Always the unlikely professional wrestling superstar, Daniel Bryan has had to contend with an army of sceptics throughout his career. Whether it’s his size or abilities on the mic, it seems there is always something wrestling fans have had against the idea of Bryan being at the very top. This makes it all the more impressive, then, that the so-called American Dragon ended up with a wrestling career that would prove to be the envy of most.
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Daniel Bryan, in many ways, is an innovator. The WWE has always kept the ‘smaller’ athlete at arm’s length, occasionally giving in to fan pressure and finding a place for them somewhere on the roster. Never has anyone the size and stature of Bryan Danielson reached such heights before.
He is in a very elite and exclusive club of smaller guys who have held some of the company’s main championships, but with the possible exception of Shawn Michaels, nobody has been able to endear themselves to the fans quite as powerfully as Daniel Bryan.
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Now that his in-ring career appears to be all but over, here is a look back at 5 key moments that shaped the career of WWE’s resident ‘Yes man’:
#1 Signing with Memphis Championship Wrestling (2000)
Bryan is commonly associated with either his recent WWE career or his time with ROH. Fans do not tend to regard the beginnings of his time in the ring with much importance, but here is where many of the first stepping stones were laid which would eventually lead him to the very top of the mountain. Danielson signed with Memphis Championship Wrestling back in 2000, which was a WWF developmental territory during most of the Attitude Era.
He had recently spent time under the tutelage of Shawn Michaels as part of the Texas Wrestling Academy, something the WWE like to mention at any opportunity possible. Bryan actually credits most of his early success to meeting and working alongside William Regal whom he met when working with MCW.
Here he received his first taste of WWE gold, winning the MCW Light Heavyweight Championship and came close to being given a main roster contract as part of the WWF’s newly formed cruiserweight division. He also first adopted the moniker ‘American Dragon’, a nickname that stayed with him throughout most of his run on the independent scene.
There is a reason Daniel Bryan personally mentioned William Regal in his retirement speech last year. Sometimes when there are so many people telling you that you’re probably going to fail at something, it just takes one person to believe in you to turn your entire life around.
#2 Becoming an ROH ‘Founding Father’
With the world of professional wrestling at its height during the early 2000’s, fans became increasingly hungry for something other than the WWF/WCW duopoly. Factions such as ECW and companies from Japan started gaining larger global audiences. There was also a new found interest in independent wrestling, which had previously held a reputation as reckless ‘backgarden’ wrestling, a million miles away from the glitz and glamour of the WWF.
Ring of Honour (ROH) Wrestling was officially founded in 2002, with Danielson as a recognised ‘founding father’ of the company. In an attempt to fill the void left by WWE’s purchase of ECW, Rob Feinstein’s promotion sought to cater for fans who enjoyed a more real-to-life style of the sport, one that embraced close fan interaction and concentrated on the action inside the ring as opposed to soap opera style backstage narratives.
The company has always enjoyed relative success, never quite reaching the level of the big players, but always offering an enjoyable alternative whenever fans tired of seeing the familiar WWF faces.
Bryan, along with stars like CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) first made names for themselves under the ROH banner. By the end of 2002, the WWE was left alone atop the wrestling mountain, which meant that wrestlers making an impact on the independent scene started to appear more and more attractive.
Bryan became ROH champion in 2005, quite possibly the ideal time, as this allowed him the space to get used to championship success and also leave the door open to a possible return to WWE if he managed to maintain his popularity with the fans.
His feuds over the title with the likes of Chris Hero and Samoa Joe are now the stuff of legend, and it wouldn’t be long before the WWE would come knocking once again.
#3 NXT Season One
After a brief stint at FCW, Bryan seemingly formed a long-term agreement with WWE, agreeing to take part in their first edition of NXT, a new reality-TV like programme where the winner would be guaranteed a contract on the main roster as well as a shot at the WWE Championship. Bryan came in alongside Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, David Otunga and others. He was by far the most well known of the group but failed to win the series ultimately.
His time on NXT was of particular significance, however, as it was the first real occasion where the WWE Universe were able to see him in action. Independent wrestling had grown quite the following by 2010, but there were still plenty who only watched Vince’s promotion, and would not have known much about Bryan other than what friends and internet chat rooms had said. The WWE wasted no time in introducing the star to the audience, putting him in a match with the then World Heavyweight Champion, Chris Jericho.
Bryan’s NXT career was dominated mainly by his ongoing feud with The Miz, who became his ‘mentor’ at the start of the show. The two began a very believable, almost shoot-like rivalry where neither star felt the other was worthy of being associated with them.
Miz played off the fact that many doubted Bryan’s ability to connect with the audience, claiming that wrestling skills might have gotten Bryan so far in the indies, but to make it in WWE he needed a personality. This was not lost on the WWE Universe itself, as Bryan’s mic abilities were exposed as fairly mediocre, but he still managed to stay popular with the fans until his early exit from the show.
However you feel about Bryan’s first NXT run, it did allow him to put his foot firmly in the door and helped vanquish any doubts about whether the WWE would ever take him seriously as a competitor. After a brief hiatus following the now infamous tie incident on Raw, Bryan came back to the company, this time on the main roster, and it wouldn’t be long before he earned his first United States Championship.
#4 WrestleMania 28
Despite becoming a consistent main roster WWE superstar, Bryan experienced quite the roller coaster ride of success throughout much of 2011-2012. Every time you thought he had reached his peak in the company, he would suddenly be given another opportunity to climb even higher. Bryan became Mr Money in the Bank at the legendary 2011 show and cashed in to become World Heavyweight Champion later that year.
