wrestling / Columns
A Comprehensive Look Back at the Career of Daniel Bryan
Dream matches are one of my favorite things as a wrestling fan. There is an air of excitement when you final get the opportunity to see two competitors lock up that never have before. It seemed like every year the WWF put together a dream match at WrestleMania. There was Hulk Hogan vs. the Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair, The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan, The Rock vs. John Cena, and Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan. Even the house show circuit featured the ultimate dream matches of Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair and the Road Warriors vs. Demolition. While I can name a ton of “dream matches” that I would love to see, there is one match that I always dreamed to see in the main event of WrestleMania. It features a rivalry that we have seen before, but one that I always felt deserved to shine on the top of the WrestleMania stage. That would be a thirty plus minute wrestling clinic between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.
Last week, I wrote about CM Punk’s legacy in the WWE. Even though he hasn’t wrestled in almost a year, I was stunned that Daniel Bryan hung up his wrestling boots earlier this week. Once CM Punk split from the WWE, I knew I would not get to see my WrestleMania dream match. Today, I realize that now I will no longer get to see either man face any opponent in a WWE ring ever again. It’s a sad day for wrestling fans, but a happy day as we reflect on the memories that Bryan “Daniel Bryan” Danielson has provided for us over the years.
RING OF HONOR
Like CM Punk, I first heard about Bryan Danielson through the “Wrestling Observer Newsletter.” From what I read at the time, Danielson was quickly becoming one of the top workers in the industry. Years ago, I wrote a multi-part column on the career of Shawn Michaels. When I was doing research during his years as a trainer, I came across the students who were trained under him. One of the wrestlers was the “American Dragon.” It took me awhile for me to make the connection that the “American Dragon” was the same Bryan Danielson that I was reading about in the dirtsheets.
My first introduction to seeing Bryan Danielson in person came on December 17th, 2005 when I attended my first Ring of Honor event in Edison, NJ called “Final Battle 2005.” Bryan Danielson defended the ROH title against Naomichi Marufuji. I enjoyed the match, and even though it wasn’t a Match of the Year candidate, I understood what all of the hype regarding Danielson was all about. Ring of Honor during this time frame was really good, as it featured performers like Danielson, Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Christopher Daniels, Nigel McGuinness, and Claudio Castagnoli. However, what I remember most about the show was that after the ROH World title match, with the show over three hours long at this point, I thought it was over. Me and my brother left. When I got home, I found out that after the Danielson match, Low-Ki faced KENTA in a Match of the Year candidate. I was so bummed out, but it left a lasting impression. Never leave a show until everybody else does.
At this point, every time Ring of Honor had a show in Edison, NJ, I made sure I attended. Some of my favorite shows included Ring of Homicide where the ROH/CZW feud was in its infancy, along with my all-time favorite Fight of the Century on August 5th, 2006 featuring a sixty-minute time limit draw between Samoa Joe and Ring of Honor champion Bryan Danielson. This was the first, and only time, I ever attended a show that had a non-Iron Man match that went sixty minutes. I loved it.
Bryan Danielson was truly incredible in Ring of Honor. However, he truly took off in 2006 when he turned heel. He was still a wrestling machine, but he started to add more personality. When he would be using an illegal hold on a wrestler, as the referee would count for him to break, he would shout “I have till five, referee!” I thought that was a great little spot that was very creative, yet drew heat (until the fans started chanting the phrase along with him). During his heel run as Ring of Honor champion, he fought a who’s who from Ring of Honor, CZW, and even the occasional defense against competition from Japan. His best rivalry from a pure wrestling standpoint during this time was against ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness.
Bryan Danielson continued to work for Ring of Honor until 2009 when he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment in August. Watching Danielson perform in Ring of Honor was an event. His ring entrance harkened back to the days of ECW when the Sandman made his way to the ring. Instead of the crowd singing “Enter Sandman,” the crowd sang in unison with Danielson to his theme song “The Final Countdown.” The fans would greet Danielson’s opponents with the chant of “You’re gonna get your fucking head kicked in.” Somehow, I didn’t see that chant catching on in the PG friendly WWE. During his time in Ring of Honor, he won Best Technical Wrestler from 2005-2009 (he continued to win that award every year until his final time in 2013) in the “Wrestling Observer Newsletter” awards. He won Match of the Year in 2007 for his contest on August 25th against Takeshi Morishma at ROH Manhattan Mayhem II in the Observer. He won the “Wrestling Observer’s” Most Outstanding Wrestler from 2006-2009 (and a final time in his first full year in the WWE in 2010). He was also named the “Wrestling Observer’s” Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Decade 2000-2009 in the “Wrestling Observer Newsletter.”
Before officially entering the WWE, Bryan Danielson filmed a documentary called “Wrestling Road Diaries” that detailed his final days before leaving for World Wrestling Entertainment. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who is a wrestling fan, is a Bryan Danielson fan, or just loves to see behind the scenes footage of what independent wrestlers go through to get from show to show.
WELCOME TO THE LAND OF THE GIANTS
Unlike today’s WWE where most guys that are signed to the WWE go straight to NXT first, Bryan Danielson was heading to the main roster. However, in order to kick off the ring rust and introduce himself to the WWE’s style of wrestling, Bryan Danielson put in almost two months in the WWE developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling before appearing on the new WWE television show NXT. In the very first episode, Bryan Danielson, now named Daniel Bryan, faced off against the World Heavyweight champion Chris Jericho in a match that saw the “American Dragon” hold his own in the match. Unfortunately, that would be Bryan’s lone highlight in NXT. Daniel Bryan went on to lose all ten of his NXT matches, the only NXT wrestler to accomplish that feat. He would be eliminated along with Michael Tarver in the first elimination phase when he cut a promo stating that he should be eliminated despite being the most popular performer on the show.
On May 31st, Bryan had his first match on RAW when Daniel was granted a match against his former mentor The Miz. On June 7th, all of the former NXT contestants debuted together as the heel group Nexus where they destroyed John Cena, and the actual ring. During the gang-style attack, Daniel Bryan brutalized ring announcer Justin Roberts when he choked him with Roberts’ own necktie. Even though Danielson was told to deliver a gang beat down, he didn’t realize that chocking was banned. Daniel later apologized to the WWE for not knowing this information. It wasn’t enough. Due to complaints by their sponsors, the WWE released Daniel Bryan from his contract.
I remember when the word broke out that Bryan was fired. I was not a happy wrestling fan. I couldn’t wait from Danielson to get a shot on the big stage. Instead, the WWE wouldn’t even allow him to show them what he was capable of. This was probably the first time that the WWE’s PG era really bothered me. It wasn’t like Daniel didn’t defy the front office in his actions. He just did what he thought the WWE wanted from him. Guys have done worse in the “Attitude Era,” which was the company’s most successful period. I just couldn’t understand it. Luckily, word started to leak that if Bryan laid low, and didn’t say anything negative, he would eventually be brought back.
BACK WHERE HE BELONGS
The WWE decided to have a seven on seven main event for SummerSlam 2010. It was to feature the remaining NXT members against John Cena, Edge, Chris Jericho, R-Truth, John Morrison, Bret Hart, and a mystery partner. The mystery partner wound up being the returning Daniel Bryan. I was so excited for this match. Even though, the WWE booked the wrong team to win, I was glad to see that Daniel Bryan was put in such a high profile position. He tied with John Cena with the most eliminations for Team WWE with two. Plus, he was the last Team WWE member NOT named John Cena to be eliminated from the match. Plus, he was protected in being eliminated, as The Miz interfered as he struck Bryan in the head with the Money in the Bank briefcase.
At the Night of Champions pay per view, Daniel Bryan won his first WWE championship as he defeated The Miz for the United States Championship. Maybe the WWE was going to give Bryan Danielson a chance after all. At the Bragging Rights pay per view Daniel Bryan defeated the Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler in a special US vs. Intercontinental non-title match-up. It appeared that Bryan was going to be the WWE’s next main event star, but then the WWE changed Bryan’s life.
