Yeah, it’s going to be that type of article. Daniel Bryan had been out of action with concussion-related complications since WrestleMania 31, and many were starting to wonder if he would ever come back, and this morning, every wrestling fan’s worst nightmare was confirmed, when Daniel Bryan would return to his home state of Washington to formally announce his retirement in WWE. Donning a new haircut, something resembling the style of Edge when he announced his retirement after WrestleMania 27, he was greeted by an energetic, but somber crowd. There was laughter, when Daniel Bryan gave a subtle hint at his sex life with Brie Bella, and there were tears, when his haircut was in fact a deed for the sake of a cancer society, Wigs for Kids, by his acclamation. It all seems so surreal. Daniel Bryan, a man whose first WrestleMania match was bumped to a dark match against Sheamus would have such an emotional ending to his WWE career.
As Daniel Bryan told his, he had to grind out his wrestling career through humble beginnings. His father was a log scaler, and grew up in a humble town of Aberdeen, Washington. This made him appreciate the smaller things in life, such as when the sun was going to rise up, or quality family time, or even in reading. Bryan always believed that he would be in WWE, but he never actually thought he would actually make it to the extent that he did. Not when you consider that he began wrestling in low quality rings in the parking lots of gas stations. When he’d wrestle for perhaps as little as 20 on-lookers. Then, of course, he began to train under Shawn Michaels’ tutilage at the Texas Wrestling Academy before he began traveling the world. Whether it was Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, or Memphis Championship Wrestling, he wrestled each match and displayed his diverse arsenal in each match he undertook. He widely raved about how he knew every possible wrestling submission hold and every counter to each hold. I was planning to upload my favorite Daniel Bryan matches, but fellow writer Kyle Dunning took care of that, so head over to his article to relive his glory days.
Now, you guys don’t need the history lesson, but proper perspective should be used here. In NXT, this was a man who was juggling balls, pushing boxes up the ramp and other silly endeavors for the sake of entertainment. He claimed he wanted to be a star, but that he could do it on his own, and needless to say, he was frustrated at the start of his journey. It didn’t even take him that long for WWE to initially give him the boot when he was choking Justin Roberts on TV with his own tie. However, he came back in time for the main event for Summerslam in 2010 when he fought against his former faction, The Nexus, and the people reacted greatly to him in his short flurry. Later on that year, he defeated his superior in NXT, The Miz, for his first major championship, the United States Championship, which he would hold but didn’t have a lasting effect until his next major victory. The Money In The Bank briefcase. At Money In The Bank 2011, CM Punk defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship and Daniel Bryan held the Smackdown Money In The Bank briefcase. You could just tell that there was a changing of the guard in store, and that would prove to be so when he cashed in on The Big Show at TLC and won his first world championship. That win was pretty representative of his entire career, defeating people who looked down on him. It seems just like yesterday, that World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, WWE Champion CM Punk, and United States Champion Zack Ryder was celebrating in the ring together in what had to be one of the best memories in the minds of wrestling fans in recent memory.
Regarding his now symbolic YES movement, it came after his shocking 17 second loss at WrestleMania to Sheamus. After RAW went off the air the next night, the fans had sympathy for him because they started to respect what he could do, and the YES movement took form like it hadn’t before. Not only did it start to resonate with wrestling fans, but in all of professional sports. Football crowds and celebrities began to do it. It was amazing. at how this could catch fire so bad. His popularity skyrocketed even more during his tag team pairing with Kane and the immortal Dr. Shelby. With humorous backstage segments, they managed to make the tag team division and concept fun once again after it had been in flux for a while. He really got to stardom, however, when he began pursuing the WWE Title against John Cena.
John Cena chose Daniel Bryan, basically by force, because he was the one they wanted. Not a big time name like Randy Orton, but this hairy, technical, wrestler. At Summerslam, in an incredible match, Daniel Bryan became WWE Champion, only be to be trumped later that night by a man who can’t be more WWE made, Randy Orton, and his journey to the top began once again. Through screwjobs and temptations by The Corporation led by Triple H, Vince McMahon and The Shield, he found himself coming up short at every turn. This made the crowd want Daniel to succeed even more. Because now the underdog story became real. Daniel was sidetracked into a feud with The Wyatt Family to end 2013, but something interesting happened. At a Championship Coronation featuring John Cena and Randy Orton, a match heralded by WWE as the biggest match of all time, unifying the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship, they chanted for neither man, nor did they chant for all the other former legends and champions in the ring such as Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, CM Punk or others. They wanted Daniel Bryan. The fans hijacked RAW in a way seldom seen where WWE was forced once again to acknowledge him.
