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411’s Yes! – My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania Book Review

July 21, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke

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411’s Yes! – My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania Book Review

Yes! – My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania
Author: Daniel Bryan with Craig Tello
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: July 21, 2015
320 Pages
$25.99
Pre-order here.

For the last fifteen years, Daniel Bryan has established himself as one of the greatest professional wrestlers ever. Despite his small stature and lack of larger-than-life personality, he has succeeded in variety of situations and environments. That alone makes his story worth telling.

After training with Shawn Michaels and having a failed WWE developmental run, Bryan went on to find success all over the world for close to a decade. He won championships in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH, honed his craft in lengthy stays in Europe, and became one of (if not) the best wrestlers on the American independent scene. Just as he was preparing to cut back on his wrestling career, he decided to try to make WWE work one final time. It eventually led to him becoming one of the most popular WWE babyfaces in recent history and winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the thirtieth Wrestlemania.

Bryan describes his journey with the same “awww shucks, guys” tone that you see/hear him use in the great majority of his interviews that he’s given over the years. He’s a humble human being who clearly makes an attempt to be kind as much as possible. There’s little in the way of bitterness in his book, and perspective seemed to make him approach most of his negative/disappointing experiences in wrestling with grace and forgiveness.*

*An anecdote regarding Ezekiel Jackson is the main exception to this rule, as he gets massively buried for the way he spoke to Bryan one time. You may legitimately stand up and applaud when you read what William Regal said to Zeke in response.

There is an inherent feeling of honesty in his words that gives credibility to just about everything he wrote about in the book.** Despite the book being low on burials, it does not seem like Bryan held back at any time. He is just a nice person who has a way of describing negative situations in a manner that does not seem angry in the slightest.

**Other than Bryan being misleading about how safe his final Ring of Honor match was. He repeatedly slammed his head into a ringpost in that match despite long ago deciding he and Nigel had gone too far in regards to shots to the head.

As far as the quality of the writing goes, it gets off to somewhat of a rough start, but it seemed like Bryan got better and better as the process went on. The chapters that cover his training and time in non-WWE companies were written in what I can only describe as a stream of consciousness (for wont of a slightly more accurate term). He will move from topic to topic, year to year with a loose temporal skeleton keeping it altogether. That is not inherently bad, but he does not execute it as well as you would have hoped.

That is not the main issue with the book though. The gimmick of the book is that before each chapter properly starts with Bryan telling the story of his career, we have to Craig Tello’s coverage of Bryan’s movements during the week of Wrestlemania 30. The tone and verbiage of these reports are completely in line with WWE’s PR speak (“WWE Universe,” “Superstar,” etc.). It didn’t even seem to break kayfabe.*** Going back and forth from Bryan’s “awww shucks, guys” honesty to this carefully worded WWE bile (where the only legitimately interesting information came from describing Bryan’s trip to a grocery store) was every bit as jarring as it sounds. It was the moral equivalent of WWE commentators doing their hardest to ruin a match that is generating actual emotion. It got so bad that, much like WWE commentary, I actually started to “tune it out” so that I could enjoy Bryan’s story properly.

***This was especially hilarious when one section describes Bryan interacting “tensely” with “former rival,” The Miz. Within a few chapters, Bryan would go to bat for The Miz as a person and performer to a degree that no one else has ever done in the company (or at least not in as of a convincing manner).

Fortunately for me, I started to ignore the Wrestlemania 30 Week reports just as Bryan’s writing started to noticeably improve. This happened in the final third/half of the book as he discussed his WWE career. Bryan’s writing became much more focused here, as he described all the hurdles and roadblocks to finding success and satisfaction in the biggest wrestling company in the world. When you read this portion of his story, you will realize that just about every period of his WWE career that was disappointing to his fans was even more disappointing to him. He tried to make the best of the various situations he was put in, but it was so unfulfilling for him (for instance, he almost did not want to return to the company after he got fired in 2010 because of his poor NXT experience).