COMEDY LEADS TO ROMANCE
Just when it looked like the WWE was going to treat Daniel Bryan as a big deal, they booked him in an angle that would make him look like a low level mid-carder. The WWE had Daniel Bryan put into an angle with the Bella Twins. The “joke” was that Bryan was a vegan, but the Bella Twins thought he was a virgin, and they were competing with each other to see who can “deflower” Daniel Bryan. The angle ended when it was revealed that Bryan was actually dating Gail Kim the whole time.
Who would have known that years later, Daniel Bryan would marry Brie Bella in real life. That’s one of the weird things about the wrestling industry. If you are a couple going into an angle together, you usually break up in real life at the conclusion of the angle. If you aren’t a couple when you start the storyline, the two usually get together in real life after working so closely together. Funny how things work out.
THE FIRST WRESTLEMANIA CONTROVERSY
Daniel Bryan finally dropped the United States championship on March 14th, 2011 to Sheamus on RAW. Their rematch was supposed to take place at WrestleMania XXVII. I actually couldn’t wait to see the match. I figured that the two should be given a decent amount of time since it was a title match. Sheamus is a good worker, and Daniel Bryan was the best in-ring technician in the business. I figured that Daniel Bryan could be on the way to being this generation’s version of Shawn Michaels’ “Mr. WrestleMania” moniker.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. The match, which MANY fans were paying $60 on pay per view to see, was relegated to the pre-show. To make matters worse, it was a lumberjack match that turned into a brawl, so Teddy Long announced that the match would be a battle royal instead. I was looking for a nice fifteen minute US title match that would steal the show. Instead, we got a four minute twenty second no contest between the two. In Daniel Bryan’s book, “YES: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania,” Bryan talks about being skeptical he would be on the WrestleMania card, and the reaction when he found out they would be on the pre-show instead. “John Laurinaitis announced there had been a rehearsal added for some people on that coming Wednesday night. The rehearsal was for the preshow lumberjack match… between me and Sheamus. In front of our fellow wrestlers, that was how we found out our match would take place, not on WrestleMania, but rather prior to the pay per view. I turned and looked at Sheamus across the room, and he just buried his head in his hands. I was upset, but I’d kind of figured something like that might happen, especially because Miz told me a similar thing had happened to him in the past. After the meeting, Sheamus and I talked. We were both very angry, not only about the move to being on the preshow but also because they announced it in the meeting without warning us. We were determined to go out there and show everybody up, preshow be damned. However, once we got to the rehearsal, the match changed again. Sheamus and I would only get to wrestle about three minutes before the lumberjack match got out of hand and it turned into a giant battle royal.”
KING OF THE “B” SHOW
As part of the 2011 WWE Supplemental Draft, Daniel Bryan was drafted to the SmackDown! brand. This was a good move for Bryan, as SmackDown! was usually used to give performers a chance who wouldn’t get one on the heavy name driven RAW brand. His first big victory as a SmackDown! branded wrestler came at the 2011 Money in the Bank pay per view where Daniel Bryan won the SmackDown! Money in the Bank briefcase. With CM Punk winning the WWE Championship later in the evening, I thought that the WWE may be entering a new era as they are now pushing two guys that don’t have the “WWE look.” The fans shouldn’t have gotten their hopes up, because what followed was that Daniel Bryan was put on the road to Jobber City. It’s a bad trend that the WWE tends to use for their Money in the Bank winners. They have these winners do job after job, because in the end, the briefcase cash in will trump the losing streak. Luckily for Daniel Bryan, the fans support him win or lose. He was a cult hero, and no matter how bad the WWE treated him, the fans would support him more and more.
The Tables, Ladders, and Chairs pay per view would finally push Daniel Bryan into the main event scene. At the time, Bryan wasn’t even booked on some of the WWE pay per views, not just being on the show, as Bryan recalled but “not even being in the city, sitting at home type of not booked. It was looking like I wouldn’t be at WWE TLC either, but at the last minute, I got booked at a Kmart to do a signing with Kelly Kelly before the show. After my signing, I came to the building, not expecting to be doing anything. I was just chatting and goofing around. It was relatively close to showtime that a referee came by and told me Vince wanted to see me in his office. I walked in and saw both Big Show and Mark henry sitting along with Vince, who invited me to have a seat as well. He started walking me through the plan: Big Show would win the title then Mark would lay out Big Show by hitting him with a DDT. As Mark was getting out of the ring, I would run down with a referee, cash in the Money in the Bank contract, and- without doing a single move- pin Big Show to become the new World Heavyweight Chammpion. I sat there waiting for the punch line or for Vince to tell me what the next swerve was going to be, but it never came. Then he stood up, extended his hand, and said “Congratulations.” I couldn’t believe it. I stood up and thanked him, Big Show, and Mark Henry.”
THE ”YES” MOVEMENT BEGINS
When Bryan was going to win the title, Vince’s only direction was to “celebrate like you won the Super Bowl.” Bryan said in his book, “So I celebrated like my life depended on it. It wasn’t like I had to fake it, either. As a wrestling fan, this was my favorite time period in recent memory. My two favorites, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, were leading the WWE as the top two champions of the company. I couldn’t believe it. Was the WWE really going through a metamorphosis like they did in the early/mid 90s, like they did when they moved away from Hulk Hogan and went with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels as the top guys? As history now shows, it was not a new direction, but it was fun while it lasted.
“The one thing he (Vince) did want was for me to be thehappiest guy in the world as champion; every time I went out, I had to treat it as if I had won the lottery.” Thus the “Yes” chant was born. “(It’s) an idea I actually got from one of my favorite MMA fighters, Diego Sanchez. As he walked down to the Octagon for his fights, he’d hammer down his fist and with a serious, intense face, he’d yell ‘YES!’ Apparently, for him it was about positivity, but I saw it as great showmanship and almost covertly annoying.”
At this point, the WWE decided to attach him with a WWE Diva yet again. This time, they paired him with crowd favorite, AJ Lee. They had Bryan treat the babyface AJ mean was he can start his subtle heel characteristics before becoming a full-fledged bad guy. During his feud with the Big Show, the WWE ran an angle on SmackDown! that featured a line that I thought was awesome in the way it was written and the way it was delivered by Daniel Bryan. When Big Show and Bryan were battling outside of the ring, Daniel ran past AJ. When Big Show chased after him, Show accidentally ran into AJ, who immediately dropped to the ground. She didn’t move, and paramedics were sent to the ring to cart her off. As they were walking to the lockerroom, Bryan screamed at a distraught Big Show, “What is wrong with you? Is that World title so important to you? You can have it! OK, you can have it! There’s no need to be that reckless! How can you be so reckless? She’s 95 pounds! You are 500 HUNDRED POUNDS!” It was a twenty second tirade that few people probably remember. However, it entertained the hell out of me, and showed me that he could play an entertaining heel in the WWE.
ANOTHER WRESTLEMANIA LETDOWN
For the second year in a row, the WWE booked a Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan match. This time, it was for the World Heavyweight Championship. I thought for sure the WWE would allow the two rivals to work a hard hitting twenty-minute match. I wasn’t the only one excited for this opportunity that was given to Daniel Bryan. Bryan explained, “We were both looking at the match not only as an opportunity for redemption but as a chance to steal the show. We were confident we would outperform them all and tear down the house.”
For the second year in a row, we were disappointed as the match lasted only eighteen seconds. As someone there live, I can tell you that after the initial pop for the title change, the crowd was not happy. How could we be? We paid a lot of money to see Daniel Bryan work at WrestleMania XXVIII. What was even more horrifying is that the match was supposed to be even shorter. I never understood why the WWE chose that match to cut time on. At the time, the Big Show and Cody Rhodes were involved in a storyline for the Intercontinental championship where a quick title change would have been believable. A quick title change between Sheamus and Bryan wasn’t believable in this instance.
