By Shawn Valentino, PWTorch specialist

Let us go back in time to WrestleMania 23 weekend in Detroit. My friends and I were at the wrestlers’s hotel the night before WrestleMania. I have shared this story numerous times over the years in my articles, but I feel that the timing is appropriate now. We were having drinks and chatting with Dean Malenko, and I asked him why WWE allows Chris Benoit to do the diving headbutt because it was incredibly dangerous and should be banned. I have always thought it was the dumbest move in wrestling, and it looked like it did more damage to the guy delivering the move than the victim. It destroys any sense of ring psychology. Why not pull out a double-sided hammer and hit your opponent and yourself at the same time?

Malenko’s response to my inquiry was, “You can never tell a wrestler not to do a move.” My thoughts regarding that mindset are the same now as they were then, that it is unbelievably stupid and selfish to put yourself and your opponent in such danger. Of course, I know it is wrestling and many moves can cause injury, but why not eliminate high-risk maneuvers that cannot possibly be executed even remotely safely and do not even look good! A few months later Benoit killed his family and himself, and studies showed that he had the brain of an 80-year-old man due to years of damage. I am not saying the Crippler killed his wife and son because he did the diving headbutt, but the accumulation of head trauma that this move can cause should bar it from ever being used again.

When Daniel Bryan ascended to superstardom in the past year, I was on the bandwagon. That is largely because I like the larger-than-life wrestlers with a cool factor, and I am not much of a fan of the underdog everyman. I saw him as another Benoit, a wrestler for the wrestling nerds that did not have the look, attitude, and persona of a centerpiece star. I also took points off his match ratings because of his usage of the Chris Benoit Memorial Diving Headbutt as Wade Keller so brilliantly termed it.

Do not get me wrong. Bryan is an amazing athlete, and I do acknowledge his innate charisma and likability, but I did not see him succeeding as a major draw on top because mega-stars have a certain swagger and presentation that he lacks. This is not a personal attack because in real life, I do like laid back people that are easygoing, but on my wrestling show, I want to see macho prima donnas and arrogant outlaws. Additionally, I saw it as having to suffer through another generation of a dorky guy headlining Raw every week.

I am not going to rate Bryan’s short reign as champ because he deserves a chance to be the top guy due to his popularity, but the reason I am writing this piece is to draw attention to a need for a safer in-ring style. One of the incentives of being so loved by the fans is that that he does not need to work as risky of a style to stay over. He should slowly eliminate some of the more dangerous moves in his arsenal and focus more on a few strong moves that cause a reaction. This is a strategy that nearly every top star in wrestling history has successfully employed.

Now I am looking back to last month when I was at the WWE hotel in New Orleans for WrestleMania. There was a revolving door of legends coming in and out of the Waldorf. A mixture of emotions resonated from witnessing some of these older stars. We saw Bruno Sammartino and Larry Zbyszko, and they looked fantastic. At the same time, we saw Mick Foley and Harley Race, wrestlers who worked a very stiff style, and they looked like they could barely walk. By the way, one of Race’s signature moves was the falling headbutt, and he was on crutches. A wrestler from that generation that was not at the hotel was Dynamite Kid, another “specialist” at the diving headbutt and one of Benoit’s heroes. He is now in a wheelchair.

WWE said last Thursday that Bryan underwent "successful" neck surgery, but hopefully he has also learned a lesson that he should have learned from his predecessors. If he wants to remain an “A-Player” for the long haul, should he stop utilizing the Chris Benoit Memorial Diving Headbutt? You know the answer to that, so feel free to chant at home.

Please send questions, comments, and feedback to shawnvalentino@gmail.com and check out my book The Showstopper Lifestyle on Amazon. Feel free to add Shawn Valentino on Facebook.

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