The funny part of this book is that it is not clear that the WWE ever really got behind him fully even when he got pushed to the main event each time. Mark Henry got injured, and Bryan had a Money in the Bank briefcase. That’s how he won the title first time. He managed to stay in the “main event” picture a bit longer than expected because of how over he was, but Johnny Ace still main-evented a PPV on a show where Bryan fought for a world title. He gets to beat John Cena clean on Summerslam to win his second world title, but it’s really just a way to transition to Randy Orton being on top again. He gets pushed aside in favor of Batista in 2014, but it blows up in the company’s face. Eventually, CM Punk leaves the company, and Vince seemingly has no choice but to push Bryan to main event once again.

Bryan’s “improbable journey to the main event of Wrestlemania” was so improbable because no one with real power ever decided that he was someone that should be main-eventing a Wrestlemania. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming. In a way though, that’s the fitting and somewhat poetic journey for Bryan. He was not supposed to be a success. He’s just continuously been the best person in the right place at the right time.

Other notes on the book:

– Apparently Bryan has some theories on the evolution on human penis size. He encouraged readers to ask Nigel McGuinness about them.

– Shawn Michaels’ first real reaction to Lance Cade during the Texas Wrestling Academy days was, “I smell money.”

– Bryan and Lance Cade learning about bidets in Japan is a very endearing anecdote.

– Is there footage of Bryan working Reckless Youth? Those matches had to be fun.

– In 2001, Nick Bockwinkel convinced Roland Alexander to put Bryan over in the King of the Indies tournament. The original plan was for Donovan Morgan to win.

– Bryan’s description of working the “town shows” for Brian Dixon in England was a ton of fun. Bryan describes his times in England as the most purely enjoyable period of his career.

– Bryan called his ROH World Championship defense against Chris Hero his biggest failure as champion. It was never a match that I enjoyed watching, and I’ve always been mystified by the praise it gets.

– One of the more interesting things about Bryan is that he has always described himself as a terrible wrestling trainer, and he goes into greater detail about it in the book. His description of his style and temperament certainly did not inspire much confidence in his teachings!

– Everyone needs to see his burial of Ezekiel Jackson. Here and here. This really stood out, as Bryan really did not go out of his way to bury people in the book.

– Bryan’s description of the original NXT show sounds like it was a miserable experience for everyone involved.

– As Bryan was eliminated from the NXT competition, he used his last interview to get out the “Bryan Danielson” name as a means of promoting himself before (what he believed to be) his inevitable return to the indies (which did end up happening but not for the reasons he assumed at the time).

– Bryan makes it seem like Paul Heyman was very close to getting involved with Evolve in 2010 when Bryan debuted with the company. It obviously never came to pass.

– Bryan’s frustration was never more pronounced in the book than when he described getting moved to the Wrestlemania 27 pre-show, then having to watch Snooki wrestle, and seeing the “horrible” Michael Cole/Jerry Lawler match.

– The book ends on an incredibly somber note. In the epilogue, Bryan discusses the death of his father, as it happened a week or two after Wrestlemania 30 (and thus, it technically happened after the end of the book’s story). Bryan was obviously devastated by the loss, and it made him reflect on the life choices he’s made over the years. The conclusion he came to was that his success in professional wrestling was not worth all the time he’s lost with family and friends over the years. Why does he keep doing it? “…I keep on because I’m not quite sure what else to do with myself and because stopping now won’t give me any more time with my father.”

Between the talk about the damage his body has been put through (specifically the concussions) and his sobering realization that the success was not worth what he had to give up, the book leaves you hoping Bryan can somehow escape the business and find happiness doing something else. The fact that I read this book when it was crystal clear that his body is giving out on him at 33 years old makes it all the more depressing.

Watch some Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson matches for free!

Bryan Danielson vs. Prince Devitt [Their only match.]

Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe

Daniel Bryan vs. William Regal

Bryan Danielson vs. Super Dragon

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness

Daniel Bryan vs. Chris Jericho

Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles

Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler

Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black

Bryan Danielson vs. Jushin Liger

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries