Awesome / Bryan Danielson

"You Deserve It!"

• Bryan Danielson's ROH World Title/ROH Pure Title unification match with Nigel McGuinness. A brutal war in Nigel's hometown, with Danielson bringing home the gold thanks to a seemingly endless flurry of elbows to the head of a bruised and bleeding McGuinness. Dave Meltzer, who rated the match 4.75, admitted that, if it weren't for Danielson repeatedly ramming McGuinness's head on the ring post, he would've rated it 5 stars.
• His ROH World Title defense against KENTA at Glory by Honor V. Before the match, Danielson suffered an injured right shoulder in his match with Colt Cabana. Despite the injury and KENTA targeting it throughout the match, Danielson fought through the pain and handed KENTA his first defeat in ROH to retain the championship in what is one of the best bouts of both men's careers.
• If you thought Danielson competing the entirety of the above match with an injured right shoulder was impressive enough, look no further than his ROH World Title shot against defending champion Takeshi Morishima at Manhattan Mayhem II. During the match, Morishima repeatedly struck Danielson in the face, giving him a legitimate detached retina in the process. Despite the pain and ultimately losing in the end, Danielson still went through the rest of the match giving the fight to Morishima. The match was so acclaimed that it was voted 2007 Match of the Year by the The Wrestling Observer Newsletter's readers.
• Wrestling then-World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho in his first match ever on WWE television. He lost, but still - what a way to debut.
• His entire angle after being eliminated from NXT. Let's go through it:
  • 1. His "Who is Daniel Bryan?" promo after he's eliminated from NXT, wherein he makes it clear that Daniel Bryan =/= Bryan Danielson. (The name change was forgotten by the subsequent episode, but what the hell.)
    • You can also see Matt Striker grinning like a Cheshire Cat whilst Bryan is talking, starting from when Bryan starts building towards the end of the promo.
  • 2. And then the following week, the most brilliant Worked Shoot in recent history — punking out The Miz (with William Regal and CM Punk - who, in WWE kayfabe, have no history with Daniel Bryan except for NXT - both enthusiastically agreeing with Bryan behind Miz's back) and slapping around Michael Cole like he owed him money, all while disassembling the politicking in the WWE and their blatant ignorance of non-WWE promotions. The camera work is notable during that brawl, as well. Other than it airing at all (the first and best sign of a Worked Shoot), tell us that didn't look real.
  • 3. And then the next week, Bryan follows that up by faking an apology to Michael Cole for the previous week's attack, instead apologizing for him being the worst announcer in wrestling today. Cole rips on Bryan with an (uncharacteristically) good promo, saying that Bryan had "tapped out" of NXT because he had "no heart". This earned Cole another attack (with Bryan escaping security's grasp so he could tackle Cole into the ringside barricade), and as security led Bryan past the WWE "Pros", The Miz started to run his mouth at Bryan - so Bryan fired back with a swift right, dropping Miz like a bad habit. In the end, Bryan had punked out both Miz and Cole for the second week in a row.
  • 4. And did it again the next week on Raw, beating The Miz clean in a match. When Miz tries to go for a post-match beatdown, dragging Bryan over to the announcer's desk and making Bryan apologize to Michael Cole, Bryan turns around and throws Miz right over the table, right into Cole.
• WWE Raw, May 3, 2010: His match against Batista in a beat-the-clock challenge. It's some of the best 5 minutes you will find in all wrestling. Batista did his fair share too. Made even better in that Batista vetoed the original plan of him squashing Bryan as he knows how good he is.
• WWE Raw, June 7 2010: The NXT Riot. All eight Season 1 NXT rookies laid waste to the entire show during a CM Punk vs. John Cena main event, including beating up commentators, the timekeeper, and even Justin Roberts (whom Bryan was personally choking out with his own tie). After trashing the ringside area, they would proceed to gang attack Cena, brutalizing him with multiple finishers, including Bryan actually kicking John Cena's fucking head in. He preceded this kick by yelling "YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN ME!!!" several times and then spit in Cena's face.
• WWE SummerSlam, August 15 2010: The show's main event is a seven-on-seven elimination match between a team of WWE all-stars and The Nexus, and Team WWE has a one-man deficit. Earlier in the show, The Miz accepted Cena's offer of joining Team WWE; later, he comes out during the Team WWE entrances and looks to be the final man for the team. Cena stops him as he makes his entrance, however, and informs Miz that he took too long deciding whether or not to join the team, and that he'd found someone else in that time. Daniel Bryan comes out, and the cheers of millions of nerds causes the internet to explode. And in what was both his WWE return match and his WWE PPV debut (in the main event of the second biggest show of the year, no less!), "AmDrag" made sure to leave his mark - in this case, by completely owning both Darren Young and Heath Slater in about a minute each, and making it all the way to the final four.
  • What made this a particularly surprising moment was that almost nobody expected this; Bryan's initial firing had taken place only a few months beforehand, and the general consensus was that he'd maybe be back in late 2010 or worse (if he came back at all). The fact that none of the dirtsheets or news sites picked up on it makes it even more incredible. It would have been the perfect surprise... if WWE.com had not been updated with a story on Bryan's return a few minutes before the main event took place. He'd even done indy shows for CHIKARA, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Dragon Gate USA and other promotions during the time between his firing and his return.
    • That .com article doesn't really matter, though, unless you were on .com in those few minutes.
  • How big was Danielson's return to WWE? After he came back, "Bryan Danielson" was the #1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide.
• You can tell how awesome Daniel Bryan Danielson is by the fact that he was for a while the only member of The Nexus (well, aside from John Cena and CM Punk) to have his own TV Tropes page.
  • Not to mention the fact that he was one of the first three professional wrestlers to have his own personal Moment of Awesome page. The other members of this prestigious group? The Undertaker and, Ric Flair. That's the level of awesome Danielson maintains.
• WWE Night of Champions, September 19 2010: Daniel Bryan makes The Miz tap out to win his first title in WWE, the WWE United States Heavyweight Championship, in arguably Miz's best match to date. Smarks everywhere cheered; Michael Cole threw a hissy fit.
  • WWE Hell in a Cell, October 3 2010: Daniel Bryan would retain his US title against The Miz and John Morrison in a Triple Threat Submissions Count Anywhere match. Following the win, Michael Cole would be forced to admit that Bryan was the better man that night.
    • WWE Bragging Rights, October 24 2010: Bryan stole the show with Dolph Ziggler in the opening match, winning his Smackdown vs Raw contest and being the ONLY Raw superstar to win their Smackdown vs Raw contest that night. He then went on to beat Ziggler the next night on Raw, and kicked his head in on Smackdown to pin him for a third time that week!
    • And just to add icing to the cake, that Bragging Rights match is considered by WWE to be one of the top two matches of 2010. The other? The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXVI. It seems WWE finally realizes that they've got gold with Daniel Bryan Danielson, which might be why they gave him a pair of infatuated escorts in The Bella Twins later in the year.
• On the January 25 episode of NXT Season 4, Bryan was in a Pro vs Pro match with Ted DiBiase Jr.. In the middle of the match, fellow pro R-Truth started a call-and-response Daniel Bryan chant. The response was deafening. The chants would only continue through the match.
• He brought The Big Show to his knees during the Draft Battle Royal of 2011.
• His promo against Cody Rhodes, where he calls out Cody's narcissistic "The World is Ugly" attitude, claiming that his father Dusty Rhodes, despite not being an attractive man, was a much better person than he would ever be and refused to accept that fact.
• Winning the goddamn Smackdown Money in the Bank! And people thought he wouldn't go anywhere in WWE!
• His promo after winning Money in the Bank did a lot to help his reputation on the mic. He excoriated Michael Cole (again), played to the crowd, and delivered the kind of promo Main Event guys are supposed to deliver. Then he beat the crap out of Heath Slater.
  • He's still a Badass; unlike all the other Money in the Bank winners that cashed in when the champions had defended their titles (but were totally exhausted from it), he stated that his Money in the Bank contract would be cashed in on WrestleMania 28's main event. Now, it's a seven month race to see who's gonna have it by April 1st, 2012 and to see who's gonna get his fucking head kicked in.
    • Or not, as Bryan is champ, and seems to be heading for a Show/Henry feud.
  • After he gets knocked by a jealous Wade Barrett, he catches him in the Lebell Lock while laying down.
• His match against Alberto Del Rio also counts. Two of the rising stars of the WWE going head to head...that was amazing!
• If I'm not mistaken, didn't he just get an incredible match out of Mark Henry, of all people? And even gave his own against the World's Strongest Man? That's pretty damn awesome.
• WWE TLC. The Big Show defeats Mark Henry in a pretty good Chairs match. Mark Henry DDTs Big Show onto Chairs. Daniel Bryan comes out and cashes his Money In the Bank Briefcase to win. The pop was deafening. And then he went to the camera, looked into it, and said "Thank you to everybody that has supported me these past twelve years." Michael Cole is dumbfounded, and Show... has a look on his face as if he was surprised, but impressed. A fitting milestone to one that basically founded one of WWE's biggest feeder organizations, though not as much as WCW, ECW or OVW.
