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Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson Appreciation.


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Cesaro on Daniel Bryan:

  • TalkSport has an interview with Cesaro. Cesaro discussed Daniel Bryan's influence on him and the locker room: "Daniel Bryan is incredible to have around the locker room. I think I speak for everyone when I say he’s one of those guys that you want to have around. He’s so smart and so good that he makes everybody better because they have to step up their game. And that’s what I would like to be. He’s been around -- I mean, I’ve known him forever, almost 15 years -- his ability to create momentum is second to none. We were heading into WrestleMania and people were like ‘oh, he’s losing, he’s losing momentum’ -- no he didn’t. He just turns it around like that [clicks his fingers]. He switches momentum and now he’s facing Roman Reigns – as he should – at Fastlane. So it’s great to have him around and to me, having the support of somebody like Daniel Bryan, you don’t just get it over night. You have to prove yourself night after night after night. So it may take a while to get there with Bryan, but it’s well worth it."
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My updated top 20 Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan matches when you can easily do a top 30 or 40 with the body of work by the American Dragon:

20. Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles. WWE Smackdown Live, 13th November 2018. ****1/2.

19. Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz. WWE SummerSlam 2018. ****1/2.

18. Bryan Danielson vs. Low-Ki. ROH Round Robin Challenge 2002. ****1/2.

17. Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton. WWE RAW, 24th June 2013. ****1/2.

16. Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar. WWE Survivor Series 2018. ****1/2.

15. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H. WWE WrestleMania XXX. ****1/2.

14. Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk. WWE Over The Limit 2012. ****1/2.

13. Daniel Bryan vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Kane vs. Sheamus vs. Heath Slater vs. Justin Gabriel vs. Sin Cara. WWE Money in the Bank 2011. ****1/2.

12. Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong. ROH Vendetta 2005. ****1/2.

11. AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan. WWE Smackdown Live, 6th June 2020. ****3/4.

10. The New Daniel Bryan vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Jeff Hardy. WWE Elimination Chamber 2019. ****3/4.

9. Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. WWE Extreme Rules 2012. ****3/4.

8. Daniel Bryan vs. Antonio Cesaro. WWE RAW, 22nd July 2013. ****3/4.

7. Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista. WWE WrestleMania XXX. *****.

6. Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA. ROH Glory by Honor V: Night Two, 2005. *****.

5. The New Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles. WWE TLC 2019. *****.

4. Team Hell No/Ryback vs. The Shield. WWE TLC 2012. *****.

3. Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima. ROH Manhattan Mayhem II 2007. *****.

2. Bryan Danielson/Samoa Joe/Adam Peace/BJ Whitmer/Homicide vs. Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston/Nate Webb. ROH Death Before Dishonor IV. *****.

1. Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena. WWE SummerSlam 2013. *****.

Edited by The Natural
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18 hours ago, Spontaneous said:

@The Natural, no love for the unification match with Nigel McGuinness or their Driven rematch?

Hi, @Spontaneous.

The unification match with Nigel McGuinness was on my list but I can't look past THAT spot with the ring post. Felt that way back in 2006 and probably even more so now with what happened to both. It's a match I'm in the minority on. I need to watch the Driven match back. I occasionally get names of shows mixed up as in the ROH PPV era weren't some taped and named differently or am I misremembering?

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Yes, the Driven match was filmed at I think Domination. I think it was originally promoted as McGuinness vs a mystery opponent of Larry Sweeney's choice. Meanwhile Danielson faced Kenta at the actual Driven show and it was a bonus on the DVD.

The Driven match also has a hideous headbutt spot. So does their last match in 09. I completely understand and expected that would be the reasoning for the exclusion.

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On 3/21/2021 at 3:07 PM, Spontaneous said:

Yes, the Driven match was filmed at I think Domination. I think it was originally promoted as McGuinness vs a mystery opponent of Larry Sweeney's choice. Meanwhile Danielson faced Kenta at the actual Driven show and it was a bonus on the DVD.

The Driven match also has a hideous headbutt spot. So does their last match in 09. I completely understand and expected that would be the reasoning for the exclusion.

Thanks for confirming that the Driven 2007 match was filmed on a different show. I thought said match had another headbutt spot because Bryan Danielson said in his autobiography that it aired shortly after the Chris Benoit double murder suicide in June 2007. Danielson and Gabe Sapolsky regretted that it went out. I couldn't look past the headbutt spots when I first watched them and possibly more since then as it's stupid, the effects on both wrestlers and what we know about head trauma. Thanks for understanding why I excluded them.

Edited by The Natural
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  • In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Daniel Bryan spoke about his Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at tomorrow’s Fastlane PPV: “I haven’t been in the main event of a pay-per-view for over two years. I’m going to go out there and do what I know I can do and do what I love doing. I don’t know if WWE likes this term, but it’s going to be a violent professional wrestling match. This is two guys that think they’re the best, competing for the top championship in the entire world of professional wrestling, putting it all on the line to see who truly is the best.”
  • Bleacher Report also has an interview with Bryan. Bryan named Kazuchika Okada, Shingo Takagi, Jungle Boy, MJF, Darby Allin, Jonathan Gresham, Kushida, Kyle O’Reilly, Finn Balor, Johnny Gargano, and Bailey Matthews (the son of William Regal) as people he’d like to face who aren’t part of WWE or aren’t part of the WWE main roster. Bryan also mentioned wanting to have one-on-one matches against Gran Metalik, Riddle, Ricochet, and Keith Lee.
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Wait, Regal's kid is going under the name Bailey Matthews?! WWE doesn't even care about second or third generation cred unless your name is Flair anymore, do they? They just decide on a title from a random name generator that puts together a first and last name that should probably both be a last name. 

