On April 7, 2014, Daniel Bryan was in heaven on earth. He finally had his breakthrough “moment” in WWE, as just 24 hours prior he became the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, winning two main event matches at WrestleMania XXX. The show was built around Bryan finally breaking through as the top guy and winning the most coveted prize in sports entertainment. The last scene fans saw as WrestleMania went off the air was a sea of Daniel Bryan fans chanting “Yes!” with passion, as Bryan held his two WWE Championship belts high in the air.
He was on top of the world.
Soon after, Bryan married the woman of his dreams — Brie Bella. The two were on their honeymoon, enjoying some well-deserved time off. Bryan tweeted that he was in the midst of the two greatest weeks of his entire life.
What a difference a day makes.
Prior to WWE RAW, where Bryan was going to make his return from his honeymoon hiatus, he receives the word that his father had unexpectedly passed away. Bryan, being the trooper that he is, insists on performing on RAW that night. Anyone who watched that show and knew the behind-the-scenes situation he was dealing with could see the sadness all over his face. He gets trashed by Kane, an angle done by design to explain his absence from television the following week and then flies home to be with his family during this difficult time.
Bryan returns, finally defends the championship he won at WrestleMania, in a match that felt like the second, or even third, most important on the Extreme Rules pay-per-view. It is what it is, but Bryan, as always, makes the best out of it, delivering a pretty exciting match that included a forklift and a fire-table spot.
I don’t quite recall the timeline of this part, but Connor Michaelek, the ill child that WWE made that tear-jerking video tribute for recently, passed away. Michaelek was one of Bryan’s first Make-A-Wish Foundation kids, as well as his personal guest at WrestleMania XXX. That has to be another devastating blow to the leader of the “Yes! Movement.”
Bryan barrels ahead, continuing to make the best out of the unfortunate circumstances that surround him.
“The Animal” Batista then refuses to work a pay-per-view main event singles program with Bryan, reportedly due to issues over not wanting to job to Bryan on a high-profile show. This results in WWE booking a second-straight pay-per-view match between Bryan and Kane. At this point, Bryan’s championship run is certainly not going as well as he would have hoped. But once again, it is what it is. Bryan is going to make the best of it.
Finally, we get to this past Monday night. The news broke just an hour or so prior to RAW that Bryan had suffered a neck injury. An injury bad enough that he will require surgery and several weeks on the shelf to recover. On RAW on Monday night, Bryan announces that he will be undergoing surgery on Thursday, and that there’s even a chance he may never be able to wrestle again. While that doesn’t appear to be the case, he will absolutely be out of action for at least a few weeks, and the steam on his championship run will again take a huge blow.
If it weren’t for bad luck, Daniel Bryan wouldn’t have any luck at all.
The guy comes off as one of the nicest people in the sport, is certainly one of the hardest workers in the business, and has a world of talent and fan support. Yet due to circumstances beyond his control, his run at the top keeps getting impacted in a negative fashion.
Hopefully Bryan gets his neck surgery, everything is a success with it, and he returns and begins the championship run that he has deserved all along. If ever a guy deserved a break, and I don’t mean in his neck, it was Mr. Bryan.
Heal up champ. We’ll be waiting to erupt with “Yes!” chants the second you come back.
What do you guys think of Daniel Bryan’s recent run of bad luck? Leave your feedback in the “Comments” section directly below. You can also hit me up on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR and/or follow me on Twitter @MBoone420.
