WWE Champion Daniel Bryan recently spoke with ESPN to promote Sunday's WWE Royal Rumble match with AJ Styles. The piece reveals the concussion tests that Bryan undergoes after each match.
Bryan returns to the backstage area after each match and has to go through a series of tests, ending with a math problem. According to ESPN, Bryan must multiply 8 by 3, then multiply that number by 3, and dive it all by 4. If Bryan can't come up with the correct answer, he's not cleared to continue wrestling.
WWE doctors perform these tests on Bryan following any physical activity in the ring. The tests begin with Bryan getting his eyes checked. He then goes through several balance tests, then ends with the math equation. Doctors use the simple tests to make sure Bryan's brain is functioning properly. These show how WWE is not taking any chances with Bryan, who has suffered 10 documented concussions.
"The big concern with concussions is that, this has happened to me in the past, you don't know you had a concussion and your instinct as an athlete is to say, 'Hey, I'm fine, What we do now ensures that doesn't happen."
ESPN notes that WWE put this very specific concussion protocol in place after Bryan was cleared to return to the ring by an independent group of concussion experts, neurologists and neurosurgeons, and WWE medical director Joseph Maroon.