Daniel Bryan: The Ultimate Underdog
For months the wrestling community has fantasy booked the surprise return of Daniel Bryan to WWE. On Monday night Raw the fantasy booking was finally put to an end, not with the return of the leader of the YES! Movement but with the announcement of his retirement. Daniel Bryan was the underdog that the WWE universe could rally behind, the anti-authority wrestler’s wrestler. He was never destined for greatness in the WWE, but with the help of his rabid fans, he reached out and grabbed the proverbial brass ring.
Daniel Bryan, whose real name is Bryan Danielson, was the darling of the indie wrestling community before he came to WWE in 2009. He was nicknamed “The American Dragon” while wrestling for indie promotions such as Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerilla because of his hard-hitting style and wrestling ability. The fact is that there was no better wrestler in the world than Daniel Bryan. Sure, his promos could use a little help but his in-ring storytelling was unparalleled. At 5’8” and 190 pounds he was hardly the prototypical, tall, muscle bound, human being that usually graces the cover of WWE media (see: John Cena, The Rock, Hulk Hogan). Because of his physical limitations, when the WWE signed Bryan in 2009 it was widely feared that he would be buried in the WWE’s undercard and we would never again see a 20 minute match from the American Dragon.
For years Bryan languished in the mid-card, stealing the show while wrestling against Dolph Ziggler, and providing plenty of laughs in the tag team of Team Hell No with Kane. Though he was being given a spotlight, he was never given a chance to shine under The Spotlight. At one point Bryan was fired for choking announcer Justin Roberts when he and a group of other wrestlers were told to go out and cause chaos. Choking, for the record, is strictly not PG and we live in a PG WWE era. In a sport where the audience is prodded to cheer for the underdog, Bryan was the ultimate underdog; it just took WWE a few years to figure that out.
In the scripted world of wrestling it is often difficult to determine what is fake and what is real, so the following is what is the generally agreed upon opinion of the wrestling community (and is corroborated by leaked information from WWE officials).
After losing in two Wrestlemania’s in a row against Sheamus, one on the pre-show card and another in an opening match that last eight (8) seconds, Daniel Bryan fans were clamoring for a push for the bearded superstar. Bryan was given a championship title match against John Cena at Summerslam and he proceeded to get a clean win over the face of the franchise, a rare distinction that is made even rarer by the fact that Cena never got a win in return. After the championship match, with the crowd going crazy, Triple H (the face of the Authority and real life COO of WWE) hit Bryan from behind and allowed Randy Orton to win the championship. A championship reign that lasted all of a few minutes was the gift to the WWE Universe. It was probably a work but it was expected that the fans would die down in their support for Bryan, but they only got louder. On one segment promoting an upcoming title match between Cena and Orton, the crowds chant for Bryan grew so loud that it hijacked the segment. When Bryan was not included in the annual Royal Rumble event the following February, the crowd booed perennial babyface (good guy) Rey Mysterio when he was announced as the final entrant. The booing continued until the show concluded.
Finally, WWE was forced to create a storyline that included Bryan winning the championship or risk having their biggest event (Wrestlemania) being drown out with boos. A storyline was born, and Bryan was forced to defeat Triple H in a one-on-one match to open the show, and then beat Randy Orton and Batista (Dave Bautista) in the main-event of the show. It was then that the ultimate underdog raised the unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship high above his head to the deafening chants of YES! YES! YES!
But the story did not end there, a month later Bryan was forced to undergo neck and elbow surgery and relinquish his championship. When he returned almost a year later, he went on to win the secondary championship, the Intercontinental Championship, at Wrestlemania. His fans were satisfied, but he again had to relinquish the belt when he suffered a concussion and would be unable to wrestle for an extended period of time a few weeks later.
Daniel Bryan is the story of a man whose lifelong dream to become the best wrestler in the world was realized before he was on the world’s grandest stage. His years on the indie scene deteriorated his body to the point that his life on the top of the mountain was short lived. Still, we will always have that image of Bryan at Wrestlemania 30 with confetti falling and the entire stadium chanting with him.
Thank you, Bryan.
