Daniel Bryan's 7 Most Memorable Moments.

Daniel Bryan, real name, Bryan Lloyd Danielson has achieved it all when it comes to Sports Entertainment. Trained by Shawn Michaels, Bryan has also wrestled in promotions like NJPW, ROH and PWG.

Someone whose wrestling ability is considered to be on the level of Dean Malenko, but also has innate charisma to get the entire crowd behind him as Stone Cold used to do.

A 5-time world champion, Intercontinental Champion, US champion, WWE Tag Team Champion, and a Money in the Bank winner. It doesn't just stop there. He main evented the 30th anniversary of WrestleMania and became the most popular superstar of the new era, despite initial predictions that the technical marvel would never succeed in the entertainment-based product that is the WWE.

Daniel Bryan is an all-time great when it comes to pro wrestling, and a future hall-of-famer, he was a part of many of the best stories and matches of the past decade, let's take a look at some of the greatest moments in his illustrious career.

#7: The arrival with Nexus

Daniel Bryan’s debut in WWE was actually quite appropriate looking back now- it was short-lived but memorable. Bryan debuted along with the rest of the NXT season one cast in the form of the Nexus.

Led by Wade Barrett, the group included current main-roster mainstays Darren Young, Skip Sheffield (Ryback), Heath Slater, and David Otunga, among others. Their debut was one of the most memorable in WWE history, as the group hit the ring on June 7, 2010, to interrupt the main event of Raw between John Cena and CM Punk, two men that Bryan would later join at the pinnacle of WWE, both as allies and rivals.

The rookies took out both men before destroying the ringside area, including taking out the announce teams and ringside attendants. Unfortunately, in the middle of the mayhem, Bryan was seen on camera choking former ring announcer Justin Roberts with his own tie. Since WWE is a PG brand, the move cost Bryan his job.

In the end, this may have been the best move possible for Bryan, as it set him apart from a Nexus group that would eventually falter. Bryan did have another memorable moment that night, though.

As the Nexus hit their individual finishers on John Cena, Bryan delivered his trademark kicks, screaming, “You’re not better than me!” at the face of the company. It was a move that seemed brash at the time but would take centre stage in the main event scene years later.

#6: Summerslam Return

With Bryan fired, the Nexus continued on a tear through the WWE for the next two months. They attacked babyfaces and heels with the same viciousness, constantly using the numbers game to their advantage. Nexus made many enemies during their time but remained primarily at odds with John Cena throughout their run as a faction.

As Summerslam approached in mid-August 2010, John Cena assembled a team of superstars who were at odds with the Nexus to take on the team of rookies in a traditional 7-on-7 match in the main event.

On Raw prior to the event, the Nexus took out Team WWE member The Great Khali, leaving a void in Cena’s army. U.S. Champion The Miz, Bryan’s Pro on NXT, offered his services but decided to wait until Summerslam itself to officially declare whether or not he would enter the match.

The decision would be taken out of his hands, though, as Cena and Team WWE reached out to a man from Nexus’ past, Daniel Bryan. The crowd erupted as The American Dragon returned, making his impact felt on the match, eliminating Darren Young with the LaBell Lock to start the match and being one of the last two members of WWE before The Miz interfered, knocking out the man who stole his spotlight and nearly costing Team WWE the match.

The match was the beginning of the end for the Nexus, as their momentum faltered after losing the Summerslam match to Cena in a booking decision that is still questioned to this day. While Nexus was beginning its descent, the story of Daniel Bryan was just beginning, as he would enter into a feud with his former mentor that would truly establish him as a WWE Superstar and a champion.

After Summerslam, Bryan was announced as a member of the Raw roster. He continued his feud with the Miz, leading to a U.S. Title match at Night of Champions. Despite having his new NXT rookie, Alex Riley, by his side, Miz was unable to overcome his former rookie.

Bryan forced The Miz to tap out to the LaBell Lock to win his first championship in WWE. Bryan would hold the title for 176 days, successfully defending against The Miz, John Morrison, and Ted DiBiase before losing the title to Sheamus on Raw.

The true highlight of his United States title run came at Bragging Rights 2010, where he had his first great match in WWE against IC Champion Dolph Ziggler in a Champion vs. Champion match, which Bryan won.

#5: Money In The Bank win and cash-in

Daniel Bryan win the World championship!

On July 2011, Bryan won the Money in the Bank briefcase, earning him a title shot within the next year. This was a huge moment, as it was the first time that WWE showed faith in Bryan to be more than an Indy-darling fan favourite in the middle of the card.

