Steve Austin recently spoke on Daniel Bryan’s retirement and revealed that it moved him so much there was a tear in his eye. On a recent episode of his podcast The Steve Austin Show, The Texas Rattlesnake discussed his thoughts on the now-retired Bryan.

“Just a big shout out to a hell of a body of work that he leaves behind and I’m sure we’ll see him in the Hall of Fame,” Austin said, “but it was a very emotional night and I dare say, I will say, I had a tear in my eye watching that kid say goodbye. Every time he went out there, the kid was knocking it out of the park, doing world class work. He could work any style of wrestling.”

The WWE Hall of Famer explained why he held Bryan’s work in such high regard, and compared him to Bret Hart.

“From what I’ve seen out of him, it’s just bad ass work. He tells a great story, sells his ass off, makes everything look good, goes through great sequences, great psychology, sells his ass off. He’s the real deal,” Austin said. “Daniel Bryan’s run kind of reminds me to a similar degree, or just the way he presented himself almost in a vein, he was a smaller version of Bret Hart because Bret was never really going to be the chosen guy. All of a sudden, he got the opportunity and he was an understated guy, wasn’t over the top. I always liked Bret Hart’s promos. He felt he was a little weak in them. One of the greatest workers in the history of the business. And finally he got his time. He got his just due, and all of a sudden, that was the transition of the bigger guys [to] the guys that could really work, [and it] opened the door for guys like Shawn Michaels and so Daniel Bryan, just his persistence, his determination, and the fact that he was consistent every single time he went out there, he delivered and it’s fine to see the big guys with the charisma going through their stuff because everybody wants to see the heavyweights clash, but also, people want to see bad ass wrestling and to me that’s what Daniel was all about.”

You can listen to his full podcast here.

* ESPN personality trashes Austin over Titus O’Neil/racism comments