Like their experience last year, Sheamus and Daniel Bryan were not privately notified for the first time regarding the switch. This time Chris Jericho filled Daniel Bryan in on the news. “I anticipated Sheamus and I would get at least fifteen or twenty minutes of wrestling time because we were in the World Heavyweight Championship match, a really good spot on the card. A couple of weeks before the show, however, Jericho came up and asked me if we were having a really short match. I told him I didn’t think so and explained that nobody had talked to me about time yet. He (Jericho) regularly goes in and talks to Vince and is constantly in the writers’ room working on what he’s doing, and while doing so, he keeps his eyes and ears open. Chris told me he saw a match listing with times on it, and saw that we were only scheduled for eight minutes. I was blown away. With entrances down the long ramp and a championship introduction, that equated to about a three-minute match! A week or so later, Arn found out the true plan and pulled me aside. He looked beside himself as he told me the bad news: AJ and I would kiss, distracting me, then Sheamus and I would have a one-move match at WrestleMania XXVIII. I was instantly pissed off, and so was Sheamus. I started thinking it was a rib, or maybe just something to amuse Vince. I thought they were doing it to fuck with us.”
While everyone from the wrestlers to the fans were fuming about the decision, in the end, it was the best thing to have happened to his Daniel Bryan’s career. Apparently, even though he wasn’t happy about it, Arn Anderson did see the positives in a bad situation. “Arn thought it might end up working well for me, a ‘chicken shit champion.’ He saw the quick finish as giving my character something to gripe about before demanding a rematch. It would keep me in the main event picture for another month, and another month in main events would put more equity in my character.” Who knew it would do so much more than just provide a short term burst in his career? Even though I was unhappy about the situation, and could see that my vision of Bryan taking the moniker of “Mr. WrestleMania” would probably never happen, in hind sight the heartache that Bryan felt at that moment was the linchpin that turned Daniel into the “people’s champion” that the rest of his career turned into.
THE NEW PEOPLE’S CHAMPION
According to Byran, Sheamus foresaw that the fans wouldn’t be happy with an eighteen second match. He was right. Throughout the rest of the show, we chanted “YES!” and “Daniel Bryan” periodically. However, that was just a warm up for what was about to go down on the Monday Night RAW telecast the next night. As much as I loved WrestleMania XXVIII, because I was able to share my brother’s first live WrestleMania with him, the following night’s RAW will go down as one of the most memorable and unforgettable nights in wrestling history. I was glad to be there. Most fans remember that night as the return of Brock Lesnar to the WWE. While I remember that as well, for me that night was all about Daniel Bryan. It was the first night that the fans truly hijacked RAW and the YES! Movement became a reality.
The fans didn’t care who was in the ring. The Rock was cutting a promo, and was littered with “YES!” chants. The babyface Sheamus came out to a chorus of boos, and was hit with “Daniel Bryan” and “YES!” chants. While I joined along with the crowd, I felt bad for Sheamus. He was unfairly being targeted for beating Bryan in eighteen seconds. It was a situation that Sheamus had no control over. It’s not like he booked the match. I knew that night that Sheamus’ reign as World Heavyweight champion would not be a successful one. To be honest, looking back at the situation, I don’t think Sheamus’ popularity ever recovered from WrestleMania XXVIII.
After RAW went off the air, the WWE gave the fans in attendance a six-man tag team dark match that featured Daniel Bryan. The fans went nuts for Bryan, and every time he tagged out, the fans booed his partner mercilessly until he would be tagged back in. Following the match, everybody left the ring, except for Daniel Bryan so he can address the crowd. When we were leaving the show the crowd was still buzzing over Daniel Bryan. Since WrestleMania draws an international crowd, the fans started chanting “YES!” in several different languages as we all left the building.
Bryan discusses the situation, “My only appearance on RAW was in a backstage interview with Matt Striker where I didn’t say anything. That was it. I was only on the screen for about fifteen seconds. Still, somehow it became Daniel Bryan night. The Rock had an interview in the opening segment of the show, and throughout the whole thing there were loud “YES!” chants. The Rock acknowledged it, and for a split second, I thought he was going to use it and make it his own new thing. He’s so witty and quick on his feet that I’m sure he could have done it. But he didn’t. In fact, after the interview, on his way out he stopped and said to me, ‘Hey, man, the crowd is really hot for you out there.’ At first I didn’t quite understand what was going on with all the chants, and I assumed they would eventually die down. They didn’t. The longer the show went on, the more it happened, and when Sheamus- the new World Heavyweight Champion- came out, the booed him mercilessly. I felt bad for him, because it wasn’t his fault. ‘Daniel Bryan!’ and ‘YES!’ rang out through the arena the entire night, even though I wasn’t on the show. Immediately after RAW went off the air, I performed an untelevised six-man tag match- Sheamus, Big Show, and Randy Orton against me, Cody Rhodes, and Kane- and people were very, very excited to see me. Each time I got in, they cheered and ‘YES!’-ed with every kick I did. Anytime I got hit, they yelled, ‘No!’ and they booed when I tagged out of the match. It was crazy. Since I’d been in the WWE, never had I felt like I was the guy the entire arena wanted to see. The finish was Sheamus hitting me in the facewith his boot again and pinning me, and the crowd went crazy booing. Sheamus, Randy, and Big Show semi-rushed to the back, and so did Cody and Kane, but I stayed out there. The crowd was giving me a great reception as I got to my feet, so I asked for a microphone, which a ringside production guy seemed hesitant to give to me, though he eventually did. I thanked the crowd for turning what had been the worst night of my career into something memorable and special. I had been bothering the WWE merchandise guys on the road for about two months to make me a ‘YES!’ shirt. They tried to push it through, but someone in corporate thought it would never sell. Halfway through RAW, one of them told me if the chanting kept up, I had a lot better chance of getting the shirt made. Before they even told me they were going to make the shirt, I announced to thee live crowd in my speech that thanks to them I was also getting a new shirt made. The ‘YES!’ shirts were available for sale the very next week.”
At the Extreme Rules pay per view, the WWE gave us the Daniel Bryan match that we should have seen against Sheamus at WrestleMania XXVIII. It was a 2 out of 3 falls contest, and it was arguably the best match of Daniel Bryan’s WWE career. To me, it was the first time that I saw the Ring of Honor Bryan Danielson in a WWE ring. To my surprise, after losing to Sheamus at Extreme Rules, Bryan moved on to an even better opponent. He started a WWE title program with fellow Ring of Honor alumni CM Punk. It was a hardcore wrestling fan’s dream. Punk vs. Bryan was a great series of matches. I was a little disappointed when they injected Kane into their feud. Even though Punk and Bryan fought each other in two pay per view singles matches, the one pay per view that I attended live, No Way Out, saw Kane inserted in the match to make it a triple threat match. Even with Kane involved, I still loved the series of matches, and my yearning for a Punk vs. Bryan WrestleMania match grew stronger. Even Bryan agreed with my WrestleMania fantasy, “You can never say never, but I suspect I’ll never get to wrestle him again. For some reason, I always thought that the two of us would someday have a WrestleMania match against each other, and it would be a modern version of the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels Mania match that I loved when I was in high school. Some things just aren’t meant to be.”
OH, HELL NO!!!!!
While I wasn’t thrilled that Kane was ruining my dream rivalry, it turned out to be a great addition because of what was created out of it. Kane and Bryan went from rivals to tag team partners who hated each other. The WWE had Kane and Bryan take part in a highly entertaining series of non-wrestling segments where they were forced to take anger management sessions with Dr. Shelby. These skits were extremely funny, and presented both Kane and Bryan in a new light. Before this angle, Kane was always a vicious monster. Daniel Bryan was a wrestling machine. In this storyline, Kane and Bryan performed as a comedy team. For once, Daniel Bryan was able to prove to the WWE that he was more than just a good hand in the ring. Kane and Daniel Bryan became a comedy tag team, and even though Bryan wasn’t a serious main event wrestling machine, it was OK because they were entertaining as hell. The highlight of their comedy routine was when Kane and Bryan were forced to “hug it out.” Daniel Bryan looks back at the hugging moment, “The fans got to choose whether Kane and I would a) wrestle each other, b) team up together, or c) hug it out. As I walked to the ring, I didn’t know which one the fans had voted for, so I had to prepare for each. Resoundingly, the fans votted for us to hug it out. How on earth were we going to fill a ten-minute segment hugging each other? I’m not quite sure how we did it, but not only did we fill the time, we went three minutes over. We stood there in the middle of the ring and made several attempts to hug each other. We just couldn’t quite do it. The fans in Chicago loved it and chanted, ‘Hug it out! Hug it out!’ It was crazy. We were two grown men trying to hug each other not only in front of a packed arena but in front of millions of people on TV; one of us was in a full spandex leotard with a mask, and the other was in trunks as small as underwear and a T-shirt. When we finally did hug, the place went nuts. When we walked back through the curtain, Vince was thrilled with it. Despite being worried the whole thing would bomb, I loved the segment too. The ‘Hug it out!’ chants followed us the entire time Kane and I teamed together.”
At the 2012 Night of Champions pay per view, Kane and Daniel Bryan defeated R-Truth and Kofi Kingston for the WWE World Tag Team championships. They would go on to hold the titles for 245 days when Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns won the Tag Team titles at the 2013 Extreme Rules pay per view.
THE NEW FACE OF THE WWE?
One of the biggest singles matches of Bryan’s WWE career was to take place on the June 17th edition of RAW where he was set to take on Randy Orton, who was viewed on numerous occasions as the WWE’s 1B to John Cena’s 1A in the WWE’s hierarchy of talent. What was going to make this night special was that Daniel Bryan was going to beat Orton in the match. Outside of winning the World Heavyweight title, this would be Daniel’s biggest WWE victory up until that point in time. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. During the contest, Bryan suffered a legit nerve injury, and the match was stopped. After the match, Daniel Bryan had a very heated confrontation with Triple H about the match being stopped.
“On June 17, 2013, I wrestled Randy on RAW and was supposed to win. It would have been the biggest win in my career at that point and was going to really help me transition from the comedy figure I’d been for the last year and a half to someone who could be taken seriously as a main event performer. It didn’t exactly go as planned. Randy and I had designed a spot where I missed my signature suicide dive through the ropes, and as I did it, my neck and shoulder crashed into the barricade. I felt a quick pain shoot down my right arm, but I didn’t think anything of it. Minutes later, I did a dropkick off the top rope, and when I landed, I lost feeling in both of my arms. The left side came back pretty quickly, but the right side stayed numb for a while. I also couldn’t stand up. After an extended period, I hear Randy trying to talk to me. He had no idea I was hurt and asked, ‘Dan, what the fuck is going on?!’ When I was finally able to get back to my feet, I still couldn’t move my right arm and it was hanging limp. We kept going through the match, and after his draping DDT, Randy went to throw me over the top rope to the floor, but I held on. I was supposed to pull myself back into the ring, where Randy would boot me right back out, but at first I couldn’t get my arm up to the rope. I finally used momentum to swing it up, and I was partially upside down before Randy booted me to the floor. While I was on the outside, Dr. Sampson, one of the two WWE doctors at the time, came over to check on me. I told him I was fine, but he wouldn’t listen. I insisted I was fine again, and he tried to call off the match, so I sprinted into the ring and started brawling with Randy to keep the match going. I saw this as my big opportunity, and I wasn’t about to let it pass me by. Randy still had no idea what was going on, so he threw me to the floor and gave me a backbreaker on the barricade. The referee pushed Randy aside, and Dr. Sampson came over once again, but this time he directed the referee to stop it, and the ref waved off the match. Usually I don’t get superangry, and when I do it’s barely visible. This time, I was furious and I let everyone know it. When I walked through the curtain, I yelled, ‘What the fuck is that all about?! That’s fucking bullshit!’ ‘You need to calm down,’ responded Triple H, who had been communicating with the doctor over the headset and called for the match to be stopped. ‘No, you need to calm the fuck down,’ I replied. We were up in each other’s faces and both ready to fight. I never had a match stopped in my entire career- not when I separated my shoulder five minutes into an hour draw and not when I detached my retina. Certainly not through any of my concussions. I’m sure I shouted all those things back to him, but I was blackout mad so I don’t necessarily remember. He was livid, too, and shouted back about stopping the match for my protection, but I wasn’t having any of it. It felt hypocritical for Triple H- of all people to do that, considering in 2001 Hunter himself tore his quad live on RAW and yet finished his match. ‘How the fuck can you say that to me?’ I asked. ‘You went out there and tore your quad and you continued to wrestle!’ It was getting so heated that guys stepped in to separate us and I stormed off.”
Reading back that section in his autobiography today, has me worried as a wrestling fan. I understand that old school attitude of working through injuries. He probably doesn’t win the WWE championship at SummerSlam 2013 or main event WrestleMania XXX if he didn’t work through injures that year. Maybe if Daniel Bryan took the injury more seriously at the time, he wouldn’t have missed most of 2014 due to his neck and nerve damage. Bryan even admitted in his book, “When I got home on Wednesday, I went to get an MRI, which showed that one of the discs in my neck was bulging into the nerve. Both WWE doctors agreed that I was fine at the moment but it was likely I’d need surgery at some point. I was gaining momentum and didn’t have time for that.”
The next week on RAW, Daniel Bryan finally got his big win against Randy Orton when he made Orton tap out to the YES Lock in a street fight. This big victory started the biggest program of Daniel Bryan’s career. On the RAW following the Money in the Bank pay per view, Daniel Bryan was handpicked by John Cena to be his opponent in the main event at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship. This began the storyline of the B+ player against the Authority.
Bryan explains the circumstances surrounding getting the title shot, “John told me he’d pushed for a match between us at Money in the Bank and when Vince asked him why, John said he felt like it was the biggest match WWE had at the time. Vince took a long pause- which he’s notorious for- and then told John we weren’t going to do it at Money in the Bank because if it was the biggest match WWE had, we needed to do it at SummerSlam.”
Leading into SummerSlam, John Cena had a torn tricep injury. He needed surgery, so it looked like Cena would be dropping the title to Daniel Bryan. Was the WWE actually going to give Daniel Bryan their most coveted championship? It looked that way. However, around this time, rumors started to circulate that after the match, Randy Orton would cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase and win the title from Daniel Bryan. I was devastated by the news when I heard this. Once again, the WWE wasn’t going to give Bryan a chance to run with the ball. I thought to myself, how will they know if he can’t be the face of the company if they refuse to give him a shot. The match with John Cena was incredible, and was worthy of being not just a SummerSlam main event, but a WrestleMania main event. After he won the title, and the confetti flowed through the air, I kept saying to the TV screen, “fade to black! Fade to black!” Unfortunately, before the screen did just that, Triple H hit Daniel Bryan with a pedigree and Randy Orton cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title as predicted.
The early part of the Daniel Bryan vs. the Authority storyline was very reminiscent of the Mr. McMahon vs. Steve Austin angle from the late nineties. The big difference is that Steve Austin would usually always get the upper hand on all of Vince’s attempts to stack the odds against him. Even when Mr. McMahon did get the upper hand, it didn’t last long until Austin was back on top. With Daniel Bryan, it was the exact opposite of Austin. The Authority had the advantage over Bryan most of the time, and when Daniel got the better of the Authority, it was very short lived. The other major difference between the two is that when Austin was screwed, you knew that he was the top guy and would stay that way. Daniel Bryan, on the other hand, was not the WWE’s top guy, and once his program with the Authority was over, the fans believed that Daniel Bryan would be back in the land of the midcards.
Bryan discusses how true to life his storyline with the Authority was, “A lot of what played out on TV, I feel, stemmed from legitimate thoughts WWE has about me. They blended a bit of behind-th-scenes reality with on-air storytelling. I don’t have the look WWE likes; nor am I overly charismatic the way Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and John Cena are. I’ll never be on the cover of Muscle & Fitness; nor am I somebody Hollywood producers look at and want to give a role in a movie. Thus, I’m not the best-suited person to be the ‘Face of WWE.’ The Authority also started calling me a ‘B+ player,’ recognizing that I was popular, nut also that my popularity was among a niche audience and wouldn’t appeal to the masses. I was good to have around because people like me, but I wasn’t going to move numbers. Here, story line met with reality once again. Despite what I thought was good buildup, SummerSlam main evented by me against John Cena did disappointing numbers, as did the subsequent two months of live events headlined by me and Randy.”