At that point, no one had ever cashed in Money in the Bank and failed to win the title, so this was the next best thing to actually putting the title on Bryan. The fans had already taken to Bryan by this point, but to see that the WWE brass did have some faith in Bryan to be the main event player only stoked the fire for Bryan’s fans, as it showed that their guy might actually get a shot in the land of the giants. Little did they know just how giant the main event scene would be when Bryan finally arrived.

After winning Money in the Bank, Bryan claimed that he would be the first man to cash in the title at Wrestlemania. After his big win, though, Bryan embarked on a worrisome cold streak, losing matches regularly on Television despite supposedly being primed for a World Title run because of the briefcase.

This caused many fans to worry that Bryan would become the first man to cash in the briefcase and lose, especially considering the World Heavyweight Champion at the time was Mark Henry, who was at the peak of his monster heel run.

Bryan, still a face at the time, began to toy with the idea of cashing in the title earlier than Wrestlemania, primarily at the urging of the number one contender to Henry’s title, The Big Show.

Bryan actually successfully cashed in on Henry after Big Show had knocked out the World’s Strongest Man, but the match was thrown out after Mark Henry was ruled medically unable to compete. The crowd’s reaction to Bryan’s near-win was electric, though, and had to give WWE’s decision makers added confidence in putting the title on the undersized Bryan.

At TLC, Bryan finally pulled the trigger successfully, taking the title off the newly crowned (and unconscious) Big Show before celebrating around the ring like John Cena finding a two-for-one jorts sale. Bryan would continue to win matches in fluky or underhanded ways and then celebrate like Kool and the Gang for weeks, slowly turning him heel (kind of).

These over the top celebrations would eventually lead to one of the most famous chants in WWE history. Daniel Bryan had finally made it further than many ever thought he would, reaching the top of the WWE mountain, but it would take him getting unceremoniously kicked off for his star to reach levels even he could have never expected.

#4: 18 Seconds to immortality

After his heel turn, Bryan held an interesting role with WWE fans. Despite his best efforts to fight it, the WWE universe still loved him. Sure, at times they loved to antagonize him, but he never really felt like much of a heel.

Whenever they chanted “YES,” Bryan would chant “NO,” and they would follow suit, going back and forth, with Bryan garnering bigger and bigger reactions, whether positive or negative.

Meanwhile, Sheamus won the 2012 Royal Rumble and set his sights on Bryan’s World Heavyweight Title. Sheamus was still relatively fresh as a face at this point, and the match had the potential to be a show-stealing classic, even on a card featuring CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho, Triple H vs. The Undertaker in Hell in a Cell, and John Cena vs. The Rock in the once in a lifetime (give or take) main event.

Bryan and Sheamus opened the show but were never given the opportunity to show what they could do, as Sheamus Brogue Kicked a distracted Bryan after he kissed then-girlfriend AJ Lee, ending the match and Bryan’s title reign in only 18 seconds.

The crowd, with hundreds of visible “YES” signs, was shocked. The rest of the show they would make their displeasure known, chanting for Daniel Bryan hours after his match had ended.

For as bad of a night as it seemed to be for Daniel Bryan, this was the beginning of the trend that would take him from being a top talent to being a transcendent superstar; the WWE Universe’s stubborn refusal to accept anything less than the best for their chosen hero.

Bryan would go on to feud with Sheamus for a few more months, showcasing great chemistry and the ability to deliver the match that fans were hoping for at Wrestlemania. With long-term plans for Sheamus as champion, Bryan continually came up just short, but would not find himself out of the main event for long.

Immediately after his feud with Sheamus ended, Bryan began a feud with WWE Champion CM Punk. The match-up was a dream match for fans, as both men had risen through the independent wrestling scenes, wrestled in gymnasiums for years, and now found themselves feuding for the top prize in the industry.

Punk at the time was claiming to be the Best in the World, and few were in a position to argue that point, but if there was a better man in the ring than Punk in 2012, it was Bryan.

The two shared in a series of classics, with both of their one-on-one PPV matches being rated over four stars by Dave Meltzer, including a 4.5 star classic at Over The Limit. Eventually, Bryan fell out of the Heavyweight Title picture, but he used it as an opportunity to showcase more of the personality that so greatly endeared him to the WWE Universe

#3: The Alliance with Kane to form Team Hell No!

Team Hell No and Dr Shelby hugging it out! — Team Hell No and

For most superstars, falling out of the main event and entering into a program with Kane is a bit of a problem. Kane is an excellent performer, but has been around so long and been a part of so many bad storylines that he just isn’t in demand anymore, so the fans treat him as such. When he and Daniel Bryan paired up, though, it was absolute magic.