At the 2014 Royal Rumble, Batista was the favorite to win the match despite only just returning for the first time in four years and while Daniel Bryan lost to Bray Wyatt on that same night, fans kept their hope up that Bryan would be featured in the Royal Rumble match. When number 30 was revealed to be one Rey Mysterio, a legend in his own right, the fans completely took over the match and booed and jeered all the participants in the ring at the time and booed even more when Batista won the Rumble. Fans booed more so because WWE was feeding us another tried and true product. Back to the status quo once again. Batista returned as a face, but then the fans, with their influence of Daniel Bryan so great, practically forced Batista to turn heel (which he should have returned as in the first place). Daniel Bryan was getting behind the crowd in a way not seen often. Just listen to the pop the crowd received when Daniel Bryan turned on Bray Wyatt inside the steel cage. It wasn’t just loud. You couldn’t hear yourself speak if you were in the arena during that time. Going into WrestleMania 30, he was feuding with Triple H, which was appropriate for each men’s stories. Triple H was the man who couldn’t be more of a WWE product, an establishment proxy, lavish entrances, and more importantly, Vince McMahon’s son-in-law. Meanwhile, you had this independent geek who didn’t shave and came in simple tights. This was a mismatch if we ever saw it. Daniel Bryan and his supporters actually flooded the ring until Bryan forced WWE into getting a match with The Game, which Bryan would win victoriously, earning himself a chance in the main event of WrestleMania with Randy Orton and Batista. But just like his entire journey to WWE, he faced similar odds as Triple H dismantled him after the match, leaving him in no condition to finish off the night.
Giving up and facing the odds for Daniel Bryan, however, was just another day in the office as he would pull of what Michael Cole referred to as the Bourbon Street Miracle as he made Batista tap out in the middle of the ring, also defeating Randy Orton in the process to make Daniel Bryan WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Original plans called for Bryan to wrestle Sheamus for a third time at WrestleMania, but for perhaps one time, the fans changed the booking plans.With a world title belt in each hand, and celebrating with his wife and WWE legend Connor the Crusher, this was the fairytale ending to his WWE career. His big life moments would continue as he married Brie Bella a week after. However, a major red flag showed up, as he was not able to defend his championship at Money In The Bank due to neck surgery. He would have another WrestleMania moment the following year as he would win the Intercontinental Championship in a ladder match. However, he had concussion complications and was unable to defend his newly won Intercontinental Championship at Extreme Rules. This did not bode well for his future.
Grueling month after month after month showcased a new challenge, but for the wrestling fans it was only a matter of time before he returned. That is, until news started to surface that perhaps Bryan can’t come back and would not wrestle in WWE again. Our fears were concerned. Bryan’s inevitable fate was realized.
When Bryan announced he would be retiring on RAW tonight, we were sad not neccessarily because Bryan wouldn’t be wrestling anymore (well partly yeah), but more so because the underdog story we’ve invested in Bryan since 2013 ended. At a tender and young wrestling age of 34, we all thought there were more pages to be written in the story that was Daniel Bryan. This couldn’t possibly be the end. Him pointing out his father who died but saw him get over with the crowd on the Champion Coronation ceremony before he died or him reliving his journey here. We weren’t ready to utter the term “Former WWE Superstar”. We didn’t want him in the alumni section. It all felt so soon. However, this was a big slap of reality to wrestling fans across the world, that Daniel Bryan at his very core, is still human. Bryan told all of us tonight that he felt like Superman when he would ferociously suicide dive his opponent into the barricade. In real life, he was a superhero, but in the form of superhuman strength, but rather of superhuman will. He did not have the million dollar face of The Rock, or the chiseled physique of John Cena or Triple H, but he was exactly who the everyday man wanted, because we related to him. Not everyone can be a big celebrity, but we could all have an impact on other people, by being yourself.
What I respected about Daniel Bryan the most was that he didn’t need WWE’s politics or forceful feeding to get over with the crowd. He was an organic creation that we all saw on our own, and not because of anything WWE did, but because Bryan was simply himself. In wrestling, we have all had our moments where we couldn’t accept something until reality slaps you down. Whether it was the announcement of Eddie Guererro’s death (will never be topped in terms of sheer emotion), or Edge suddenly retiring (I will always remember because I am an Edgehead) or perhaps the greatest wrestler in the history of the sport, Ric Flair, losing his final WWE match against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 24, tonight’s announcement has to be up there somewhere. As Bryan turns over a new leaf, and begins his new life as a husband and an eventual father, I am actually glad Bryan has taken the high road, and not risk his life over this sport. For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge NBA fan, and the collective basketball world took a sudden gasp when Kobe Bryant announced this season would be his final season. His career spanned two whole decades with the same team. Bryan’s WWE career lasted about four and a half. How has someone like him impacted us so greatly? We can point to his great matches, him defying the odds or a simple YES chant, but I choose to look at his life’s story. How he refused to listen to people that told him he couldn’t do it, even by the owner of the company himself.
Bryan ends his short but successful career with the distinction of winning every major men’s title in WWE, which only The Big Show, The Miz, Eddie Guerrerro, Kurt Angle and Edge can lay claim to. I personally choose not to be sad that his career is over, but moreover, I rejoice in the fact that we were able to go along for the ride. We all don’t want to see him end. Of course we all wanted to see him face the likes of Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens or AJ Styles, but his body has spoken and so has he. The Daniel Bryan story has had its final page written and printed. We throw around the term “underdog” a lot, but Bryan is a true underdog, because he wasn’t supposed to do all of this and leaving us asking why the wrestling gods had to take another one from us so soon. I accept his decision, and will continue to move on forward, but instead of sulking, we should honor Daniel’s career, as a man who became from an underdog to a conqueror most courageous. Daniel, congratulations on a great career. May your future endeavors make you ever so stronger and more valiant. Retire in power.