THE REVOLUTION IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE
Despite Bryan’s main event matches against Randy Orton doing disappointing business, the fans still wanted to see Bryan’s name on the top of the marquee. With each screw job that the Authority laid in front of Daniel Bryan, the fans grew more and more irate. It wasn’t a “this heel is so hated” type of heat. Instead, it was more like, “we are sick of this company screwing with Daniel Bryan, and we don’t trust the WWE to do the right thing by putting Bryan over in the end.” I know I was one of those pessimistic people. The fans were starting to get restless, especially when the WrestleMania rumors started to sprout, and the WWE had no major plans for Daniel Bryan. The strongest rumor was yet another Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus WrestleMania match. Bryan mentioned talking to Vince regarding his Mania plans. “Prior to this discussion, I had been talking to Triple H about possibly doing a match with him, but in the back of my mind, I was still hoping they had convinced Shawn Michaels to come back to wrestle me. But Vince’s idea was neither of those. He wanted me to wrestle Sheamus. Let me say right now that I love working with Sheamus. We have great matches, we get along really well, and with the exception of the two WrestleManias we’d already wrestled, we always had fun together. However, given that I was, at worst, the third most popular wrestler in WWE- and on some shows the most popular- it was a pretty low-positioned match for WrestleMania. We would be lucky if we were the fifth biggest match, given WWE had already planned to have Randy Orton-Batista for the title, Brock Lesnar-Undertaker, Triple H-CM Punk, and John Cena-Bray Wyatt. With those four matches, it would be difficult for anything else to get much time. Though demoralized, I thanked him for the opportunity and was determined to do the best with what I was given.”
This was about to change during the Slammy Awards edition of RAW. The show was live from Seattle, WA, which was considered Daniel Bryan’s home base. Shockingly, not to the fans but to the front office, Daniel Bryan won WWE Superstar of the Year. However, that wasn’t the major news to come out of the show regarding Daniel Bryan. The main angle of the show featured a ceremony to hype up the upcoming WWE/World Heavyweight title unification match at TLC. Past WWE and World Heavyweight Champions stood in the ring, along with Randy Orton and John Cena, the competitors in the unification bout. What on paper looked to be a great idea, in hind sight RAW was about to be hijacked. As the WWE is trying to get this “historic” angle over, the crowd in Seattle couldn’t care less. They drowned out Triple H with chants of “YES!” and “Daniel Bryan.” The moment was made even greater when the wrestlers in the ring trying to sell the angle, like CM Punk and Mark Henry, were caught on camera laughing at how the crowd was shitting on the segment.
How did the WWE decide to capitalize on the popularity of Daniel Bryan? They turned him heel, of course! It was the dumbest thing that the WWE could do. The fans were still going to cheer Bryan. The timing couldn’t have been worse. A week later, ESPN was airing a Michigan State vs. Ohio State basketball. At halftime, they aired a celebration for the Michigan State football team who just won the Rose Bowl. Travis Jackson, one of the football players, got on the mic and got the whole arena doing the “YES!” chant, complete with the pose Bryan would do as he made his way to the ring. It didn’t end there. The fans continued to do the “YES!” chant and pose throughout the second half. They even did it to distract the opposing players when they were at the foul line. This become a big sports story, as it aired on SportsCenter, and other media outlets picked up on it. The best part is that all of the media stories created Daniel Bryan of the WWE for the craze. Of course, this made the WWE look foolish that their most popular performer, who is being name dropped on ESPN, was just turned heel. The following week, the WWE turned Bryan back to being a face. This led to one of the best visuals in the history of RAW. When Bryan turned against the Wyatt Family during a tag team steel cage match against the Usos, Daniel ended the show sitting on the top of the cage performing the “YES!” chant as the entire arena followed along.
HIJACK RAW BECOMES HIJACK THE RUMBLE
Many fans hung on to the hope that the WWE was “screwing” Daniel Bryan as part of a long story line that would see Bryan win the Royal Rumble battle royal and headline WrestleMania XXX where he would finally win the WWE Championship without any controversy. I was not one of those people, and apparently, I was not alone in my feelings of doubt. The fans at the Royal Rumble were venomous in their hatred for the WWE’s direction, and they let their displeasure be known that they wanted Bryan in the Rumble match, and to win the Royal Rumble.
Daniel Bryan recalls the event, “That year they (the fans) also happened to be pretty big Daniel Bryan fans. I knew I wasn’t going to be in the Rumble match, and I hadn’t been advertised for it, but nobody specifically said I wouldn’t be in it, either. I didn’t mind that I wasn’t involved in the Rumble, because I had a match with Bray Wyatt earlier in the show and I was able to just focus on that. We wrestled in the second bout on the show and had a great match, fueled by an amazing crowd in Pittsburgh that was overwhelming in their support for me. The only times I had seen anything like that audience was the night after WrestleMania XXVIII and shows in my home city, Seattle. And just like at those shows, the fans continued to chant ‘YES!’ and ‘Daniel Bryan!’ long after my match was over. I sat in the back in Pittsburgh during the Royal Rumble match, watching and wondering if there would be any discernible negativity toward me not being in the Rumble. At first there wasn’t; there were ‘Daniel Bryan!’ chants, but they dispersed pretty quickly. Generally speaking, the fans were just enjoying the Rumble. But they didn’t know I wasn’t going to be in the match. Not yet. When Batista- the guy WWE wanted to be the headlining hero going into WrestleMania- came out, the crowd booed because they figured that if I didn’t win, he would. Shortly after he entered, the chants for me increased, and the closer the match drew to its final entrant, the louder those chants got. When the countdown to the thirtieth entrant started, the fans were on their feet in anticipation. However, once the countdown was completed and the buzzer sounded, instead of hearing ‘Ride of the Valkyries,’ they heard Rey Mysterio’s music. This was the moment when the fans finally realized I wasn’t going to be in the match, and they started booing- loudly. As I watched, I instantly felt bad for Rey. He’s the last person to deserve that kind of reaction, and I’ve looked up to him since I was in high school. Rey has worked through more injuries than one could count, and he has always done his best to entertain the fans with his high-flying style, despite the toll it might take on his body. And yet the fans booed him because he wasn’t me, and I was what they wanted. The fans turned on the whole match. They booed pretty much everyone except for CM Punk and Roman Reigns. When Batista won, the crowd mercilessly booed him, the man who was going to main event WrestleMania. Then they followed with a loud ‘Daniel Bryan’ chant. They were directly telling WWE what they wanted.
THE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA
After the Royal Rumble, it appeared to be a lock that Randy Orton would face Batista. In the semi-main event, CM Punk would battle Triple H. However, those plans were about to go out the window. CM Punk left the WWE the night after the Royal Rumble. The WWE now had a major spot open in the WrestleMania card to fill. It made perfect sense for the WWE to put Daniel Bryan in a match against Triple H. After all, it was Triple H who cost Daniel Bryan the WWE title at SummerSlam 2013, and it was “The Game” who continued to put roadblock after roadblock in Bryan’s path to reclaim the championship. At the same time, the fans were still upset that the WWE wasn’t going to put Daniel Bryan in the main event WWE World title match at WrestleMania XXX.
Bryan discussed the dilemma, “Not only did the fans want me in that spot, but it made sense story-wise. The Authority had kept me from being champion since SummerSlam the year before, and every time I got close, they took it away. They ignored my popularity and didn’t even put me in the Rumble match to get an opportunity to compete for the title at WrestleMania. It was a very legitimate story that could easily be told about a corporate machine holding the little man down. All they had to figure out was how to get us there.”
The WWE actually took advantage of the fans hijacking RAW to create a segment as a takeoff of the real life Occupy Wall Street situation that was going on. It was called “Occupy RAW,” that Daniel Bryan, along with a large group of “fans” took over the show by standing in and around the ring wearing Daniel Bryan t-shirts. They refused to leave the ringside area, and would ruin RAW unless the Authority gave in to all of Daniel Bryan’s demands. His demands were simple. Bryan would wrestle Triple H at WrestleMania XXX, and if he won, Daniel would face Randy Orton and Batista in a Triple Threat WWE World title main event to close out the show.
