, Bryan wrote. “After accidentally injuring Liv Morgan last week, the first time Bri’s ever hurt another performer, she’s been subject to a constant barrage of social media attacks. Almost every wrestler has accidentally hurt someone but rarely do you see this kind of hate when it happens.
“For example, I concussed Randy Orton in 2012 after hitting him with what was supposed to be a chair to the back. Unfortunately part of the side hit him in the back of the head, and he was forced to miss a PPV. In 2009 in our last match against each other, I concussed Nigel McGuinness after doing a dive into him in the crowd, where his head hit the floor. And there are others. As for the Yes kicks, two weeks ago I accidentally kicked Andrade directly in the head due to a miscommunication on my part. I feel fortunate that he was ok, because there are few feelings worse than hurting someone.
“Despite all of that, never did I receive the backlash Bri did this week. With all the negative things said about my wife, nobody was harder on her than she was on herself. Thank you to the many people who reached out to support her, both publicly and privately. We all wish Liv Morgan a speedy recovery. #EndCyberbullying”. Follow Bryan on Twitter at Twitter.com/WWEDanielBryan
Powell’s POV: I mentioned last week multiple times that the fan reaction over this situation reached an absurd level. Yes, Brie needs to improve after having some rough outings since she returned to the ring. Yes, WWE should evaluate whether their safety precautions for such situations were adhered to or need to be improved. But it’s no excuse for piling on the way that some people have and apparently still are.
lol cyberbullying. We’re seriously a nation of pussies.
It sucks she is getting a lot of hate online for sure. But her and Daniel need to stop using the Yes kicks since they both can’t do them without injuring people. The people wrestling them should refuse to take that move. Looks like Daniel, with his concussion issue, would be especially sensitive to this and stop using them on his own.
The reason this is getting a negative reaction is because when you watch the video of the injury we see Bri looking directly at Liv Morgen and kicking her directly in face TWICE. It didn’t look like an accident.
Also, (correct me if I’m wrong) Bri did not apologize, at least not publicly, instead saying she was “thinking of Liv” which is not really an apology, or even an admission that a mistake was made. This makes it *appear* that Bri doesn’t care. I’m not saying she doesn’t, but that is the perception.
Not all accidents look like accidents, especially if you want to slo-mo the video and break it down like the Zapruder film.
Brie Bella owes one person an apology. It does not need to be Facebooked, Tweeted, Instagrammed, Vined, MySpaced, or blared across any form of social media whatsoever to validate said apology in the eyes of the public. People thinking that their perception makes the apology valid in any way is ridiculous, to say the least, and is no excuse for attacking them on social media.