This was during a period of time in which the WWE Championship was very much seen as the company’s main title, but holding the big gold belt did do wonders for Bryan’s career. This was an affirmation that the WWE not only saw him as a main roster competitor but also as championship material. Fans were treated to a series of matches between Bryan and CM Punk throughout much of 2012 when the two men both the belts respectively.
Bryan was then scheduled to face Royal Rumble winner Sheamus at WrestleMania 28 for the WHC title. The match opened the show, and Bryan was defeated in just 18 seconds. By all accounts, this appeared to be yet another shift away from the Bryan character, his future once again left uncertain.
As we all now know, however, WrestleMania 28 was a hugely significant turning point for DB, and not because of the match or the infamous kiss with AJ Lee after the bell had rung. For some unknown reason, the fans in attendance began to replicate Bryan’s pre and post match celebrations where he would throw his hands up in the air chanting ‘YES’ as a way to annoy his opponents. Out of nowhere, what should have been a standard WHC match at WrestleMania turned into a raucous scene with 70,000 people all chanting YES as Bryan came to the ring.
The trend really caught on during Raw the next night, and despite WWE’s efforts to quell the tide by keeping Bryan heel, it was clear that the man had transitioned himself into one of the most popular superstars the company had ever seen. Bryan’s connection with the crowd grew and grew until he was finally turned babyface while teaming with long-time rival Kane. Bryan’s main event stature was now all but confirmed.
#5 The fans hijack Raw for the first time
Owing to his immense popularity, and the realisation that John Cena would soon be forced to take time off to repair an elbow injury, Daniel Bryan was made number one contender for the WWE Championship at Summerslam 2013. John Cena had actually picked Bryan as his opponent, and this decision, at least in kayfabe terms, ended up backfiring on the champ, as Bryan scored an unlikely clean victory over Cena to become WWE Champion for the very first time.
This match also sparked one of WWE’s best PG era storylines when Triple H, the guest referee, turned on Bryan and allowed Randy Orton to cash in his Money in the Bank Briefcase. Bryan effectively became the company’s top babyface in Cena’s absence, fighting against the evil forces of the Authority and The Shield.
In an angle that saw art imitating real life, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H began voicing all the concerns about Bryan that many had been saying to him throughout his career. He was too small to be WWE Champion and didn’t have the right look to become the poster boy of WWE. Triple H called him a ‘B-Plus’ player and did everything he could to keep him away from Orton’s title.
After John Cena returned from injury, he was instantly given the World Heavyweight Championship, and it wouldn't be long before the WWE started making plans for a grand title unification angle. With Orton as the WWE Champion at the time, the stage was set for the PG era’s longest rivalry to reach another historic instalment as John Cena and Randy Orton would fight for ultimate supremacy in the company – or at least this was the case in Vince McMahon’s head.
During an in-ring segment where former WHC and WWE Champions were in the ring, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon attempted to set the scene for the upcoming bout between Orton and Cena. In a carefully pre-planned speech, Triple H spoke out the prestige of the two belts, and how important this match was going to be in terms of WWE milestones. What they hadn’t accounted for, however, was that standing in the ring was the fan favourite Daniel Bryan, who much to the chagrin of the audience, was left out on the periphery.
The fans in attendance started chanting for their hero, leading each other in a rendition of 'Daniel Bryan' and 'YES' whenever Triple H tried to speak. The chants became so loud that the authority had no choice but to acknowledge it.
After several attempts by Mark Henry and Shawn Michaels to calm everyone down, Stephanie and Hunter were forced to stand in silence and let the energy of the crowd naturally recede. This was the culmination of years of pent up frustration with the WWE product, and the dominance of John Cena and Randy Orton in particular. They had clearly found themselves a hero to channel their frustrations through, and that hero turned out to be Daniel Bryan.
This was an equally special moment for Bryan in non-kayfabe terms, as it marked the final time his father saw his son live in a WWE ring. Bryan's father passed away soon after WrestleMania the year after, and Bryan personally thanked the crowd during his retirement speech for making the moment so special.
#6 WrestleMania 30
Despite the increasingly vocal disapproval from the fans, the WWE kept the Cena and Orton feud going into the new year. The two would be forced to wrestle a Royal Rumble Championship match while having to endure chants such as ‘Boring’ and ‘We want refunds’. It was at this event that the anger surrounding Daniel Bryan’s sidelining reached near breaking point as Batista became the 2014 Rumble winner with Bryan nowhere to be seen.
Fans started to become legitimately irritated at the realisation that Bryan wasn’t going to be a feature of the company’s plans going forward, even to the point where many were threatening to boycott WrestleMania altogether. Faced with the prospect of a WrestleMania main event between Randy Orton and The Animal, fans began hijacking more and more matches, chanting ‘Daniel Bryan’ and ‘YES’ whether he was in the ring or not.
With the departure of CM Punk early in the year and the increasing pressure put on the WWE by fans, Bryan was eventually inserted into the main event of the show after the company staged a literal hijacking of Raw with multiple fans in DB t-shirts chanting YES inside the ring.
Triple H announced that he would face Bryan with the winner of that match going on to compete for the title in the main event. In the words of Jerry Lawler, WrestleMania became ‘Yeslemania’, as the former ROH Champion accomplished what it still the greatest feat in professional wrestling today, becoming WWE World Heavyweight Champion and poster boy of the industry.
Despite his career now being over due to injury, Bryan’s victory over Orton and Batista has solidified him as part of WWE folklore for good.
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