Bryan remembers, “As you can imagine, I was ecstatic about the opportunity to main event WrestleMania. There is no higher mountaintop in professional wrestling.”
WRESTLEMANIA XXX THROUGH DANIEL BRYAN’S EYES
Daniel Bryan talked about his WrestleMania XXX matches. “When you’re wrestling Hunter, regardless of
when it is, you’re in a main attraction with a guy who only wrestles a couple of times a year. I’ve never been looked at by WWE as the guy to wrestle any of the iconic Superstars who come back. It was neat because a moment before the match, I was able to take a step back from the situation and think about how I’d been watching Hunter wrestle since I was a teenager. The irony was not lost on me that Triple H’s first Mania match was at WrestleMania XII, was the first WrestleMania I’d ever ordered. Nor was the coincidence that his first WrestleMania match was a supershort squash match against Ultimate Warrior, and my first WrestleMania match was a supershort squash match against Sheamus. On top of that, Triple H was the first guy I’d ever been in the ring with who wrestles with an Attitude Era heavyweight, main event style. The match itself was a blast. It wasn’t a Triple H match and it wasn’t a Daniel Bryan match; ot was a blend of both. I did things I hadn’t done in WWE before, like the front flip dive I used to do on the independents, just without doing it into the fans and without the springboard. Triple H was great to work with, and I learned a lot from him in that one match.”
“After the opening encounter with Hunter, I went into near isolation in order to prepare for the second match. The first match was good and physical- the way I like it- but that also comes with repercussions. I had to allow my body to come down from that first high, then get ready to repeat it just a few hours later. I’d done this before, but never at such a high level- and as I get older, the harder it becomes.”
“I walked past the scene (Undertaker lying near the Gorilla position with a severe concussion) as I went out (for the main event) and couldn’t help but think of how much the Undertaker had given to his body and of himself to make WrestleMania special. Our main event needed to keep it special. For the first time, I felt the pressure of the moment. All I could do was focus on my performance. Walking out, I could tell the crowd was different than during the first match a few hours earlier. The whole atmosphere had changed after Undertaker’s defeat. I came out last, after Randy Orton and Batista. As I ‘YES!ed’ down the ramp, some people joined in, but it was nowhere near like it was in the beginning. The first seven or eight minutes of the match, the audience was still relatively quiet, despite all three of us working our asses off. The longer we went, however, the more the crowd got into it. When I hooked Randy in the ‘YES!’ Lock and Triple H came out to pull the referee out of the ring, the fans truly came alive. We had them after that. They were sucked into the story, the underdog with everything stacked against him while trying to achieve his dream. Finally, the audience came back to enjoying what they were watching. We tied in the events that happened months before, like Scott Armstrong as Triple H’s personal referee, since he was the ref that screwed me at Night of Champions. But I kicked Scott in the head as I was down and he fell out of the ring; then I dove onto him and Triple H. Next, Hunter tried to hit me with a sledgehammer, his weapon of choice for years, but I stopped it and hit him with it. Just when it looked like I might beat the Authority, Randy and Batista were back in control and started beating the crap out of me. The scariest thing we did all night was a spot where Batista stood on one announce table, powerbombed me onto the other, and Randy jumped off some steps and gave me his RKO on my way down. The spacing of it was difficult, because Batista couldn’t see with the powerbomb, and tables are always unpredictable at best. Luckily, we escaped with none of us getting hurt, although Randy came the closest, landing atop a television monitor on the way down. The crowd erupted at the spectacle. After that, medical staff strapped me to a stretcher and started taking me to the back, but shortly after we passed the ring, I started fighting my way off the stretcher. It was like a movie scene with the hero being nearly beaten to death but refusing to give up. Just when it looked like Batista was going to beat Randy, I ran in and hit him with the flying knee and trapped him in the ‘YES!’ Lock. There was this moment in time, in between me putting Batista in the hold and him actually tapping out, where there was this incredible energy emanating all around us. It’s the energy of expectation, that what you’d hoped would happen might actually be happening in that exact moment. I don’t know if that was my own internal energy or the energy of the audience, or maybe even it was all in my head. When Batista tapped out, all of a sudden, a dream became a reality. Not only had I main evented WrestleMania XXX, I won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I was fulfilled that the match had come out as good as we had hoped and that the crowd reacted to it as such. As purple and gold streamers came down, I started hoisting the two heavy titles up in the air, yelling ‘YES!’ I went down to ringside and hugged my mom, my two little nieces, and my sister, Billie Sue, then told her to come into the ring with my oldest niece. A majority of the stadium was still on their feet and chanting with me. The whole thing didn’t feel real. It was like being in somebody else’s body, living somebody else’s life. The only thing that kept taking me out of this moment was the producers relaying the instruction to ‘keep YES!ing.’ After two long, hard matches and my right arm being weak as it was, lifting each of the twenty-pound titles again and again was exhausting. Soon, I just tried to ignore them telling me to ‘YES!’ as much as possible, and instead, I simply enjoyed the moment. This was everything I had wanted since the time I was a little kid. When you experience a moment like that, there are always things you think of that could have made it better. In this case, I wish Bri had come down to the ring to join in the celebration. We don’t have any pictures in our house that would indicate to anybody that either of us wrestled at all. I would’ve liked a picture of Bri and me with my sister and niece in the ring filled with confetti for the biggest moment of my career. My only other wish was that my dad could have been there in New Orleans to see that live as well, but he wasn’t able to make it down to WrestleMania.”
“Bri was the first person I saw as I came through the curtain, and I gave her a big hug. She was beaming and seemed so proud of me. I thanked Randy and Batista, who worked their asses off and, in truth, worked around me. Randy kind of knew I was in bad shape, and they did their best to make me look as good as possible. I thanked Hunter, both for the match earlier and for helping make the main event so special. Then I thanked Vince. He gave me a big hug and congratulated me on the performance. None of this would have been possible without the opportunities he’d given me.”
Despite my doubts, the WWE did the right thing in the end by putting Daniel Bryan in the main event and having him win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the biggest stage of them all. Even though, it took a lot of luck and unforeseen circumstances that helped put Daniel Bryan into this position, the WWE still needed to get over whatever misgivings they had with putting Bryan in that position. They did and should be commended for it. Ten years prior, the WWE ended WrestleMania XX with arguably the greatest WrestleMania moment when two undersized wrestlers that never should have been in the WWE closed out the show embracing as the company’s top two World Champions. Unfortunately, Chris Benoit’s later actions would destroy the moment that he and Eddie Guerrero shared in Madison Square Garden forever. Fast forward a decade, and seeing an undersized Daniel Bryan, a man who should have never made it to the WWE, celebrating in the middle of the ring as over 70,000 fans cheered him on gave the WWE its greatest WrestleMania moment ever.
THE DECLINE OF DANIEL BRYAN
Five days after Daniel Bryan captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, he married Bri Bella. Sadly, two days after their honeymoon ended, Daniel Bryan’s father passed away unexpectedly at fifty-seven years old. While Bryan was dealing with the most tragic moment of his life in the passing of his father, he was about to deal with bumps in his professional career. Around this time, Bryan lost all of the strength in his right arm. He needed to get neck surgery. The WWE held off hope that he would make a quick recovery, but was forced to strip him of the title on June 9th.
Bryan finally returned to the ring on the January 15th, 2015 edition of SmackDown! At this time, the WWE was building up Roman Reigns as the new face of the WWE. With Daniel Bryan back, after his WWE title run was cut off short, the fans wanted Daniel Bryan to be given another shot at winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXXI. When Bryan entered the Royal Rumble at number ten, the crowd went crazy for him. However, Bryan was eliminated by Bray Wyatt after only ten minutes and thirty-six seconds in the match. At that point, the crowd knew their dream of a WrestleMania repeat for Bryan was over. They continued to chant for Bryan throughout the remainder of the match, while booing every other participant that entered the match. The fans were especially hard on Roman Reigns, as they saw him as the guy who was blocking Daniel Bryan from being in the WrestleMania main event. The fans even booed The Rock when he tried to endorse Roman Reigns as the new face of the WWE towards the end of the match.
