His ROH farewell speech. Especially when he tells the sound guys to cue up his "favorite song" one more time.
The death of his father, barely hours before the 4/21/14 broadcast of Raw, prompted an abrupt rewrite of a segment so that Bryan could take the night off to mourn. You could see the tears in his eyes during his lone segment.
While he was eventually medically cleared to wrestle again, the fact that he had to prematurely end his career (one of the most iconic in modern WWE history) in 2016, for the sake of his health, broke the hearts of fans and fellow wrestlers around the world. Say what you will, but having to pack it in at the age of 34, an age where one should have many more miles in them, has gotta sting.
Of course, the resulting retirement speech on the 2/8/16 episode of Raw was instantly one of the great Manly Tears moments in WWE history.
A behind-the-scenes shot (shown in the page image) shows him being comforted by his wife, utterly devastated. Remember that wrestling encompassed almost all of his adult life up to this point; the fact that he couldn't do the things he loves anymore is soul-crushing, to say the least.
On ESPN following his announcement, we saw the reason why he had to retire. At the time, he had over 10 documented concussions of his career (possibly more) and post-concussion seizures, as well as an acute brain lesion that he found out about roughly a week or two before the retirement, which convinced him to hang up his boots. With the revelation of those dangerous conditions, many fans went from accusing WWE of conspiratorially holding him out of action despite his insistence that he could go just to preserve their own plans to being just as relieved that he retired before something worse happened to him as they had been five years earlier with Edge.
His promo after his Iron Man match with MJF is truly heartbreaking. Through the feud, MJF had told Bryan he takes his family for granted and cares more about being a wrestler than being a dad to his kids. In the final moments of the match when MJF has Bryan in the crossface, Bryan’s arms and leg go numb. While fighting at first, Bryan had started to realize Max was right and that if he continues on the path he’s on, he won’t be able to play with his kids and decided to just forfeit by tapping out. Then, Bryan simply notes he needs to go home.
on the 2/8/16 episode of Raw was instantly one of the great Manly Tears moments in WWE history.