He’s been called many things during his career. The American Dragon, Mr Small Package… not joking about that last one. However, I never truly believed that I would call him retired at age 34. It’s a shame that this is the first time that I’m writing a post for SLTD about Daniel Bryan. It’s a shame that in this post, I’m writing about his retirement.
Bryan Lloyd Danielson had wrestled all over the world. He wrestled for PWG. He wrestled in Japan. He wrestled for Ring of Honor. Everywhere he’d wrestled, he’d been a massive hit. In WWE, things were going to be a little bit different.
In an environment that has built itself around the likes of Hulk Hogan, it’s going to be a very difficult for a small man to make a huge impact. I believe Daniel truly did do just that but it could have very well been different.
Daniel’s first break with the WWE came in the first season of NXT. Yes, Daniel was in NXT before it was even cool! Daniel was one of eight wrestlers but as soon as his first match with World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho was over, you knew this kid had a lot to offer.
He was soon part of an exciting new angle with the Nexus, beating up John Cena and CM Punk as part of a big ending to RAW in June 2010. It was an incident with Justin Roberts that seemingly ended things before it even began. After choking Justin with a tie, he was actually fired by the WWE for attacking Justin in a way which wasn’t considered PG.
I wanted to highlight this because it’s a huge what-if to think about. What if WWE decided not to bring Daniel back a few months later? What if WWE never went on to put the United States Championship on him? It was the first time in a while where the outcry from fans hugely impacted WWE programming.
Suddenly, Daniel was back into the mix. After dropping the US title and a few months in mid-card purgatory, Daniel won SmackDown!’s Money In The Bank briefcase. This lead to a World Heavyweight Championship run he’d never forget.
Credited by Daniel to MMA fighter Diego Sanchez, Daniel started a Yes! chant as he made his way down to the ring. At Wrestlemania 28 and the night after, the chant’s popularity rose to insane levels. It took over the shows after Daniel lost the World title to Sheamus in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania.
Despite this, Daniel became a huge star. In another case of what ifs, imagine what’d happen if WWE had booked Daniel and Sheamus to wrestle in a 20 minute match that night. If Daniel lost, he’d still get a bit of a reaction but nowhere near to the level it actually reached. The “mis-booking” of Daniel actually rallied the fans even more. Daniel was the hottest commodity in WWE for a number of months.
This eventually lead to a tag team with Kane which actually did a great job of maintaining Daniel’s overness. I guess an anger management angle really can be a huge hit! This eventually lead to the eventually split off the team, with Daniel now booked to challenge John Cena for the WWE title at Summerslam 2013.
Daniel had been a heel but was now over as a main event babyface and even got a clean victory over Cena to win the title. Daniel became a great babyface to challenge the evil new Authority stable headed by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
The biggest part of this storyline was Triple H and Stephanie’s efforts to prove that Daniel was a B+ player. Daniel fought to prove them wrong but was eventually beaten in the feud at Hell in a Cell 2013. He feuded with Bray Wyatt and WWE experimented with the idea of Daniel turning heel. However, the reactions led to Daniel turning face in just two weeks.
Bray Wyatt beat Daniel Bryan at Royal Rumble 2014 but Daniel proved to be the biggest winner of that night. After it was revealed that Daniel was not in the Royal Rumble match, the fans hijacked the ending of that match. They booed everyone in that match except CM Punk and Roman Reigns, and it eventually lead to No! chants when Batista won.
This reaction forced WWE’s hand. Realizing that the original plan for Wrestlemania 30 of Randy Orton vs Batista was potentially going to get hijacked as well, Daniel was re-entered into the mix. Daniel was added to the match and in a night of glory for the bearded man, he beat Triple H, Orton and Batista in the same night to win the WWE World Heavyweight title. This was an incredible moment in the career of Bryan Danielson. This small man was now ruling the land of giants.
In a shocking turn of events, Daniel’s title reign wouldnt last long due to injuries and he would go on to wrestle for just three of the next twenty months. Last night, he called it a day.
Daniel Bryan is always praised by wrestlers for being a class act backstage and referred to as one of the nicest guys backstage. It’s unfortunate for us that Daniel is no longer able to wrestle but it was amazing whenever he did. There’s only few wrestlers on the main roster that can say that their best match WASN’T with Daniel Bryan. He was someone who gave it his all and got the moment he deserved at Wrestlemania 30. Thank you Daniel and best of luck with your future.
Recent Comments