It appeared that the WWE was starting to second guess themselves for the second year in a row in regards to the WrestleMania main event. However, Vince McMahon was adamant about not having a triple threat match main event WrestleMania for two consecutive years. Instead, they pitted Daniel Bryan against Roman Reigns at Fast Lane where the winner would go on to the WrestleMania main event. The WWE used the fans yearning to see Daniel Bryan in the WrestleMania main event to get them excited for the February pay per view. Unlike in 2014, this time the fans were not placated as the WWE had Roman Reigns beat Daniel Bryan in an incredible match that showed why Bryan was the best in ring performer in the WWE. It also showed that Roman Reigns could have a great pay per view worthy main event match.
Daniel Bryan was then regulated to the Intercontinental Championship seven-man ladder match at WrestleMania XXXI. Bryan won the title, and appeared to be back as a main player with the WWE wanting to put a higher value on their secondary championships. Unfortunately, shortly after WrestleMania XXXI, Daniel Bryan suffered a concussion in a match against Sheamus. He was taken off the tour, and hasn’t wrestled since.
SAYING GOODBYE
While Bryan was sitting at home, he was waiting to gain medical clearance from the WWE’s doctor, Dr. Joseph Maroon. Unfortunately for Bryan, Dr. Maroon would not approve Daniel’s return to the ring. Frustrated, Bryan seeked out other doctors that would clear him. He visited the doctor for the Arizona Cardinals, who not only cleared him, but determined that his cognitive skills were well above the average person. Despite the news, the WWE would not clear him to wrestle. Bryan later went to concussion experts in UCLA who ran a battery of tests. He passed with flying colors. However, Maroon still wouldn’t clear him. When Daniel tried to argue his case with Vince McMahon, the head of the WWE told Bryan that he wasn’t going to allow him to wrestle. He later told Bryan that he would consider it, but that was more a way to pacify Daniel than to give him hope. Bryan, in his quest to get back into the ring, even asked for his release so he can work in New Japan and Ring of Honor since he was not allowed to wrestle in the WWE. McMahon refused to grant him his release. Even worse for Bryan, the WWE has a clause in their contracts that if you miss a significant amount of time due to injury, your contract rolls over when you come back where they add on the time you missed due to injury to the back end of the deal.
According to Dave Meltzer in the “Wrestling Observer Newsletter, “A few weeks ago, Danielson came across Evoke Neuroscience, a new brain testing procedure that essentially examines all the different parts of the brain. Unlike Impact testing, where athletes have learned to pretend to be slower in their baseline test, thus if they get a concussion, their follow-up tests wouldn’t be so different, this test you can’t cheat on. It has the potential, if proven effective, to be the new state-of-the-art in brain testing to see when athletes can return to the playing field after concussions. Also, unlike all the cognitive tests he had passed, his high IQ and the potential of his brain creating new pathways around a possible damaged part of the brain to compensate for injuries wouldn’t be hidden. It also should be noted that this testing is new science, actually first created by a doctor from the military looking at examining brain trauma in soldiers, as well as a prominent sports doctor looking for something that could help with examining all parts of the brain, to find if there is a weakness that is being overrode. Athletes at times that have had a brain injury but were no longer showing any symptoms, may have the damaged portion overrode and new pathways created around the injured region. This is most notable in athletes with high IQ’s. A fluke mention by Kevin Kelly on the January 5th New Japan New Year’s Dash show on New Japan World is really a key in what sets the wheels in motion on this. Kelly remarked the main event of that show, during the Briscoes match, that they did an IQ test of the entire ROH locker room many years back, and that Danielson scored the highest. The reference was made when Matt Striker actually was making a joke about what you would figure Mark Briscoe’s IQ was. Striker in making the joke, clearly thinking what most would think about Mark Briscoe based on his character. Kelly responded that Mark Briscoe actually had the third highest IQ in the promotion at the time, noting it was behind only Danielson and Nigel McGuinness. Essentially that line set the wheels in motion about a week later that led to Danielson finding out about this testing, which has just started to be used in some MMA circles. It was demonstrated that same weekend on the Inside MMA television show where Al Iaquinta was shown being examined, and the Ray Longo/Chris Weidman camp were the first team to use it to see if fighters were truly ready to return to hard sparring after a fight or knockout. On January 21st, he flew to New York to be tested. Six days later, he got the results. Danielson’s test showed a small subacute or chronic lesion in his temporal parietal region of the brain, the area of the brain that causes seizures. Danielson has had post-concussion seizures for a long time and nobody could find any evidence as to why. What is key here is that Danielson made the decision on his own to retire after finding evidence that something was wrong. He was not told after getting the test results that he had to retire, and he will be undergoing more testing, but the damage was still in evidence more than eight months after his most recent concussion.”
THE RETIREMENT SPEECH
This past Monday night, Daniel Bryan announced his retirement in one of the most heartfelt speeches in the history of wrestling. Years from now, when looking back at the greatest moments in Monday Night RAW, Bryan’s speech will rank right up there with the best segments that the WWE ever aired. Here are the complete transcripts.
“So, just now, I was able to close my eyes and feel that, like literally feel it in a way that I’ve never gotten to feel it before because when we’re here, we always have to keep our eyes open. But just that experience, literally I’m never going to forget it. But now – but now it is time for me to address the giant elephant in the room. I know, I know – I didn’t want to shave my beard either. But the thing is, is that I wanted to cut my hair, and once I cut my hair, I looked really silly with this giant beard. And this is just my one cheap plug is that I cut my hair for an organization called ‘Wigs for Kids.’ And one of the nice things about them is that they make wigs for kids who have had cancer, and they don’t charge the families at all for that, so if there is anything worthwhile that comes out of what I’m saying tonight, that’s it right there. But now to some less fun stuff, so…”
“Trust me, I don’t want to be doing this anymore than you guys want me to be doing this, but the truth is I’ve been wrestling since I was eighteen years old. And within the first five months of my wrestling career, I’d already had three concussions. And, uh, for years after that, I would get a concussion here and there, or here or there, and it gets to the point that when you’ve been wrestling for sixteen years, that adds up to a lot of concussions. And it gets to a point where they tell you that you can’t wrestle anymore. And for a long time I fought that because I had gotten EEGs and brain MRIs and neuro-psychological evaluations and all of them said this: that I was fine and that I could come back and I could wrestle. I trained like I could come back and I could wrestle. I was ready at a moment’s notice if WWE needed me, I wanted to come back and wrestle because this – I have loved this in a way I have never loved anything else.”
“But, a week and a half ago, I took a test that said that maybe my brain isn’t as ok as I thought it was. And, I have a family to think about, and my wife and I want to start having kids soon…”
(A big “YES” chant breaks out) Bryan jokes, “That’s what Brie says all the time!” (Bryan laughs as the crowd loudly cheers. A “Holy shit” chant breaks out before turning into, “That’s what she said!”)
“So, it is with a heavy heart and the utmost sadness that I officially announce my retirement, but if there’s one thing… so I’ve gone through all these complex emotions in this last little bit. I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, I’ve been frustrated, I’ve been all of that, but today, when I woke up this morning, I felt nothing but gratitude because I have gotten to do what I love for nearly sixteen years. Let me tell you a few of the things that I love, ok? Let me tell you a few of the things that I love. Nobody outside this arena or this city cares about this, but I love the Seahawks.”
“Here’s another thing that I love. Here’s another thing that I love. Right before my music hits, and it makes that weird sound right before it comes on, and when you guys react, every single time, even if I’m tired as hell or I’ve been hurt, every time I get this weird little smirk on my face that’s not like… but it brings joy to my heart, and I love it every single time. Do you know what else that I love? I love hitting the ropes and diving right here.” (Bryan puts himself through the ropes.) “It has made me feel like Superman, and your guys’ reaction to that made me feel like Superman. I love that. Here’s another thing that I love. Here’s another thing that I love. I have wrestled in the parking lots of gas stations AND I have wrestled in front of 70,000+ in New Orleans. Here is another thing that I love. I have gotten to meet the most amazing people on this planet such as somebody who looks like a monster but is the smartest man I know like Kane. I have gotten to meet a man who has been my mentor and my friend for over sixteen years in William Regal. I have gotten to meet children that are stronger than I ever thought anybody could be like Connor.”
“Grateful. I am very grateful. I am grateful because wrestling doesn’t owe me or anybody back there, it doesn’t owe us anything. WWE doesn’t owe us anything. Nobody owes… you guys don’t owe us anything. We do this because we love to do this. And then, it was strange because I did this because I love to do this, and then all of a sudden you guys just got behind me in a way that I never thought was possible. In a way that fans shouldn’t necessarily get behind a guy who is 5’8 and a 190 pounds. You guys got behind me in a way that made me feel that I was more than just me, and for that I’m grateful. I am grateful because a little over two years ago, in this very arena, you guys hijacked RAW.”
“And they were trying to do a big championship coronation between Randy Orton and John Cena. They were combining the WWE Championship with the World Heavyweight Championship. And they had all the former champions out here, and this was going to be the most important match in WWE history, and you guys just wouldn’t stop chanting, ‘Daniel Bryan.’”
“But that’s not why I’m grateful. My dad was sitting right over there where the guy with the goat mask with the ‘Daniel Bryan’ sign is standing right now. And, my dad got to see that. His son getting that kind of reaction from all you people… And that was the last time my dad got to see me wrestle, and you guys made it special for him and for me and for my entire family. I am grateful. I am grateful because of wrestling, I got to meet the most wonderful woman in the world who’s beautiful, she’s smart, and she completes me in a way that I didn’t even think was possible, and that’s because of wrestling. I am grateful. I am grateful because I get to come out here in front of what I feel is my hometown fans, I get to announce my retirement in front of a bunch of people who love me, right? That special moment that I had with my dad I get to share this moment with my mom, with my sister, with my family, with my friends. I get to share that with them, I get to share that with you, I get to share it with my wife in the back, I get to share it with all these wonderful human beings that I have spent the last fifteen years of my life with. I am grateful. Now, tomorrow morning, uh I start, I start a new life. A life where I am no longer a wrestler, but that is tomorrow and that is not tonight. And by damn I have one more night to feel this energy and to feel this crowd, so if I could just get one last ‘YES’ chant, I would really appreciate it!”
THE REACTION
William Regal: “In 2004, I wrote in my book that the proudest thing in my career was having a hand in the training of Bryan Danielson, now Daniel Bryan. That fact hasn’t changed. He’s had an unmatched career and changed the world of pro wrestling and sports entertainment. On top of that, he is one of the nicest people I have ever met and a truly great man. I can’t ever see a time when he won’t be a part of my life. What a lucky man I am.”
Gabe Sapolsky: “Bryan was pivotal in building ROH during my time there. His matches made us different and set us apart. He gave us a guy we could promote as the best, and he was, so it was believable. The main thing about Bryan is he matured over the years. He learned how to carry the promotion on his back as champion and grew into that role. He was always two steps ahead of things and looking to improve and fine tune his craft. He has a different way of looking at something. Instead of just accepting something, he tried to figure out how he could put his own slant on it and make it his own. Bryan became a leader, but not by choice and not in a traditional way. He never asked for respect. He didn’t have a demeanor that would demand it. He didn’t yearn for it. He just always got it and people listened to and followed him. He isn’t a loud leader that owns a room. Rather, he did it by example and how he conducted himself. He was looked up to by everyone. That is what made him a leader. He had a gift I’ve never seen in anyone else in talking a small simple thing and getting it over. The word “Yes,” and “I have till five,” and the small package as a viable finisher in the midst of the independent landscape when everyone did a numbing amount of big moves. I still can’t explain how he got those small, simple things over as major parts of his act. But he did and it’s a real gift I’ve never seen in anyone else.”
Mick Foley: “Daniel Bryan called it a career last night on #RAW – but what a career it was. He put everything he had into everything he did, and changed the wrestling world forever. As good as he was wherever he went – from Independents, to Japan, to ROH, Bryan Danielson just did not strike many (including me) as a WWE guy. But, when given the chance, he showed that he could not only be A #WWE guy, but THE WWE guy, and by the time he was done, had been part of not only some of the great matches in company history, but some of its most memorable, funniest non-wrestling segments as well. His touching farewell speech on last night’s RAW may have been the most memorable of all.
Sgt. Slaughter: “Hope the rest of ur journey will be as great as ur 16 yrs in the squared circle! May our paths get to cross again soon…”
Zeb Coulter: “#ThankYouDanielBryan I can truthfully say that I am GRATEFUL for having known you. I think the entire dressing room shares that feeling.@WWE”
Jim Ross: “The big news of the day Monday surrounds a tweet sent out by @WWEDanielBryan who announced his retirement from in ring competition for WWE due to a dangerous condition having to do with the talented grappler sustaining multiple concussions. While some fans. who are obviously uneducated as to the severity that multiple concussions can have on an individual, have railed on WWE for not clearing Daniel and some fans have even accused WWE of having a conspiracy to not allow DB to step back in the ring which in itself rings of ignorance and is actually embarrassing for those that actually feel that way.
During my tenure as EVP of Talent Relations in WWE, dealing with injuries was a ongoing occurrence in my office. How those matters were handed continued to be refined over the years all the while keeping the talent’s health in mind as always being our number one priority. When a decision to return someone to the ring who had been away for injury issues, those decisions had to be made carefully and always erring on the side of caution each and every time out. In essence, we had to do our best to often times protect the talents from themselves.
At the same time, unfortunately, some talents have been known to ‘milk’ an injury to be able to sit home and collect a pay check.
In Daniel Bryan’s case, that latter issue was never in question as he’s a man of integrity and professionalism who would never attempt to work the system. Having said that, I feel that WWE would be best served here to keep Bryan Danielson on the staff and put him in a position to help young talents adjust to life in the WWE not only from an in ring standpoint but from life away from the ring as well.
No company can ever have enough people the quality of Bryan Danielson helping develop their brand and, most importantly, their young talents who I feel will respond in a big way to the coaching of one of the great overachievers ever in the business.
From what I understand, the WWE was informed of DB’s decision after they arrived in Seattle today where Monday Night Raw will emanate on the USA Network.
Although it is a sad day for Bryan and his fans with him not being able to safely wrestle in the future, I’d say that the ‘YES!! Man’ came out of this ordeal a very lucky man.
I don’t know of another wresting company that protects their athletes as thoroughly as WWE does their talents. Thank goodness that WWE did do all the extensive testing on Bryan’s injury and that they did not bend to the pressures of the talent or his fans to return hm to the ring. If DB had been wrestling for another company, any company, would he have received the care that he needed to determine the actual severity of the concussion issue?
In the proverbial, ‘good old days’ the concussion issue would have been largely ignored and the talent would have been returned to the ring as quickly as possible.
At the end of the day, Daniel Bryan is blessed to be wrestling in today’s marketplace and specifically for WWE where he has received amazing, medical care from a battery of specialists who certainly don’t work cheap but who likely have intervened to help ensure that the athlete who overcame numerous odds to become a star in WWE can live a productive life as a husband, father and son.”
LEGACY
For me, Daniel Bryan will be one of my all-time favorite performer. Along with CM Punk, he helped usher in a new era into the WWE. He proved that you don’t need to be a giant like the Big Show, or be built like John Cena. Bryan proved that you can make it to the top with your ability and a lot of luck. I was amongst the group of fans who would can the Internet weekly looking for updates on when Daniel Bryan will return. He was such a great performer. I wish he was able to wrestle one last farewell match at this year’s WrestleMania with an opponent of his choice. Unfortunately, that is not meant to be. I already miss Daniel Bryan, and hope that he will return to the WWE in some other on-air capacity when the time and opportunity presents itself. It seems like a waste for him to be sitting on the sidelines even if he isn’t able to wrestle. Bryan listed all of the reasons why he was grateful during his retirement speech. We, the fans, are the ones who are grateful. Grateful that we had the privilege of watching you perform for all of these years. For that, I thank you.
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