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  • Daniel Bryan expressed interest in wrestling William Regal’s son Bailey Matthews, who has recently started in NXT UK. “If I could do a match ten years from now, and this is assuming that I’m still capable of doing it and that he progresses to a level like that, one of the things that I think would be really cool… William Regal’s son, Bailey Matthews,” he told Talksport when asked who he would like to wrestle in the future. “He just recently started on NXT UK. For his experience level, he’s doing really well.I loved being able to wrestle William Regal the times that I did in WWE, but I’m not sure people know how much he has affected my career. He has affected it so much. What he’s given to me and he’s never asked for anything from me.”

The love shared between Bryan Danielson and William Regal.

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  • Daniel Bryan spoke to TalkSport about his behind-the-scenes role as part of WWE creative:“It’s interesting because, one, I don’t have that big of a say [laughs]. Sometimes something really great will happen on SmackDown and somebody will say ‘oh, that’s Daniel Bryan!’ Like, that’s not me! One part is our performers -- we have incredible superstars. Cesaro is a no-brainer. When you say ‘Daniel Bryan helped Cesaro’ -- no. All I did was ‘hey this guy is really good. We should put him on TV and use him!’ [laughs]. Apollo Crews, I don’t have anything to do with Apollo Crews stuff. He’s just great. But it is rewarding to see people that you know are talented get opportunities and knock it out of the park. There’s a certain joy to that. William Regal has been my mentor in wrestling for years and one of the things he has told me is that being a mentor to a handful of people has been more rewarding than the actual wrestling. He said don’t get me wrong, he loved the wrestling part and wishes he could still do it, but being a mentor is very fulfilling. So yeah, there is something to that, the idea of helping people and from a human perspective we all want that. For a long time, when you’re young you’re like ‘I want to achieve this, I want to achieve this!’ but as you get older it’s ‘I want to help here, I want to help here’ and it’s just a different perspective.”
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I really hope Bryan gets to do a little tour of the company before he retires - where he gets to face all the people he's said he wants to wrestle. Gran Metalik, Tyler Bate, WALTER, Bailey Matthews, etc. That'd really be something and the perfect way for him to go out. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Updated top 20 of Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan. Might expand it to 30 or possibly 40 because there's so many great matches of his. What a back catalogue! 

20. Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz. WWE SummerSlam 2018. ****1/2.

19. Bryan Danielson vs. Low-Ki. ROH Round Robin Challenge 2002. ****1/2.

18. Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton. WWE RAW, 24th June 2013. ****1/2.

17. Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar. WWE Survivor Series 2018. ****1/2.

16. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H. WWE WrestleMania XXX. ****1/2.

15. Daniel Bryan vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Kane vs. Sheamus vs. Heath Slater vs. Justin Gabriel vs. Sin Cara. WWE Money in the Bank 2011. ****1/2.

14. Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk. WWE Over The Limit 2012. ****1/2.

13. Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong. ROH Vendetta 2005. ****1/2.

12. AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan. WWE Smackdown Live, 6th June 2020. ****3/4. My 2020 WWE MOTY.

11. Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan. WWE Smackdown Live, 30th April 2021. ****3/4. Currently my WWE MOTY.

10. The New Daniel Bryan vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Jeff Hardy. WWE Elimination Chamber 2019. ****3/4.

9. Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. WWE Extreme Rules 2012. ****3/4.

8. Daniel Bryan vs. Antonio Cesaro. WWE RAW, 22nd July 2013. ****3/4.

7. Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista. WWE WrestleMania XXX. *****.

6. Daniel Bryan/Kane/Ryback vs. Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns. WWE TLC 2012. *****.

5. Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA. ROH Glory by Honor V: Night Two, 2006. *****.

4. Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima. ROH Manhattan Mayhem II 2007. *****. My worldwide 2007 MOTY.

3. The New Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles. WWE TLC 2019. *****.

2. Bryan Danielson/Samoa Joe/Adam Peace/BJ Whitmer/Homicide vs. Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston/Nate Webb. ROH Death Before Dishonor IV. *****. My worldwide MOTY for 2006.

1. Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena. WWE SummerSlam 2013. *****. My worldwide 2013 MOTY.

Edited by The Natural
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12 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

The Cage of Death? Didn't he just walk out on the match? Does that even count then?

Fair questions. I still had to include the match as it's brilliant in its own right and what Bryan Danielson does in his brief part. Less is more. It's a precursor to his WWE hot tags and how he takes out Samoa Joe, his next challenger for his Ring of Honor World Championship. That's his priority, then ROH. Bonus marks for Bryan giving a middle finger to Jim Cornette as he left the Cage of Death.

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Ummm....do I even need to say what I'm thinking about this?  Holy fucking shit dude.  I'm pretty sure I saw an interview where he said it expired in September.  But sure enough he's in the alumni section.  Wow.

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