• The Raw following TLC saw CM Punk, Zack Ryder and Bryan Danielson in the same ring, basically saying what no one thought possible, had actually happened. They would later in their six man tag match enter through the crowd, which was all kinds of awesome!
• Managed to retain his title three weeks in a row, when facing The Big Show and Mark Henry in rematches. The first time he managed to get a disqualification when he got Henry to shove him in front of the referee when he was facing Big Show, the second week, against Big Show again, the match went to a non contest as Big Show ran in to A.J. Lee. The third week, he and Mark Henry was in a lumberjack match where Bryan managed to get the lumberjacks so riled up that they stormed the ring and beat both him and Henry, before all hell broke lose and they pretty much started fighting each other.
  • Make that a month for he survives the Steel Cage match.
• January 30, 2012. Champion vs Champion match. Yes, World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan faces WWE Champion CM Punk.
• Back in Ring of Honor, Danielson defended his title against semi-retired veteran Lance Storm (known as one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time, and the only man to hold the WCW United States Heavyweight Title, the WCW Hardcore Title and WCW World Cruiserweight Title at the same time). Over the course of 30 minutes of beautiful technical skill, each of them gave as good as they got, with Danielson kicking out of the Super Kick and Cradle Piledriver, and escaping the Canadian Maple Leaf, with the match finally ending when, after several resisted attempts, Danielson locks on the Cattle Mutilation, and Storm finally taps. Both men receive a standing ovation as they shake hands and embrace, and the fans chant "Thank You Lance!" and "You've Still Got It!" to a moved Storm.
• April 2, 2012 edition of Monday Night Raw. Despite being squashed in 18 seconds by Sheamus at the opening match of Wrestlemania XXVIII, that event has made Daniel Bryan more over with the audience now than ever before. While the cameras were off, Daniel Bryan broke his heel character and thanked for the crowd for their undying support and constant cheering of "YES!" which he said most likely got him a new shirt. The audience deafened the arena with "YES!" chants and followed along with Bryan as he began the cheer before leaving.
  • And that lasted for most of the entire Raw broadcast itself prior to that, where fans were either chanting "YES!" or Bryan's name during most of the show, despite the fact that Bryan himself only appeared for one small segment.
• Bryan, along with Sheamus, finally getting their time in the sun with an instant-classic, show-stealing 2-out-of-3 falls at Extreme Rules 2012.
• May 20th, 2012: Bryan's first shot at the WWE Championship against CM Punk at Over the Limit. The match delivered big time with both men stealing the event that was headlined by the abysmal bout between John Cena and John Laurinaitis.
• May 25th, 2012 edition of Smackdown. Bryan sneak attacks Kane and hits him with twenty-six steel chair shots in a row.
• Sept 21, 2012 edition of Smackdown. Bryan and his equally reluctant tag team partner Kane are on the same page for once. They then proceeded to destroy the Tag Team division and Damien Sandow. He hits them with 26 chair shots.
• WrestleMania 29. Dolph Ziggler starts the match by kissing A.J. Lee, clearly rubbing Bryan's face in the loss from last year. How does the American Dragon respond? By kicking Ziggler's head off! An awesome parallel to last year's joke of a match and how does the match end? Daniel Bryan FINALLY hits the Diving Headbutt on Ziggler and picks up the win! On a broader note, everyone in the match was amped up. No comedy routine from Team Hell No.
• April 8th, 2013 edition of Raw. Daniel Bryan gets to help Kane and the Undertaker fight off the Shield. And he gets to pose with the Brothers of Destruction as they leave the ramp. For one night, and possibly more, Daniel Bryan has become the Third Brother of Destruction...who would've thought?
• May 31st, 2013 edition of Smackdown. Danielson and Kane come to the rescue of Orton, who is being attacked by The Shield. During this attack, both Orton and Kane get taken out. Danielson proceeds to unleash a onesided curbstomp to all three members of The Shield, powering through each one of them, delivering a flurry of kicks, dropkicks, and so forth before laying every member of them out alone. The show ended with Danielson standing tall in ring with Orton and Kane, his music playing, and the crowd loving it.
• June 6th, 2013: Bryan not only did double duty, taking on The Shield in six-man tag and Ryback one-on-one, but he dominated all four men, dropping them with suplexes, dropkicks, and vicious stiff forearms. He took Ryback, the man who destroyed John Cena at Extreme Rules, to his physical limit, including a top-rope headbutt from two-thirds the length of the ring. Even when it looked like Ryback had stopped him cold with a powerbomb, he freakin' traps him in the NO! Lock...and the crowd explodes.
• June 10, 2013: Bryan and Seth Rollins from The Shield get a one-on-one match (Rollins's second on the main roster, as Kane had defeated Rollins on the May 31st SmackDown). WWE gives the two former Ring Of Honor stars about fifteen or twenty minutes... and the result is nothing short of epic.
• June 14, 2013: Bryan becomes the very first man to pin a loss on The Shield in six-man tag action, tapping out Seth Rollins in the NO! Lock after a mid-air RKO from Randy Orton...with the crowd going ballistic for him during and after the match. WEAK LINK MY ASS.
• June 24, 2013: Daniel Bryan faces Randy Orton in a Street Fight, with chairs, tables, and a Singapore cane getting used. At one point, Bryan had Orton in the NO! Lock, but Orton was able to get to the Singapore Cane and hit Bryan enough times to break the hold. At the end, Bryan had Orton in the NO! Lock again, with Orton again using the Singapore cane, but Bryan grabbed the cane, and still holding Orton in the NO! Lock, placed the cane where his hands would go, with Lawler saying that Bryan was going to rip Orton's shoulder out, with Orton clearly in pain until he had no choice but to tap out. As Bryan led the crowd in the "YES!" chant, Orton interrupted, shook Bryan's hand, and left. The show ended with the crowd continuing the "YES!" chant.
• July 8, 2013: "The Summer of the Beard" rolls right along with highlights at the beginning and end of the RAW broadcast. The first being Bryan getting into a brutal bout with Sheamus not at all unlike their Extreme Rules match from last year, this time though surprising the Irishman by powering out of the Cloverleaf with ALL 265 lbs of Sheamus bearing down on him and small packaging Sheamus for 3! The next would be following the Orton/Punk main event, with Bryan laying out both men and climbing the ladder to take down the briefcase as a confident sign of his victory at MITB this Sunday. Again, the crowd going nuts with YES! chants as this happens.
• Money In The Bank, July 14, 2013: While Curtis Axel did ultimately screw him out of a victory, Bryan was a downright BEAST in the match. Nailing Orton with a running dropkick into a ladder, suicide diving onto Punk on a pile of ladders and springing up without a scratch, and subverting Sheamus's usual "drive a small guy through a ladder" spot, kicking the Irishman off the turnbuckle and causing him to crash through a bridged ladder on the outside.
  • The spot with Sheamus could essentially be a Harsher in Hindsight since Sheamus received a heavy bruise on his leg and a torn labrum that will take him out for 6 months. Full payback for 18 Seconds?
• July 15, 2013: John Cena picked Daniel Bryan as his opponent for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. Only one word could be heard throughout Brooklyn, chanted by EVERY... SINGLE... MEMBER in the audience: YES!!!
• July 22, 2013: Put in a gauntlet match by Raw GM Brad Maddox, Bryan first faced Jack Swagger, taking him down in a short, but physical match by tapping him out with the YES! Lock. Next, he'd face the other half of the "Real Americans" Antonio Cesaro. What would ensue was the most physically brutal match I've ever seen on Raw between Bryan and Cesaro. Cesaro at one point laced into Bryan with 20 European uppercuts in a row followed by a clothesline that flipped Bryan for a 360 and nearly took his head off. How did Bryan respond? By trapping Cesaro in an Indian Deathlock and pounding him repeatedly with vicious forearms. Bryan pulled off the win with an amazing counter of Cesaro's mid-air uppercut into a small package for the three-count. And while he was essentially spent for his 3rd match with Ryback, Bryan persevered, countering a Thesz Press into a Single-Leg Crab, nailing a top-rope dropkick that floored the big man, and countering the Meathook clothesline with a knee straight into Ryback's face that nearly knocked him out.
  • The real crowner? While Cena ultimately played hero and drove Ryback away after the big man powerbombed Bryan through a table, Bryan fought back up from 30+ minutes of wrestling and being driven through a table to get back in the ring and receive a standing ovation from the crowd with his music playing to close out the show. If one counts the subsequent dark match (a six-man tag) then although he had a rest break after the televised main event, Bryan wrestled for even longer live!
• August 18, 2013: Bryan beats Cena clean for the WWE championship at SummerSlam '13 in a show-stopping match...Sadly, the moment doesn't last as HHH, who was serving as guest referee, Pedigrees Bryan and allows Orton to cash in and take the title. Still, for that one moment, Bryan was on top of the wrestling world.