Both were involved in some capacity with new Raw GM AJ Lee throughout their main event run, so Lee utilized her newfound authority to punish both men for their treatment of her, sending them to an anger management class.

These skits could have easily been terrible, another failure in a long line of out-there angles with Kane, but Bryan and Kane, along with a solid supporting cast, delivered some of the most entertaining segments in RAW history.

Between their sessions with Dr Shelby, their famed segment “Hug it Out” segment, or their unorthodox budding friendship, they were both consistently great throughout their run together.

Their chemistry was so great that WWE decided to put the tag titles on them and give them a lengthy tag team run. They were also one of few teams that were effectively funny without letting it ruin their credibility as performers.

Despite their bickering over which of them was the true tag team champions, both still looked like legitimate main eventers, especially as they became central figures opposing the Shield.

As soon as the Shield debuted, they found themselves at odds with Team Hell No, with their debut TLC match alongside Ryback being an unquestioned success. The Shield and Team Hell No would continue to feud for months, with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins winning the tag titles from the odd couple of WWE.

After Wrestlemania, their feud added another famous tag partner of the Devil’s Favorite Demon, The Undertaker. Seeing Bryan stand alongside the Brothers of Destruction against the Shield was a sight to behold, as the past, present, and future of the business all shared the ring.

Eventually, Bryan began to view himself as the weak link and sought to prove himself as a legitimate main event talent, and in doing so catapulted himself into the stratosphere.

#2: The start of "The Yes Movement!"

Daniel Bryan and the crowd doing the Yes! chants in Unison!

After striking out on his own, support for Bryan swelled.

As Summerslam approached, Bryan found himself as the most over superstar in the company, and WWE could no longer ignore it. With John Cena as the WWE Champion, but also facing a serious injury, WWE needed to find a new face to carry the company in Cena’s absence. The WWE universe gave them no choice in who would be that man.

Cena chose Bryan to face him at Summerslam to a thunderous ovation, and the two traded barbs for weeks, bringing back memories of Bryan’s debut, shouting in Cena’s face that despite not being the prototypical WWE Superstar, Daniel Bryan was every bit the star John Cena was. The two put on another classic at Summerslam, with Bryan defeating Cena cleanly to become WWE Champion.

The moment wouldn’t last, as Randy Orton capitalized on Triple H’s betrayal of Daniel Bryan to cash in his Money in The Bank briefcase. In the eyes of the fans, though, Daniel Bryan was their guy, and nothing WWE could do would change that.

Over the next several months, Daniel Bryan was continually screwed out of the title by the Authority, and when numbers revealed that Summerslam had been a financial flop, Bryan eventually was removed from the title scene, much to the dismay of his rabid fan base, who began ruining segments by overwhelmingly chanting for their hero.

Bryan moved into a feud with Bray Wyatt and his Family, memorably joining them for a few weeks before turning on Wyatt inside a steel cage to one of the most spine-chilling crowd reactions of all time. The two had a classic match at the Royal Rumble, with Bryan coming up short, and the stage was set for a historic Road to Wrestlemania.

#1: "The Miracle on Bourbon Street"

With the fans now in a frenzy over Bryan, the Royal Rumble match began as planned, and for the most part, went just fine. Fans were excited over Roman Reigns’ rampage, breaking Kane’s single Rumble elimination mark, including eliminating his Shield brothers.

As the match built, though, fans made it abundantly clear that they were not interested in the match ending in any way other than Daniel Bryan leading a Yes! chant after winning the Rumble.

As number 30 approached, the tension was incredibly high, with the crowd ready to either explode into cheers at Daniel Bryan’s entrance, or riot at the sound of anyone else’s. That unfortunate soul was Rey Mysterio. A man who had never spent a day in WWE as a heel was showered in boos and the night only got worse after Batista finally won the Rumble.

In the following weeks, WWE pressed forward with the planned Batista-Randy Orton title match and after a sudden exit from CM Punk, planned for Daniel Bryan to face Triple H. The fans, though, refused to accept this, and actually managed to force WWE into changing their plans.

In the memorable “Occupy Raw” segment, Bryan and his fans overtook the ring, forcing to not let the show continue until Bryan was placed in the title match, resulting in Bryan vs. Triple H, with the winner going on to join the WWE World Heavyweight Title match.

Bryan, as he always has, overcame the odds and did so with two classic matches, beating Triple H in the opening match, and outlasting Orton and Batista in the main event in one of the most crowd-pleasing Wrestlemania moments of All-Time.

This was supposed to only mark the beginning of the Daniel Bryan era, but it would, unfortunately, be the pinnacle in the story of the underdog who overcame everything to achieve his dream.

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