Nick’s Quick Wits-Bryan’s Lucky Journey

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Daniel Bryan. He is a man who isn’t the typical superstar WWE wants to succeed, but he did, perhaps even more than even he imagined. Bryan’s journey is probably one of the luckiest ones in WWE history, and if you don’t mind, allow me to refresh you on that journey while sharing my thoughts.

Daniel Bryan-EC

Now, I have to start out by admitting that I have never seen any of Daniel Bryan’s matches from his days on the independent scenes, and don’t remember his Velocity matches. The first match I saw Bryan wrestle was his first match in NXT against Chris Jericho. It was blown away by his performance, and he became my favorite to win. His time in NXT was horrible, he lost all the time and was being portrayed as a joke. I was shocked because I could see after one match that he was good and would make it in WWE. Then, after NXT, he was fired. I didn’t quite understand that, while he did make a mistake, I didn’t feel he should have been fired over it. It looked like he would never have a chance to succeed in WWE.

That changed at SummerSlam 2010, he was the final member of Team Cena in the main event and was the last person eliminated from his team. The crowd was behind him big time despite the fact that he hadn’t had many high profile matches up to that point. This was followed up with a victory over The Miz for the United States Championship the following month. Bryan would hold that title for six months. He was bumped from WrestleMania 27’s main card to the pre-show and afterwards just floated around with no direction. It seemed like WWE had no idea what to do with him after he dropped the US title.

Fast forward to Money in the Bank 2011, it what was a surprise, Bryan won the Smackdown Money in the Bank ladder match. In December at TLC, he cashed in the contract and became the World Heavyweight Champion. That moment was the highlight of the show. He would then successfully defend the title all the way to WrestleMania 28, where he had up until that point, the biggest match of his career against Sheamus. Well, that match was 18 and an obvious attempt by WWE to bury Bryan. As it turns out, Bryan became one of the most popular superstars on the roster, with people chanting “Yes” all throughout Raw the next night, even when John Cena was in the ring. On that night, Daniel Bryan arrived in the main event scene in WWE, and proved that he belonged.

He spent the next year in feuds with CM Punk and Kane, eventually forming team Hell No with Kane. It was supposed to be a short term joke tag team, but they’re segments together were so good that the team ended up having an eight month tag team championship reign.

When Bryan was chosen to face John Cena at SummerSlam 2013, I marked out because being so bored with Cena, I wanted Bryan to beat him so bad and freshen up the WWE Championship picture. Well, Bryan did win that match, but lost the title to Orton immediately afterwards because WWE had some delusion idea that people cared about Orton and wanted him to be WWE Champion. That was Bryan’s moment, and he should have had a lengthy title run afterwards. To make things worse, Bryan lost the feud to Orton and afterwards was placed in a mid-card feud with the Wyatt Family to help get them over. That feud ended with Bryan losing to Bray Wyatt at the 2014 Royal Rumble. To add insult to injury, Bryan wasn’t in the Royal Rumble match that night. I was in attendance for that event, and I’ve never seen fans leave any show I’ve been to more upset than they were that night.

The fans had enough at this point. It was beyond insulting and downright disgusting that Bryan originally wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the main event of WrestleMania XXX. WWE can try to cover that up all they want, but it was confirmed by several people, including Bryan himself to be true. Luckily, WWE finally smartened up and Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXX. Anything else most likely would have resulted in a riot. Bryan had a WrestleMania moment that will be remembered forever.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTfUH5Ajjf8[/youtube]

One month later, Bryan had to undergo neck surgery. I was shocked and disappointed because this meant that he wasn’t going to have a legitimate run with the title. He had to surrender the title while he recovered. Unfortunately, he faced several setbacks and it became uncertain if he was even going to be able to return. On the last Raw of 2014, where I was legit thinking he was going to retire, Bryan announced he was coming back and would be in the 2015 Royal Rumble. It looked like WWE were going to fix their mistake from the previous year and have Bryan win the match. Of course, everyone should have known better. Bryan was eliminated in the middle of the match and we ended up with Reignswinslol.

Bryan did end up winning the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania, completing the grand slam of the current format, and became one of only three men to accomplish that feat. Big Show and Miz are the other two in case anybody was wondering. Once again, Bryan ends up injured at has to forfeit his newly won title. I’m convinced he either has post-concussion syndrome, or his neck wasn’t completely healed when he came back. He is currently on the shelf and isn’t uncertain when, or if, he will return.

Bryan is somebody that wasn’t supposed to succeed but did, and you can’t hate that story. I personally loved watching it. He didn’t wrestle to become famous, he wrestled because he loves it, which is why I am such a huge fan of his. I just wish he was given the respect and proper run at the top he deserves so much.

Until next time, keep the Yes Movement going strong,
-Nick

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