5 WWE Superstars Daniel Bryan hugely put over in 2019

It was the end of February 2016 when Daniel Bryan shockingly announced his retirement from the ring after suffering some career-ending injuries. The move allowed him to move to a lighter role in WWE while getting more time to spend with his family.

After over two years of waiting on the sidelines and taking up the role of SmackDown’s General Manager, Bryan was once again cleared to compete in the ring in March 2018.

He has achieved a lot since his return to the ring and even won the WWE Championship and the SmackDown Tag Team Championships in a little over a year and a half. However, the greatest service he’s done to the fans and the locker room since his return has been putting over several new and established Superstars in the ring.

This has allowed the company to build some huge moments thanks to him, and also give some newcomers a major push to make them the future of the company.

In this article, we will look at the 5 Superstars Daniel Bryan has put over in 2019.

---

#5 Buddy Murphy

During a bizarre storyline involving Roman Reigns and a mystery attacker, Rowan was shown in a clip to be the biggest suspect in the case.

This led to Daniel Bryan going all the way in an attempt to protect Rowan and reveal the ‘real’ attacker. Buddy Murphy came up as another suspect and got into a storyline he wasn’t supposed to be a part of.

This led to a match between Murphy and Bryan, as The Aussie tried to prove his innocence and confirm that Rowan was indeed behind the attacks.

Murphy started strong in the match and battled Bryan extremely well in what seemed to be one of the best-televised matches of the year. After a great performance in which Bryan took some extreme bumps to put the former Cruiserweight Champion over, Murphy hit the Murphy's Law for the biggest victory of his career.

While Murphy had battled Reigns a week earlier in a great match, he didn't win against The Big Dog. A victory over Bryan allowed him to show what he’s got, and why he was being labeled as SmackDown’s Best Kept Secret.

The storyline and the match helped turn Murphy’s fortunes around, as he started getting more matches and better bookings after the showdown.

Who else but Daniel Bryan would have taken a pinfall loss from a newcomer?

#4 Rowan

In August 2018, Rowan suffered an injury that took him and his tag team partner Luke Harper out of action for several weeks.

While Harper remained away from competition for longer, Rowan returned to television at Royal Rumble 2019 and helped his former partner Daniel Bryan retain the WWE Championship against AJ Styles.

This allowed them to form an alliance, and Bryan began to use Rowan as the muscle to protect him and his WWE Championship for several months. The move allowed Rowan to get into another great storyline.

In May 2019, Rowan and Bryan defeated The Usos to become the new SmackDown Tag Team Champions, beginning their first reign together. This allowed Rowan to once again become a huge star on SmackDown and get much more attention than he was getting earlier as part of the Bludgeon Brothers.

Soon after, the two men lost the title but got into a rivalry with Roman Reigns, which allowed Rowan to break away from Bryan and go after Reigns with the help of Harper.

Later on, Bryan teamed up with Reigns to defeat the team of Rowan and Harper but did enough to give the man a singles push which he has now carried into the RAW brand along with a cage.

#3 Adam Cole

If there’s one man in WWE who knows how to make a big statement, it's Adam Cole. The November 1 episode of SmackDown saw an invasion from Superstars of NXT, as most of the Blue brand’s roster were in transit from Saudi Arabia after the Crown Jewel event.

The night started with Shayna Baszler taking out SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley, and was followed by a surprise victory by Tomasso Ciampa over The Miz.

This prompted Daniel Bryan to stand up to Triple H and Shawn Michaels of NXT, as he demanded a match against The Game.

However, Triple H declined the request for a match but gave him another opportunity instead. He brought out NXT Champion Adam Cole for a bout against Bryan, which gave fans a dream encounter on a night they didn’t expect to see much happen.

Cole put on a stunning performance against Bryan, and both men worked extremely well together. Bryan decided to put Cole over and took the pin from the NXT Champion to allow him his biggest clean victory in WWE to date.

Even though Bryan could have requested to end the match in disqualification or a brawl leading to a no-contest, he was brave enough to let Cole bag the victory to begin the build for Survivor Series.

#2 Mustafa Ali

On December 11, 2018, Mustafa Ali took a leap of faith that changed his life forever. Daniel Bryan, who held the WWE Championship at the time and was The Planet’s Champion, kicked off the show to talk about his match against AJ Styles at TLC.

However, he was interrupted by The Heart of 205 Live who walked down to stand toe to toe with the Champion. The two got into an argument which led to an unexpected match.

Ali gave a really good fight to the Champion and after a good match, lost to Bryan but came out looking strong. In the weeks that followed into 2019, Ali became a constant on the Blue brand and even teamed up with AJ Styles to pin Daniel Bryan in a match.

According to Kazeem Famuyide, a former WWE writer, Bryan was the man who was pushing hard backstage to see a hot young babyface come up on television and stand up to him while he played a villainous heel. This allowed Ali to get the push and become a member of SmackDown.

The year 2019 proved to have a lot in store for Ali, but a legitimate injury forced him out of a WWE Championship match at Elimination Chamber in February, where he was seen as a favorite to win.

At Fastlane 2019, he was a last-minute addition in the WWE Championship match between Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan and took the pin from Bryan to lose the match.

Even though Ali’s injury took his push off the tracks, Bryan did a lot to push the youngster and took major bumps from him in every match to make him seem stronger and get the crowds behind him.

#1 Kofi Kingston

The opportunity Mustafa Ali lost was grasped with both hands by the leader of the New Day, Kofi Kingston.

Kofi entered the WWE Championship picture as a replacement to Mustafa Ali at Elimination Chamber after Ali suffered an injury.

This proved to be the golden ticket for the veteran who had never won the top title of the company before. Even though Kofi came up short at Elimination Chamber, his performance in a Gauntlet Match before the event and his performance in the Championship match itself allowed the WWE Universe to get behind him even more.

He was later granted another Championship match against Bryan for Fastlane, but Vince McMahon pulled him out of the match last minute and put Kevin Owens in instead.

Bryan’s excellent heel work helped Kofi get even more sympathy from the fans, and The Planet's Champion did extremely well to put Kofi over big time while making himself seem more despicable.

Vince put in numerous hurdles in front of Kofi and his two teammates, which they managed to overcome, but kept getting cheated by the Chairman and the Champion.

This gave rise to KofiMania, as Kofi entered the Championship picture for WrestleMania and finally defeated Bryan at the Grandest Stage of Them All to become the first African-born WWE Champion in history.

Had it not been for Bryan and his excellent heel and mic-work, Kofi’s rise would not have had as much impact as it did.