  • How does D-Bry get the win? With a BUSAIKU KNEE!
  • Notably, it was a win without any shenanigans, i.e. Cena releasing the STFU to stop Johnny Ace from calling the match against CM Punk and then returning to get GTS'd at MITB 2011. Who last got such a win over Cena? The Rock.
• August 19, 2013: Having Balls of Steel to call out Stephanie McMahon on her and her husband's corporate BS, slapping the mic out of her hand and dropping a damning "The Reason You Suck" Speech not unlike Jim Cornette and his take on Hogan years back:
• August 26, 2013: Although it was the first segment in a gauntlet match against The Shield, Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins would tear it up in the main event of RAW for an extended (for WWE TV) duration AGAIN, culminating in a top rope German suplex (with Rollins rotating so much that he landed on his face!) and a Busaiku Knee!
• September 9, 2013: Bryan finally getting one-up on Randy Orton. Despite a grueling contest with Dean Ambrose, taking a post-match Shield beating AND a RKO, he found the strength to get back up and drill Orton with the same Busaiku knee he won the WWE Championship with in the first place, hoisting said championship over a prone Orton. This happens in no small part thanks to The Big Show, who stalled Orton long enough for Bryan to recover.
• September 15, 2013: Night of Champions PPV. While it's likely Corporate H will find a way to reverse the decision due to the semi-groggy ref making a fast count, it's nonetheless an awesome sight to see Bryan regain the WWE Championship clean over Randy Orton, highlights including a Spider Suplex, followed by a diving headbutt two-thirds of the way across the ring.
• September 16, 2013: The main event of the night was the recently stripped Daniel Bryan against the WWE tag team champion Roman Reigns. He managed to take out every member of The Shield before locking in the crossface onto Reigns, but Orton interfered, ending the match by DQ. The four of them started attacking Bryan like they had done the past few weeks, but the wrestlers willing to stand up to Orton spilled out of the locker room and finally made the long-awaited save. The crowd went crazy while Orton ran for his dear life. The Shield was given a taste of their own medicine, and the night ended with all the wrestlers standing in the ring and every single person in the arena chanting "YES!" "YES!" "YES!"
• October 28, 2013: After Shawn Michaels gives a rather paltry "Triple H is my friend above all else" excuse for his actions at Hell in a Cell, Bryan's invited out to accept his handshake of apology. After refusing it the first time, Shawn tells him the kick was meant as a finishing lesson: Don't trust ANYONE in the business of professional wrestling, whether it be friend, family, or spouse. After refusing the handshake a second time, HBK snaps and calls out Bryan for being a "self-righteous little puke" and demands that he show respect and shake the hand of a real "A-plus player" in Shawn. Bryan does...and shows what a quick learner he is by locking The Showstopper in the YES! Lock and making the Hall of Famer tap!
  • The kicker out of all of this? The crowd was completely on Bryan's side throughout the segment. Getting everyone on your side against, arguably, one of the most admired, respected performers in pro wrestling is an awesome moment in itself.
• December 9, 2013: The night of the Slammy Awards, pillar to post, was Daniel Bryan's night. Dispatching of Fandango, taking home the "Beard of the Year" award, the "Crowd Participation" award, and the "Superstar of the Year" award (beating out John Cena), and his home state fans chanting so vociferously for him it made Bryan corpse and halted an obviously-seething Triple H mid-promo during the "Championship Ascension" ceremony. On top of that, Mark Henry jokingly raising his hand and getting the rub of rubs from John Cena, who all but stated that he should be facing Bryan at TLC, but has no problem giving him the (fair) rematch Bryan deserves when Cena wins. Oh, and taking down the Heartbreak Kid again, this time with the Busaiku Knee. He then deflects an RKO and pushes Orton into Stephanie... ladies and gentlemen, your Spanner in the Works.
• December 16, 2013: Putting on another Match-of-the-Year candidate with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton, whom Bryan dominated for the last 5 minutes before Orton took the low road out with a low blow. The ending doesn't even take away from the latest installment of awesome matches between the two, and it furthers the point Cole and company discussed during the match; Orton just cannot beat Daniel Bryan in a straight-up one-on-one scenario without any outside interference or distractions.^note This would be subtly reinforced with their February 3rd, 2014 match where Bryan intercepted Kane's interference attempt, dove onto both Kane and Orton, then took out Kane and beat Orton clean anyway.
• January 13, 2014: After losing to the Usos by DQ, Bryan accepts responsibility for the screw-up and takes the "Sister Abigail" from Wyatt. Bryan & Bray are then given a second chance at the Usos, this time in a locked steel cage. Bray relishes the chance since society and "The Machine" have kept men like him and Bryan caged for far too long, and Bryan seemingly agrees. Fast forward to the end of the cage match, where, as all four men were climbing, Bryan was knocked down and "unintentionally" crotches Bray on the ropes, allowing the Usos to escape the cage, taking out Rowan and Harper in the process. Again, Bryan seemingly accepts the blame for the loss and prepares to accept "Sister Abigial"...only to slip out and the crowd starts to rouse. We then see the dawning comprehension on Bray's face that it's him and Bryan, alone at last, inside a locked cage, something Bryan's wanted more than even the WWE Title. Rather than go Oh, Crap!, he eggs on Bryan, thinking he won't go back to those who "enabled" him. When Bryan won't go for the shot, Wyatt calls him a coward and charges him. Bryan...sidesteps and nails a trifecta of shotgun dropkicks, laces into Wyatt with a Buzzsaw kick, Bryan then strips off his Wyatt uniform with his DB wrestling tights underneath^note suggesting that it had been on throughout his appearances with the Wyatts, throws the jumpsuit at Bray's prone body, rams him into the cage and knocks off Rowan and Harper! And then...with the ENTIRE crowd chanting "YES!" in complete unison◊...NAILS BRAY WYATT WITH THE MOTHERFUCKIN' BUSAIKU KNEE AND THE CROWD FREAKING EXPLODES!!! He finally mounts the cage, leading the crowd in what's been the BIGGEST "YES!" chant of his career... So far.
  • It's the fact that the crowd erupted after Daniel broke out of Wyatt's hold. There was literally no stopping them after that - and that is because of Daniel's insane popularity.
  • Fridge Brilliance makes this even better. Who's the one who made the match? Kane, aka the other half of Team Hell No. It seems like somehow, Team Hell No are still working together.
  • According to reports, DBD suffered a concussion during the cage match and doesn't even remember most of it. The man suffers a freaking concussion and still pulls off the final spot of the night flawlessly. That is dedication to one's craft if I've ever seen it.
  • The next week, Bryan cut a promo and explained that his reasoning for joining the Wyatts was all a big Batman Gambit to lie in wait for the chance to strike back at Bray.
    • Even better as said promo got a larger positive reaction from fans than even the return of Batista to WWE.
• Royal Rumble, January 26, 2014: Even though he lost, the first match of the PPV was Daniel Bryan vs. BrayWyatt in a match of the year contender. As the Royal Rumble reached the final few entrants, fans in the arena began clamoring for Daniel Bryan and began booing as each of the final three entrants came out - In fact, at the final entrant's music hit, there was a brief pause as the crowd realized what had happened & immediately turned on the 30th entrant, perennial babyface Rey Mysterio aka "The Ultimate Underdog", before outright revolting once CM Punk was eliminated, with the crowd turning on both the returning Sheamus & Batista & firmly cheering for Roman Reigns, before alternating between booing eventual winner Batista & chanting "No! No! No!" as the show went off the air. As much as it must have sucked for Batista to be booed off the show, it really shows just how much the crowd has grown to love Bryan. It's like the more the WWE tries to keep him out of the Title picture the more fans support him.
  • On a less sympathetic note, Batista getting booed and the reports of him apparently flipping out on the Royal Rumble audience when the cameras were off could be considered an awesome karmic moment. Back in 2011, when Bryan won the WHC at TLC, Batista caught flak for expressing disbelief on Twitter that he could be a main event title holder (possibly due to his non-bodybuilder look). A little over two years later, the fans (seemingly both the "internet" base that took offense to the comments, and the "casual" base that might have preferred someone that looked like Batista years ago) clearly showed which person they wanted to see main-eventing or competing for the main title, chanting for "DANIEL BRYAN" instead of "BATISTA".
  • You know it's bad if Rey Mysterio is getting booed at.
• February 3rd, 2014: Pinned WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton clean...AGAIN. Bryan dominated Orton from start to finish almost. Orton just CANNOT beat this man one-on-one.
  • And Bryan did it this time despite outside interference, this time from Corporate Kane, dropkicking the "Director of Operations" just as he reached the apron and tripping the man into the ringside steel steps.
