He was the tag team champions. Why is that so hard to understand?
Seriously, I liked him from the indies -- he was, basically, MR. INDY GOES TO WWE -- but I didn't particularly care for his early work in WWE when there were people screaming "Make him American Dragon, he should be kicking people's f---ing heads in" and I'm thinking, "He's 5-foot-nothing and 175 pounds, NO, he should not be some kind of death ray who runs through the WWE roster."
It all changed in 18 seconds. The backlash to that, and the aftermath of putting him with Kane, got him over. His hardcore fans were indignant that he be treated like that. They rallied.
And WWE, accidentally or on purpose or through sheer, blind luck, put him with Kane and he actually showed some character development and personality. (Ironically, the thing his 'mentor' Miz tried to kayfabe impress on him in his NXT days.) That was the key to me. After Hell No, I had reason to buy into him as more than "Indy Wrestling Machine" and "Anti-Corporate-WWE figure."
The Authority angle took him from there and put him over. Yes, WWE was wrong -- they initially thought of him as Exhibit A in some series of talents that the Authority was going to bury to give them nuclear heat. And it did, but it didn't translate when they went down the line after Bryan and tried it with Big Show. Bryan got all the sympathy and the rest got no reaction.
It took them too long to figure out that he had something they couldn't understand, but without 18 Seconds and without The Authority branding him as B-Plus Player, he doesn't get his Yes-tleMania moment.
So it was sorta planned, sorta organic, sorta perfect storm for him to come along at the exact time people wanted someone to rally around as backlash to the direction of WWE. But it worked.
Sadly, in quick succession after his crowning moment, when he may or may not have been able to take the next step to being The Guy, he took off time for a honeymoon, his father died and then he was out injured (never really fully recovering).
To some degree he's James Dean or Jim Morrison or Jimi Hendrix -- they died young, so they weren't around long enough to become tiresome or do bad work that would tarnish their images. His career basically ended, for all intents and purposes, after WM30. So he went out on top, albeit delayed, and we'll forever think of him that way. Who knows what would have happened -- his rise or possible descent -- if he had stayed healthy. This way we'll remember him always for his best work and best moment on WWE's grandest stage.