5 backyard wrestlers who became WWE Champions

#3 Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan

At WrestleMania 30, Daniel Bryan defeated three members of the legendary faction Evolution, and became the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The heartfelt victory was the culmination of the Yes Movement, which garnered tons of mainstream publicity for WWE. But before Bryan became a megastar in WWE, he was another backyard wrestler no one knew about.

Bryan details his backyard misadventures in his autobiography, chronicling his journey from being a backyard wrestler to WWE Champion. Bryan's friends had created their own promotion named "Backyard Championship Wrestling', and Bryan regularly 'wrestled' in the league.

The biggest development was when I found out that my friends had created their own wrestling league. Before the shows started, we'd clear everything out of our family room and lay out a mattress on the floor, thus transforming the room into the BCW Area.