• A more subtle one that isn't tied to any single event, but one of the biggest Internet Wrestling Community fan distastes about a non-champion John Cena was a history of main eventing over the current WWE Champion. However, ever since Summerslam 2013, Cena moved more into the mid-card, not least because he went to chase after and eventually win the World Heavyweight Championship — more of a mid-card belt — and it's been Bryan who actually tended to be opening and closing out RAW and/or Smackdown, meaning that throughout the second half of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, Daniel Bryan has been regularly main eventing over John Cena.
  • Let's not forget the fact that Bryan has consistently gotten the crowd on his side more often than the supposed "Face" of WWE in John Cena, who's had the mixed reaction for years now, which again speaks volumes on his popularity right now.
• February 7th, 2014: he pulls a La Mistica on Antonio Cesaro.
• March 10th, 2014: The entire "Occupy Raw" movement. After the whole situation with The Authority & their refusal to give him a match at Mania, Bryan manages to fight back by taking control of the ring. However, instead of just saying that he won't let the show go on, he has the entire ring & surrounding area filled with "Yes Movement" fans. This proceeds to cause a Villainous Breakdown for both HHH & Stephanie as it becomes harder and harder to reign in control of this and impossible for the show to continue until they give in to his demands. Bryan not only secures a match at WrestleMania for himself against Triple H, but he also forces Hunter to make it a #1 contender match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. If Bryan wins, he is entered into WrestleMania's main event and has a chance to win the title against Orton & Batista. He then proceeded to close the show by defeating both Orton & Batista in a tag team match with Big Show as his partner...by AGAIN pinning the champion Orton after connecting with the "Knee +."
• March 31st, 2014: The Randy Orton vs. Batista NO-DQ match is going on as planned, with Triple H and Stephanie on commentary...when Trips seemingly cuts off for no reason and the crowd suddenly wakes up. We pan over to the announce table and...HOLY CRAP, DANIEL BRYAN IS BEATING THE PISS OUT OF TRIPLE H!!! Orton tries to cut Bryan off at the pass, only to get speared by Batista, who ends up on the wrong end of Bryan's "Knee +"...and then Bryan steamrolls Triple H with a suicide dive to the outside! He beats him over the barricade, throughout the ringside area and over steel steps and then absolutely mauls Triple H with a kendo stick, sending him scurrying up the ramp to Stephanie! Ladies and gentlemen, the "Yes Movement" is not dead...far from it...IT'S ALIVE AND KICKING THE AUTHORITY'S ASS!
  • It's even better in context: Triple H previously laid out Bryan as retribution for Bryan outsmarting him and securing a chance for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship shot at WrestleMania 30 (via the #OccupyRAW incident), but presumably thought so lowly of Bryan otherwise that Triple H gave Bryan more time to recover under the assumption that he'd sail through Bryan at WrestleMania and then face a real challenge against his former Evolution partners Orton and Batista. Triple H, therefore, booked them both in a No DQ match just under a week before WrestleMania in hopes of them softening each other up... only for Bryan to waylay Triple H after Batista and Orton have done their damage to each other... which leaves Bryan and not Triple H the no-longer-injured one by WrestleMania 30!
• April 6th, 2014, WrestleMania 30: Daniel Bryan overcame Triple H in a grueling 26-minute match, surviving not only the assault on his left shoulder but kicking out of a Pedigree! After surprising Hunter with the "Knee Plus" for the big three count, Stephanie and Triple H lay him out with a steel chair shot to the bad shoulder, leaving Bryan a one-armed man for the Triple Threat match. Despite many warnings by trainers, Bryan goes out to compete and almost narrows in on a victory before The Authority rears its ugly head. Batista hits Bryan with the Batista Bomb, Scott Armstrong (The crooked ref from Night of Champions 2013) comes in and it looks like the screwjob is in... only for Bryan to kick out! Armstrong then gets kicked in the head by Bryan and stumbles to the outside, where Triple H & Stephanie pick him up & promptly get crashed into by Bryan with a Suicide Dive that takes down all three of them. After realising what happened & that his wife is down, Triple H goes under the ring for his sledgehammer, only for Bryan to take it from him and drill him in the head, removing The Authority from the match. Orton and Batista, however, recover and seemingly eliminate Bryan with a tandem Batista Bomb-RKO through an announce table. Bryan's escorted out on a stretcher, pretty much out of it... Only to force his way off the stretcher & back to the ring as it was headed down the entranceway. Several minutes later, Batista nails Orton with the Batista Bomb but before he can capitalize, winds up getting hit with the "Knee Plus" which Bryan transitions into the Yes Lock, and Batista winds up tapping. Daniel Bryan becomes the new WWE World Heavyweight champion on the biggest stage in WWE history, and there are no Money in the Bank contracts or fast counts to take it away from him. YES! YES! YES!
  • He wrestled for more than 50 minutes when typical matches are lucky to get 15-20. On top of that, when you factor in the entrances, video package, backstage vignette, and the post-match, over an hour of WrestleMania XXX was devoted to Daniel Bryan - the show's only 4 hours long.
  • That moment when Bryan peels off the neck brace and gets off the stretcher is up there with Mick Foley climbing off the stretcher at King of the Ring 1998 as one of the great spine-tingling moments in WWE history.
  • The sheer legendary status of the crowd's pop as Batista taps.
  • Capping it all off, Bryan was possibly the ONLY man who was able to get the crowd back into it after they saw The Undertaker experience his first loss at WrestleMania.
• WWE RAW, April 7, 2014: The opening video package for Daniel Bryan's rise to the top starting from his Indie Days and ending with him holding the championship belts at WrestleMania XXX, all set to the beautiful "Monster" by Imagine Dragons.
  • When he arrives for his opening message, the whole crowd is chanting, "YOU DESERVE IT!". Yes, he does.
  • He ends up hitting Triple H again with a Solid Knee Plus.
• On April 11, he got married to Brie Bella. Sooo… in the span of one week, he became the face of the WWE, combined with Brock Lesnar to inject a sense of mainstream news that the WWE hasn't really had in years, beat Triple H in a brilliant technical match, hung on for a grueling triple threat against Randy Orton and Batista that featured some memorable spots including a Batista bomb-to-RKO through the announce table, fighting off of a stretcher to get back to the ring, and then making the unpopular Batista tap out like a little bitch. And THEN he gets married to Brie Bella.
  • And then having to endure the most tear-jerking of Mood Whiplash after finding out that his father passed away. He insisted on doing RAW for us regardless, went out with Manly Tears in his eyes, took his lumps from Kane, and then immediately took his bags and his wife and flew home to Washington. Takes a real man and performer to do what he did in the face of overwhelming tragedy.
• Extreme Rules 2014: He had a kickass match with Kane that wouldn't have looked out of place during the Attitude Era. The highlight of the match? Kane set a table on fire and tried to Chokeslam Bryan through it. Bryan reversed the Chokeslam and [[Hoist by His Own Petard pushed Kane onto the flaming table, back first]. When Kane got back into the ring, Bryan hit him with the Knee Plus and pinned him for the win.
• July 24, 2014- Preventing an actual burglary of his house when he caught two thieves trying to flee after being spotted. Bryan was able to snag one of the thieves and keep him detained by applying a rear-naked choke on the unlucky perp until the cops arrived at his house minutes later. Even while off the job due to recovering from neck surgery, the American Dragon can still kick ass. The other perp was eventually caught, by the way.
• December 29, 2014. In the last RAW of the year, after so many months of being on the shelf due to injury, he comes out, talking about the highs of the year, as well as the lows. It was sounding like he was going to have to retire until he said one simple word: NO! He then announced that he'll be at the 2015 Royal Rumble, leaving the crowd in a YES chant!
• March 29, 2015. Wrestlemania 31. While not two matches including the main event, Daniel Bryan once again starts the show in the Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship, the only championship he has not claimed yet. The match itself had several amazing spots to say the least culminating in a Knee Plus to Barrett and a beating Ziggler with consecutive headbutts against each other at the top of the ladder. This led to not only Bryan's first run as Intercontinental Champion but, upon claiming the IC title, secures his place as not only a Triple Crown Champion but as a Grand Slam Champion under the new format (replacing the old European Championship with the United States Championship).
• Even his farewell speech at the end of RAW on 2/8/16, despite the sadness of it. Not only was having the last segment on the show to speak his peace awesome but the awesomeness comes from gauging the crowd's reactions. When he speaks, the crowd is silent. They're hanging on to his every word—no chants, no background din of the crowd, just pure, rapt attention. Even in his last days as a professional wrestler, he was over in ways others could only dream of.
• He won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Technical Wrestler award nine years in a row. It got to the point they later renamed it after him following his retirement. After Zack Sabre Jr. went seven years with his own impressive winning streak, Bryan won it back in 2021 and would repeat in 2022, making it a record 11 times he's won the award.
• His feud with The Miz, and his ability to manage to get the last laugh in despite being unable to wrestle, has proven him as a master of the long con. After Bryan called the Miz a coward on Talking Smack and the Miz went off on him, the latter went out of his way to deliberately give the former a hard time — from mocking him in the ring with his old taunts and moves to demanding contract renegotiations — twice — and taking glee in the idea of retiring one of Smackdown's other stars at No Mercy. But then, Ziggler won, and the Miz actually turned down an offer to have his contractually-obligated rematch on the 10/25/16 episode of Smackdown. When Bryan made an appearance on Miz TV the following week, more taunting followed — and Bryan utterly destroyed him without laying a single hand on him. First, he revealed that the Miz wasn't on Team Smackdown for Survivor Series. Then he revealed that he and Shane McMahon had considered him, but rejected it due to being a coward. Only this time Bryan had proof to back it up — his refusal to take Ziggler's offer at the Intercontinental Championship the previous week. He then proceeded to bring Ziggler out so that he could issue an open challenge for the IC title — first to the Smackdown roster, then to the Raw roster at Survivor Series. So, not only did The Miz turn his boss against him and lose the IC title, but his own opportunistic ways got him screwed over thanks to Bryan picking up on them and using them to deny the Miz of everything he cares about. And the Miz has no one to blame but himself. Daniel Bryan, you Magnificent Bastard.
• 1/3/2017, Talking Smack. The Miz showed up after losing the Intercontinental title to Dean Ambrose earlier in the night, clearly looking to complain. He complained that Ambrose had done nothing to earn a title shot, that Ambrose's girlfriend, Renee Young, had inserted herself into the feud (when the Miz had actually dragged her into the feud), and how the ref didn't disqualify him when Maryse slapped Ambrose during the match. Bryan fired back with a short Hannibal Lecture that sent the Miz into a frothing Villainous Breakdown:
• 6/20/2017, Daniel's first night back as Smackdown's General Manager since the birth of his daughter. As he's addressing the situation that happened during the Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match two nights prior, James Ellsworth insults him and his newborn daughter. It takes a single second for Daniel to go from shocked to full-on Papa Wolf mode.
  Daniel Bryan: James, shut up! If you talk about my baby girl one more time, I will punch you in the face so fast, you won't be able to breathe, and I will fire you!
• 20/3/2018: Daniel Bryan is cleared to wrestle. Daniel Bryan is cleared to wrestle. Daniel Bryan is cleared to wrestle. YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! HELL YES!!!!
  • At the end of the show, Bryan is attacked by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn after he fired the latter two for their attack on Shane McMahon the week prior. Despite being outnumbered two-to-one, the American Dragon shows the two years in retirement hasn't slowed him down, trapping Owens and Zayn with his famous corner dropkicks and then going for the YES! Kicks on Owens. It took a powerbomb on the apron for Zayn and Owens to finally put Bryan down.
  • The following week, Bryan decides to teach those two a lesson by putting them in a match at WrestleMania against Shane and himself. That's right! DANIEL BRYAN IS BACK! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
• Wrestlemania 34 was Daniel Bryan's first match in three years after being shelved due to injuries. And he performs like he'd never left, with absolutely no signs of ring rust in his performance. He resigns from the GM post the following SmackDown to focus on full-time competition; his replacement ends up being Paige, who had to retire the day before due to injury reasons herself.
• Greatest Royal Rumble: Because of him starting the eponymous match at number 1 and the match having 20 more entrants than a normal Royal Rumble, Bryan manages to break Rey Mysterio's 2006 record of lasting the longest in a single match with an hour and sixteen minutes. Sadly, he didn't win the match (Braun Strowman, who also broke a Royal Rumble-related record that night, did).
• Super Showdown: After being cheated by The Miz twice in their matches, Mr. Small Package makes a return with Daniel Bryan winning suddenly with a small package within 3 minutes. The Miz didn't know what hit him.
• 13/11/2018: Daniel Bryan wins his fifth WWE Championship from AJ Styles. Though both men gave it their all, Bryan eventually started fighting underhandedly and proceeded to assault Styles post-match with a Slasher Smile on his face...this after low-blowing Styles and seemingly reconsidering on what he has done.
• Survivor Series 2018. The WWE universe finally gets a match it may well have gotten several years ago before injuries got in the way, with the new WWE Champion Bryan facing off against Universal Champ Brock Lesnar. This match was a master class in storytelling and using a disparity in styles and persona to one's advantage and served in a lot of ways as the Establishing Character Moment for the 'new' Daniel Bryan. In one corner, you have the Beast Incarnate, built like a tank, moves like a freight train, a walking case of Testosterone Poisoning that eats other walking freight trains for breakfast. In the other corner is a skinny guy a head shorter than Lesnar, who just came out of retirement after a series of injuries that could have crippled him. Most opponents that try to face Brock Lesnar make the mistake of trying to out-tough him, which immediately puts them behind the 8-ball that is Lesnar. Bryan spends the first several moments chipping away at Lesnar's patience, staying just out of the Beast's reach. Of course, eventually, Lesnar gets his hands on him, with predictable results. (Read: SUPLEX CITY.) WWE took full advantage of the narrative tension of showing a guy who had just come back from a two-year forced retirement due to concussion issues, now getting suplexed onto the back of his head repeatedly by the most violent suplexer in WWE. But not only did Bryan show an ability to withstand this damage (both in and out of kayfabe context), he basically tanked until Lesnar made a mistake - at which point he counterattacked. It was a heelish way of operating and yet in this context the fans almost forgot that he had essentially stolen AJ Styles' WWE title by way of Groin Attack not a week prior. There were parts of Bryan's psychology that recalled the last crafty technician that used wits and guile to bring down a rampaging Brock Lesnar more than a decade prior. And then there came the moment when Bryan got Lesnar into the Yes! Lock. Lesnar didn't tap, but there was a lingering frontal shot of him caught in the hold with his eyes wide with panic. And for just a few moments, you could be forgiven for believing that he might. Maybe a handful of other times in his wrestling career has Brock Lesnar ever had that look on his face in a wrestling ring. Lesnar eventually won the match, but Bryan made his point. Anyone who questioned whether the American Dragon was truly back no longer did after this match. In fact, this version of Daniel Bryan might well be more dangerous than the last. The setup for the Yes! Lock is genius unto itself, after Bryan attacks Lesnar's legs and goes on his trademark balls-to-the-wall assault, Brock catches Bryan in midair, ready for an F-5... and then collapses because his injured knees gave out, and this sets Bryan to apply the Yes! Lock! This has shades of DDP's iconic clash with Goldberg, and the everyone goes ballistic at the prospect that someone, especially Daniel freakin' Bryan, might just be able to defeat Brock Lesnar!
• Just the fact that the same guy that had entire football stadiums chanting for him in unison has been able to reinvent himself into such a despised heel so soon after a return from forced retirement that normally would have granted him enough goodwill with fans to ride for a year or two.
• His successful WWE World Heavyweight Championship title defense at Elimination Chamber 2019. He was one man facing AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton and Samoa Joe, whom he also started the match fighting against, and was the shortest and least physically powerful among them. And yet he not only went post to post, but he won. Not bad at all!
• After months of buildup and heartbreaking losses, Kofi Kingston, for the first time in his 11-year career, captures the WWE Title from "The New" Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania 35 in a ballistic match that saw a crowd of 82,000 on its feet as Kofi kicked out of a Running Knee while The New Day fended off Rowan. This also marked Kofi being the first ever African-born WWE Champion, and with it becoming a Grand Slam Champion. KofiMania indeed.
• Due to much of the roster being stuck in Saudi Arabia, WWE gave us a dream match on the November 1st, 2019 Smackdown: Daniel Bryan vs NXT Champion Adam Cole. As expected, the two delivered a great match eventually resulting in Cole picking up the clean win.
• Bryan and AJ Styles putting on an instant classic on the June 11th, 2020 Smackdown. It was so good that people were immediately calling it one of the greatest Intercontinental Championship matches of all time.
• Say what you will about the ending of his Universal Title match versus Roman Reigns at Fastlane 2021^note Ringside enforcer Edge snapped after an errant chair shot by Bryan, laying him out with several chair shots of his own and leaving Bryan prone for Roman to pin him, but Bryan kept his word: He BROKE "The Head of the Table" and made him tap out for the first time in his career!
• Bryan making his long awaited AEW debut at the end of All Out 2021 by confronting The Elite.
• After provoking AEW Champion Kenny Omega into accepting his challenge for a non-title match between the two of them solely to see who was the better wrestler, Bryan Danielson's first match in AEW delivered! He and Omega, two of the greatest wrestlers in the world today, went at it hammer and tongs in front of a packed crowd 20,000 strong and molten hot in New York City, the American Dragon vs the Cleaner, all the way to a 30-minute time limit draw with both men tired but still ready to keep fighting at the end. After the bell rang, a furious Danielson continued to attack the AEW Champion, forcing him into the LeBell Lock before the rest of the Elite ran down to prise him off. The match was instantly hailed as easily one of the best of 2021 and the best TV match AEW had ever put on, with some even going as far to call it the greatest televised^note that is, non-PPV match of all time.
  • Said match also marks the return of the Cattle Mutilation. The crowd went NUTS upon seeing Danielson use it again.
  • Even more so for Bryan as, for the first time in his 20+ year career, he's finally awarded his first 5-star rating by Dave Meltzer.
• Bryan getting his first AEW win by defeating Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks in an outstanding match on the October 1, 2021 edition of Rampage.
• Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki: the crowd was on fire from start to finish, Suzuki knocked the soul out of Danielson multiple times, and Danielson barely eked out a win after pulling out every move in his arsenal... and it was all on the Buy-In pre-show. This dream match was aired in its entirety for free on YouTube!
  • Fans and critics were immediately calling this a Match of the Year contender, and one of the best matches of both men's careers. For Danielson, it bears reminding that he just wrestled another one of the best matches of his career against Kenny Omega not a month before!
• Not even 24 hours after his brutal war with Minoru Suzuki, Bryan Danielson is back in the ring on the special Saturday October 16, 2021 edition of Dynamite, facing Bobby Fish in the main event. The match ends with Bryan locking in a vicious heel hook, forcing Fish to submit.
• The American Dragon Bryan Danielson faces The Natural Dustin Rhodes on the opener of the Saturday October 23rd edition of Dynamite. Dustin, despite his age, manages to keep up with his younger and quicker foe, including hitting a piledriver on Danielson. Bryan in the end manages to get a win by locking on the Guillotine Choke, causing Dustin to pass out.
• Danielson does it again, this time facing Eddie Kingston in the 2nd round of the World Title Eliminator Tournament. The two men beat the shit out of each other, going blow for blow, Eddie enraged by Danielson's taunt that he doesn't train hard enough to be a contender and once again turning Danielson's chest beet red with his vicious chops. The end comes when, after smashing Danielson to the ground with an Uraken, an exhausted Eddie crawls across his opponent to try and pin him, only to be trapped in a Triangle Choke and made to pass out, leaving Danielson too tired even to stand and celebrate his victory. It's around this time that critics started to rave about how impossible it is that every match Danielson has in AEW feels like it's the greatest match he's ever put on.
• The American Dragon and The Redeemer go head-to-head in the finals of the World Championship Eliminator Tournament at Full Gear 2021. Danielson, who had never beaten Miro before in any encounter anywhere else, used every inch of technical nous he had to fight back against the overwhelming ferocity of his massive opponent. In the end, a second-rope Tornado DDT knocked Miro clean out, the ref calling for the bell almost as soon as the lightning-quick Danielson locked in a guillotine choke on his unconscious opponent, making the American Dragon the new #1 contender to the AEW World Championship.
• Bryan Danielson vs "Hangman" Adam Page opens Winter is Coming 2021 for the AEW World Title: the two go the limit, an hour long match that had nail biters and teased finishes between them - from Hangman's multiple Buckshot Lariats to Danielson's string of knee strikes, kicks and submission techniques - culminating in time running out just as Hangman hits the final Buckshot as he crawls to pin Bryan. To date, the latter has yet to record an official loss in AEW. Dave Meltzer would award the match a 5-star rating, Bryan's second in his career.
• Bryan Danielson and "Hangman" Adam Page meet once again on the January 5, 2022 Dynamite as AEW kicks off the New Year and a new era on TBS for The AEW World Championship. For a half hour they brutalized and bloodied each other, using whatever it took to beat the other, with their faces covered in blood. Hangman in the end hits The Buckshot Lariat and pins Bryan to retain.
• Bryan Danielson confronting Jon Moxley after his return match against Ethan Page on the January 21, 2022 Rampage. Notably, this was likely meant to be the finals of the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament before Moxley withdrew from the tournament so he could enter an inpatient alcohol treatment program.
• Following a victory over Wheeler Yuta on the February 2, 2022 Dynamite, Bryan Danielson confronts Jon Moxley after their little run-in post-match on the January 21st episode of Rampage. Rather than antagonize Moxley into a match that the audience expects, Bryan propositions a partnership - one where they can go after the AEW World Championship, the TNT Championship and the World Tag Team Championship, including taking young wrestlers like Wheeler, Daniel Garcia and Lee Moriaty under their tutelage, away from their respective cohorts that are The Best Friends, 2Point0 and Matt Sydal/Dante Martin. Although Jon neither accepts nor declines Danielson's idea, it's clear that this approach is making the gears in Moxley's head start to turn.
  • Unlike the last time this happened when Chris Jericho tried to tempt Moxley into joining the Inner Circle, Danielson knows exactly how to appeal to Mox. Jericho offered him wealth and fame and an expensive car and the opportunity to lord it over the lesser wrestlers if only Moxley took a place as his number two, transparently to remove Moxley as the biggest threat to his own AEW Championship reign, but Moxley has no interest in any of these things. Not only does Danielson offer Mox a place as his equal, but he offers him an opportunity to do something he really wants- to guide the development of the wrestling industry itself. For Jon Moxley, the man who claimed he would have reseated the entire industry from scratch if he'd had to, founded his own promotion and trained his own opponents if there had been nowhere else for him to go after leaving WWE, the possibility of being a mentor to an entire generation of young up-and-comers, training them to be as hard and strong as himself and the American Dragon, is almost impossibly tempting, showing how well Danielson can read Mox and know what he wants. And the crowd were crazy into the idea too- as much as they wanted to see these two men fight, they went crazy for Danielson's proposal.
• For weeks, Bryan Danielson continues to entice his proposition to Jon Moxley about a partnership and training the young talent in the AEW roster. On the February 16th episode of Dynamite, Jon states he's thought hard for a reason to say "no", but he couldn't think of one. However, he accuses Bryan that the reason he offered a partnership proposal was because he does not want to "get destroyed" by Moxley; instead, Jon leaves the final decision to Danielson, citing that he does not "stand side-by-side with nobody 'til I bleed with them first". On this episode, Bryan finally agrees to a match at Revolution, but not without a few choice words.

  Bryan Danielson: "So, in order for us to fight together, we need to bleed together. I don't need this (tosses a steel chair aside) to make anybody bleed! You want a match at Revolution? You GOT IT!...But don't be surprised if you're the only person bleeding!"

• For the past couple weeks Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley had done promos against the other leading up to their match. When it finally happens at Revolution 2022, they don't disappoint as they go all out against one another and ending with Moxley catching Bryan off guard when he tries a Triangle Choke and pins him.
  • Afterwards when it appears that they will continue to fight, William Regal appears and forces the two to shake hands
• Bryan Danielson faces Wheeler Yuta on the March 30, 2022 Dynamite in a singles match. Fired up like he's never been before, Yuta fights like hell against the veteran, even looking like he might upset Danielson at a couple of points. While the result is ultimately inevitable, when Bryan sets Yuta up for the "steppies" (holding his wrists and stamping on his face repeatedly), the young man defiantly spits in his face. If one needs further proof that the Blackpool Combat Club is succeeding in its aim of building up younger stars and getting them over, even in defeat, just listen to the insane crowd pop when Yuta reverses the Cattle Mutilation.
• The Blackpool Combat Club continue their path of destruction through AEW on the April 20, 2022 Dynamite as Danielson, Mox and Yuta run roughshod over the young upstart team of Dante Martin, Brock Anderson and Lee Moriarty, finishing the match by all three BCC members beating down the opposition at once (Mox and Yuta giving the hammer elbows to Martin and Anderson respectively, while Danielson stomps Moriarty's head in) before Mox finishes Martin with a Paradigm Shift. Notably the crowd was cheering everyone in this match, not just the incredibly-over Blackpool Combat Club, but also their young opponents, especially Hometown Hero Lee Moriarty.
• If the previous Stadium Stampede matches were meant to comedic, then Anarchy in the Arena was meant to be absolutely ruthless and bloodthirsty. Neither Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz were willing to give the Jericho Appreciation Society any breathing room at Double or Nothing 2022 as all ten men were bloodied and bruised, with fights spilling into the crowds and merchandise stands. While Eddie was busy with Daniel Garcia, Proud and Powerful dealt with 2.0 by putting Matt Menard and Angelo Parker through tables from a ladder. Just as Bryan and Moxley locked Chris Jericho and Jake Hager in the LeBell Lock and Bulldog Choke, respectively, Eddie returns to the ring with a gasoline canister with the intent on setting Chris on fire as revenge for nearly burning away The Mad King's eyes on the April 27th, 2022 episode of Dynamite. The American Dragon puts a stop to that, but tensions between him and Eddie were still high since they don't see eye-to-eye and a scuffle breaks out, giving Jake a chance to send Jon through barbed wire onto a table outside of the ring, then attack Bryan's weakened leg with Jericho's baseball bat Floyd. The JAS would claim the win by having Danielson knocked unconscious to the Walls of Jericho, while Hager simultaneously chokes him with the top ring ropes that Moxley unhooked mid-match.
• Bryan Danielson makes his return to the ring at Fight for the Fallen 2022 against Daniel Garcia after nearly a month away from the ring stemming from a concussion he suffered at Anarchy in the Arena. Despite Danielson dominating Garcia in the early going, he quickly aggravates his head injury after landing hard on a missile dropkick. From there, Garcia zeroes in on the injury busting Bryan open and even hitting a DDT on the exposed floor. Bryan does manage to get his bearings enough to make a comeback but Jake Hager grabs Bryan's ankle allowing Garcia to look in the sharpshooter. The referee is forced to stop the match, giving Garcia the biggest win of his young career.
• With both men having won a singles match against each other (Bryan back in February 2022 on Dynamite, Daniel winning at AEW Fight for the Fallen), Daniel Garcia challenges The American Dragon to a 2 out of 3 Falls Match at AEW House of the Dragon. In what could be Garcia's best singles match in AEW thus far, The Red Death makes quick work of Bryan by reversing his own "Dragon Tamer" submission move into a piledriver, then knocking out Danielson via the "Dragon Sleeper" technique, giving Garcia the first fall. However, Bryan quickly capitalizes with a surprise roll-up on Garcia for the second fall. At one fall apiece, The Red Death starts utilizing a few of Danielson's techniques, including the Busakiku knee and foot stomps to Bryan's head. When Garcia tries to use another piledriver, Bryan catches him in the triangle choke, leading into the LeBell Lock and additional elbow blows to the head. Daniel goes is knocked out, giving Bryan the second fall and win.
• With the AEW World Championship vacated due to CM Punk's actions following All Out, Bryan Danielson and Hangman Page finally got to have the final match in their trilogy on the September 7, 2022 Dynamite in the tournament to crown a new champion. For 20 minutes, the two men went back and forth until eventually Danielson countered the Buckshot Lariat into an O'Connor Roll to get the win and bring their series to an even 1-1-1.
• With the winner facing Jon Moxley in the finals to crown to a new AEW World Champion, Bryan Danielson and Chris Jericho faced in the main event of the September 14, 2022 Dynamite. Bryan wins and will now face Jon Moxley as the two have a staredown to close the show.
• Bryan Danielson having an absolute war with his Blackpool Combat Club stablemate Jon Moxley at Grand Slam 2022 in order to crown a new AEW World Champion. In the end, Mox manages to outlast Bryan to cement his record setting third AEW World Championship reign.
• The ROH World Championship was defended in a 4-way between champion Chris Jericho, JAS stablemate Sammy Guevara, and the BCC pairing of Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli at Full Gear 2022. What started as a simple 2-on-2 match eventually broke down as Bryan and Claudio eventually beat Jericho and Sammy out of the ring, leading them to exchange looks, shake hands politely, and then start beating the tar out of each other. The JAS members also ended up coming to blows when Sammy broke up a Jericho pinfall, not being willing to simply stand by and watch his leader win the match. After a number of insane near falls, Claudio had Sammy by the legs and was giving him his trademark Giant Swing when Jericho came barreling in, leapt over Sammy in mid-swing to land a flying elbow, and knocked Claudio reeling, setting him up for a full Judas Effect to retain.
• After a quick and emphatic victory over Tony Nese on the January 4, 2023 Dynamite, Bryan Danielson takes to the mic and declares he still wants to fight, and calls out the AEW Champion, MJF. MJF begs off, claiming that as the champ, Bryan needs to earn a match against him, but not to worry, MJF's already got an opportunity for him: if Bryan can win a match on Dynamite every week until February 8th, he'll get the match with MJF at Revolution 2023. Bryan...refuses, knowing full well that a) MJF has a history of doing this to anyone who wants to face him and Moving the Goalposts in the process, and b) nothing's stopping him from running through his opponents and becoming #1 contender anyway. This riles up MJF so much that when Bryan offers to take his deal in exchange for getting to set the stipulation at Revolution, he jumps at it, and Bryan calls his shot: the match at Revolution will be a 60 Minute Iron Man Match.
• Bryan's first opponent on his road to Revolution was a handful to say the least as he faced rising star Konosuke Takeshita on the January 11, 2023 Dynamite. The two engaged in a love letter to strong style as they used anything and everything in their arsenal to put each other to sleep. In the end, after multiple close calls, Bryan managed to put Takeshita to sleep with the Regal stretch.
• Bryan had another outstanding match as he faced Bandido on the January 18, 2023 Dynamite. Bryan spent the whole match struggling with Bandido's power, high flying offense and technical wrestling expertise. In the end, Bryan managed to hit a Busaiku Knee out of nowhere to get the win and one step closer to Revolution.
• Bryan Danielson knocking MJF down to size at the end of the Match 1, 2023 Dynamite telling him he's going to 'get his fucking head kicked in' sending MJF retreating in visible fear.
• Finally, the main event was hailed by some viewers as potentially the single greatest match AEW has ever put on, as World Champion MJF faced the American Dragon Bryan Danielson in a 60 minute ironman match. Commentary pointed out that this was already guaranteed to be the longest match of the young man's career, as he'd never even gone beyond 40 minutes before this, while Danielson did 60-minute matches for fun, but MJF stepped up to the plate to prove once again that he's more than just a (foul) mouth. It was 20 minutes of intensive chain wrestling and increasingly big moves before the American Dragon finally drew first blood with a Busaiku Knee, but MJF immediately countered with a low blow that, despite costing him another point, allowed him to score two quick pins in return on Danielson and nearly a third! As MJF mercilessly targeted the injured left shoulder of Danielson that he'd been paying other men to damage in the lead-up to the match, Danielson in return ruthlessly tried to turn MJF's left knee inside out, an issue only further exacerbated by MJF's own offence as he fearlessly hit big moves such as a spectacular flying elbow from the top turnbuckle to put Danielson through the timekeeper's table, which he followed with a running tombstone through the unbroken remnant of the table. As the two brutalised each other, the score ended up at 3-3 with MJF in a savage single-leg crab as the last few seconds counted down, tapping out right after the last second elapsed, making the match a draw. However as both men were being tended to by medical personnel, Tony Schiavone received a message from Tony Khan backstage, who relayed to ring announcer Justin Roberts that a draw was not acceptable, and even after 60 minutes of torment the two men would have to fight into extra time. After a breathtaking series of near falls and false finishes, including MJF missing with the Dynamite Diamond Ring and then having it taken away from him by the ref while he was locked in a submission, MJF managed to sucker Danielson over to the edge of the ring before smashing him on the head with an oxygen canister the medical staff had been using to try and treat him earlier out of the ref's line of sight. For the final blow, MJF did not use his Salt of the Earth Armbar to finish off Danielson's injured shoulder, instead using Danielson's own LeBell Lock submission against him. For a moment it looked like Danielson would pass out, only for him to appear to find a Heroic Second Wind... and then tap out, unable to bear any more. This match solidified MJF as not only the top heel in AEW, but one of the very best young wrestlers in the world today and a man who deserves to be AEW's top champion. The icing on the cake was Dave Meltzer's rating- 5.75 stars!
• The BCC and the Elite went to war in the main event of Double or Nothing 2023 in Anarchy in the Arena. Just like last year, Jon Moxley's theme 'Wild Thing' was played over and over again on repeat as the match started, only this time being performed live by The Violent Idols, which continued until the Bucks got fed up and superkicked the vocalist when he showed off the BCC T-shirt he was wearing under his jacket. As with the last match, it was gruesome bloody carnage, with spots like Moxley suplexing Kenny Omega onto one of the giant poker chip props he'd studded with barbed wire and broken glass, Claudio Castagnoli piledriving Matt Jackson in the back of a pickup truck parked out the back of the arena, Moxley putting thumbtacks into Matt's mouth and him and Yuta holding him so Claudio could uppercut him in the jaw, Matt superkicking Moxley in the face with a shoe that exploded, and Matt having his shoe and sock yanked off his left foot then being picked up and dropped onto a pile of thumbtacks bare foot first (while everyone got their fair share of pain, it was not a good day at the office for Matt Jackson). In the end, Omega was about to put Wheeler Yuta away with the One-Winged Angel, only for his treacherous former mentor Don Callis to get into the ring and distract him, and then a masked figure to slide in and hit Omega with a jumping knee, revealing himself to be Konosuke Takeshita as Yuta pinned Omega with the Seatbelt Pin to win the match for the Blackpool Combat Club. Dave Meltzer would assess this match as being just as good as the original, giving the Anarchy in the Arena stipulation its second 5-star rating.
• A dream match has been scheduled at Forbidden Door 2 featuring Danielson and Kazuchika Okada. The battle between the American Dragon and the Rainmaker is going to be one for the history books.
• We knew the American Dragon vs the Rainmaker was going to be epic, but the epic started NOT with Bryan's familiar "Born for Greatness" AEW theme, but THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. Just LISTEN to that reaction when the Toronto crowd realizes what song they're hearing! The match itself was phenomenal despite Bryan genuinely breaking his arm. Danielson fought through all of Okada's signature offense, including a sick Tombstone Piledriver on the ramp, to eventually lock in a modified LeBell Lock to make Okada shockingly tap out^note The last to have done so was Shinsuke Nakamura eight years priors and cement his place as arguably the greatest wrestler of all time.
• Bryan making his surprise return on the September 3, 2023 Collision to answer Ricky Starks' challenge to Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat for a Strap match at the following night's All Out. Virtually everyone knew Steamboat wouldn't actually be wrestling the match, but when Steamboat gleefully pointed out Starks signed to have a match with "the Dragon" and then the opening notes of "Ride of the Valkyries" hit, the crowd leapt to their feet in shock and excitement.
• Bryan taking on Ricky Starks in a Strap match at All Out 2023. This was a brutal, bloody affair with both men using the strap to whip, choke and generally absolutely brutalize each other. In the end, Bryan was able to lock in the LeBell Lock with the strap and make Starks pass out to pick up the win. Meltzer would go on to rate this five stars.
• Bryan taking on Ricky Starks once again on the September 23, 2023 Collision - this time in a Texas Deathmatch! Somehow, Bryan and Starks managed to up the brutality from their previous match as the two brutalized each other all over the arena. In the end, Bryan was able to hit a Busaiku Knee with a chain wrapped around his knee to decisively pick up the win.
• After being put off for over a year due to injuries, Bryan finally got to have his long awaited dream match with Zack Sabre Jr. in front of his hometown fans at AEW WrestleDream 2023 and the match did not disappoint. The two traded strikes and holds on the mat on a masterful level for 20 minutes until Bryan finally managed to put Sabre Jr down with a Busaiku Knee to claim his spot as the undisputed best technical wrestler in the world. Meltzer rated this technical bout 5.5 stars.
• Bryan taking on Kyle Fletcher of Aussie Open on the October 7, 2023 Collision. Fletcher proved himself as one of the best young wrestlers in the world as he pushed Danielson to his absolute limit before eventually succumbing to one of the American Dragon's many submission holds in an awesome match.
• Bryan taking on Swerve Strickland for the first time ever at Title Tuesday 2023. This match, unsurprisingly, absolutely delivered as the two men traded bombs for nearly the entirety of the match's 15 minute runtime. In the end though, it was a surprising assist by Bryan's old rival, "Hangman" Adam Page, that managed to seal the win for Danielson.
• Bryan taking on Christian Cage for the TNT Championship in an excellent match on the October 14, 2023 Collision. Both men spent the match showcasing their technical prowess as they went after each other's arms. In the end though, just as it looked like Bryan was going to win his first championship in AEW, Ricky Starks got involved to screw Bryan out of the TNT title.
• Bryan continuing his streak of fantastic matches on his retirement tour as he took on Andrade El Idolo on the October 21, 2023 Collision. The two traded stiff shots while also showcasing their technical wrestling expertise as they dug deep into their arsenal of submission holds and counters until in the end, Bryan managed to put Andrade away.
• Bryan showing up at NJPW Power Struggle 2023 with his eye still bandaged following Okada injuring it with a Rainmaker to challenge Okada to one more match at Wrestle Kingdom XVIII to finally determine who the better man is.
• Bryan taking on Eddie Kingston on the December 2 2023 Collision in the Blue League of the 2023 Continental Classic Tournament. Bryan, despite having surgery for his injured eye just weeks prior, managed to stand toe to toe with Kingston in a slugfest and eventually managed to put him away with a Busaiku Knee in an outstanding match.
• Bryan taking on Daniel Garcia on the December 8, 2023 Rampage in the Blue League of the 2023 Continental Classic Tournament. Garcia, desperate to avoid elimination in the tournament, shed his sports entertainer tendencies and reverted back to his original "Red Death" persona for this match. Garcia managed to hold his own on the mat with Danielson and even looked like he had the match well in hand at points. However, Garcia was unable to resist the urge to dance when he was in control and it resulted in The American Dragon hitting the Busaiku Knee and locking in the LeBell Lock to pick up the win in a great match.
• Bryan taking on Andrade El Idolo on the December 9, 2023 Collision in the Blue League of the 2023 Continental Classic Tournament. Danielson and El Idolo were having a great back and forth match when Bryan reinjured his eye following an errant headbutt. Andrade, desperate to break the deadlock at the top of the league standings, relentlessly targeted the eye. Bryan fought back valiantly but in the end succumbed to a hammerlock DDT to end his undefeated streak in the tournament.
• Bryan making his return to Ring of Honor after 14 years away teaming up with his Blackpool Combat Club teammates Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli to take on Mark Briscoe and FTR in a match to honor Jay Briscoe at Final Battle 2023. The match started as a very good six man tag that ended surprisingly with a double countout. Then, Mark Briscoe got on the mic and announced that the match will be restarted as a Fight Without Honor! The six men then proceeded to absolutely brutalize each other leading to Mark Briscoe shockingly pinning Danielson following a Jay Driller.
• Bryan taking on Brody King on the December 16, 2023 Collision in the Blue League of the Continental Classic Tournament. With this match taking place the day after the Final Battle match, Bryan was already fighting an uphill battle in this match and it was made even worse by Brody absolutely brutalizing Bryan's injured eye throughout the entirety of the match. Bryan managed to fight from underneath and upset the giant following four Busaiku Knees.
• Bryan taking on his Blackpool Combat Club teammate Claudio Castagnoli at AEW Holiday Bash 2023 in the Blue League of the Continental Classic Tournament. The match started off very respectfully as the two men exchanged holds on the mat. However, Claudio got increasingly desperate as he needed a win to advance in the tournament where as Bryan only needed a draw including going after Danielson's injured eye. In the end, Bryan managed to survive Claudio hitting him with a flurry of offense to secure a draw and advance in the tournament in a great match.
• Bryan taking on his old rival Eddie Kingston once again at AEW New Year's Smash 2023 in the Blue League Final of the Continental Classic Tournament. This time around, Bryan spent the whole match attacking Eddie's historically bad knee and trying to goad him into making a mistake with mind games. However, Kingston did not fall for it and managed to win a slugfest with Danielson and hit him with a folding powerbomb to beat Bryan for the first time ever and advance to the finals.
• Bryan having his long awaited rematch with Kazuchika Okada inside the Tokyo Dome at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom XVIII. Bryan went into this out for blood as he spent basically the entire match targeting Okada's arm and eye as revenge for him injuring Danielson's earlier. In the end though, Okada managed to survive Bryan's brutal attacks and hit a Landslide and a Rainmaker to put Danielson away in an incredible match that Dave Meltzer would give 5.25 stars.
• Bryan taking on CMLL's best technical wrestler, Hechicero, on the February 3, 2024 Collision. Danielson spent the whole match flummoxed by Hechicero's technical wizardry and was unable to get any sustained advantage in the match. Despite this, Bryan managed to sneak away with the win via a roll-up in an incredible match.
• Bryan having his long awaited rematch with Zack Sabre Jr after their technical wrestling master class at WrestleDream at NJPW New Beginning 2024. This was another technical wrestling master class that arguably even topped their previous encounter. In the end, ZSJ managed to overcome Bryan brutally attacking his knee to pick up the win via a roll-up in a match that Dave Meltzer once again gave 5.5 stars.
• Bryan taking on Eddie Kingston for the Continental Crown one more time at Revolution 2024. Bryan spent the whole match brutalizing Kingston's arm but in the end, Eddie managed to survive and hit a folding powerbomb to defeat Danielson again and finally earn The American Dragon's respect in an excellent match.
• Bryan taking on Katsuyori Shibata in a dream match no one thought was possible just a few years before on the Match 16, 2024 Collision. This was an extremely hard hitting encounter that only ended when Danielson managed to sneak a roll up on Shibata to steal the win.
• Bryan realizing his dream of wrestling in Arena Mexico when he teamed up with Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Matt Sydal to take on his wrestling idol Blue Panther, Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero and Volador Jr in an absolutely fantastic eight man tag at CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 2024.
• Bryan taking on his idol Blue Panther in an incredible match in Arena Mexico on the April 5, 2024 edition of CMLL Super Viernes which Danielson came out victorious in.
• On the day before his dream match with Will Ospreay, Bryan teamed up with his BCC teammate Claudio Castagnoli to take on Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher in a super fun Bunkhouse Brawl on the April 20, 2024 Collision.
• Bryan vs Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty was another instalment in Danielson's "dream match" tour that overdelivered the promise. Thirty-two minutes of pure insanity which had the crowd on their feet as hot as a furnace, even going so far as to chant "we're not worthy!", including an absolutely filthy busaiku knee counter to the Oscutter. By the time Ospreay got the pinfall after a beautiful Tiger Driver '91/Hidden Blade combo (which Bryan sold to high heaven like only he could), fans were arguing the match was a solid contender for the best match of all time.

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