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What was so good about Daniel Bryan?

13K views 176 replies 110 participants last post by  yeahbaby! 
#1 ·
Not trolling or trying to diminish DB.

I just never really understood his appeal.

Is it the underdog thing?

His in ring skills are good, but his mic skills and overall image are just "meh" to me.

What was it that drew people into DB?
 
#3 ·
What was so good about Rickie Steamboat?

What is so good about Bayley?

What is so good about Sami Zayn?

Likeability.
 
#17 ·
– One of the two, three greatest north american in ring performers of all time.

- Surefire hall of famer

– The only guy in the past 15 years who connected with crowds on a similar level like Rock and Austin.

- Natural charisma through the roof. People talk about the "it factor". Bryan embodies that.

- Very underrated promo. Had the audience in the palm of his hands each and every time. His retirement speech has to be up there with the greatest promos in wrestling history.

- Was the most important figure in the rise of ROH, changed the mainstream style of pro wrestling substantially and with CM Punk paved the way for cruiser weight sized "indy talent".

- The single most likeable guy in wrestling ever.

- A true genius in every sense of the word. Managed to get the fucking small package over as a killer move. Think about that.
 
#80 ·
Can you believe that? You would expect something like that from me!

There's not much to discredit with Bryan. Everything happened at the right time for him to get really over. CM Punk leaving after WM 29 helped a lot. Because once he left the hardcore fans needed someone new to get behind, and boy did they ever.
 
#29 ·
There are some Bryan fans who liked him because he was small and could work. There's others who just liked to chant yes. Here's why the hardcore fans liked Bryan: His passion for wrestling matched his hardcore fans' passion for wrestling. It was completely organic and natural. A lot of wrestlers talk about how much they care for wrestling, but it's just talk and hardcore fans can see through that. Everything about Bryan and his obsession with wrestling was real. He was the kind of guy you could talk Indy wrestling or any form of wrestling with for hours and he would be just as excited about it as you. He wasn't stuck in the WWE bubble like a lot of wrestlers. In many ways Bryan was like a WF or IWC member who made it big.
 
#14 ·
Bryan Danielson was one of the best, if not the best wrestlers in the world for the past 10+ years. I've seen him wrestle in front of 100 people at the Rostraver Ice Gardens outside of Pittsburgh for ROH, and watched him wrestle in front of 70,000 people at WrestleMania on TV. He had "it", and you cant teach that.
 
#23 ·
He was obviously a fantastic ring worker. But, and this may be even more important, he spoke from the heart. He wasn't the best mic worker, but that didn't matter, because you could just tell with every word he spoke that he absolutely loved what he did. Probably more so than any other person to step foot in the squared circle. He was an everyman, and yet he had this energy to him that only one in a thousand people have.

Simply put, pro wrestling never felt more "real" to me than when Daniel Bryan was in a wrestling ring.
 
#31 ·
He was obviously a fantastic ring worker. But, and this may be even more important, he spoke from the heart. He wasn't the best mic worker, but that didn't matter, because you could just tell with every word he spoke that he absolutely loved what he did. Probably more so than any other person to step foot in the squared circle. He was an everyman, and yet he had this energy to him that only one in a thousand people have.

Simply put, pro wrestling never felt more "real" to me than when Daniel Bryan was in a wrestling ring.
No diss, but how old are you?

Those are some BIG statements
 
#43 · (Edited)
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.
 
#16 ·
I could just never get into the whole "YES!" movement. I never felt it like so deeply like everyone else did. I have never pointed my hands in the air to join in.

Its crazy because till this day, I still sing along with "IF YA SMEEEEELLLLL....", "And thats the bottom line....", "I am the best there is, the best there was...."

Like I said, Im not knocking DB, I just never really saw his appeal beyond the whole underdog thing.
 
#101 ·
Yeah, I think that's some truth to that. Although, I'd argue with every big wrestling star, there is definitely an element of 'right place, right time'.
 
#38 ·
I love how the people who try to claim he wasn't a good promo only ever talk about his 2014 YES face promos. They never mention his 2012 heel run, or his hilarious Hell No run, or the Dazzler promos he did for youtube, or hell the promo he cut in NXT on Michael Cole back in 2010.

They cherrypick a few bland face promos and act as though that's the sum of him. His retirement speech alone should convince you he was a good promo, from the gamut of emotions it ran through and how it controlled the crowd.
 
#66 ·
Well A. he has been an outstanding ring performer with aggressive fire and with energy vs a sea of different opponents (sometimes a solid or even great match vs a very limited opponent) who is a rare guy who in transitioning his technical, mat based with mma elements and aggression in the indies to his high energy, firey comeback consensed WWE self still remained arguably the best singles wrestler in the world on fire particularly in 2013 whereas in the Indies, there was definately a period particularly 07 where there really wasn't an argument to him not being BITW. That is damn impressive. Then, factor in that the only person post Rock/Austin who has come remotely close to the level of overness/fan connection Bryan achieved is Eddie Guerrero, who is an all time all around talent and there you have it. Not many have accomplished the feats I mentioned.
 
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#68 ·
It was a mixture of fantastic wrestling ability (He's one of the best technical wrestlers in the world), his underdog gimmick which made perfect sense for a man of his stature, and his natural ability to be able to connect with the fans, he's relatable, had loads of charisma and most importantly... his trait of being a genuine likeable, pure babyface which is VERY rare in the WWE these days. To have a man with his talent and personality be so good as a wrestler to boot, it leads to a guy being as over as he is.
 
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#87 ·
I can't believe people are trying to underplay Daniel Bryan's career.

In four years, Daniel Bryan won every active men's title in the WWE. He won Money in the Bank. He main-evented Wrestlemania 30. Despite John Cena, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, HHH, etc as competitors around him, he became the undisputed most-loved star in the company for a huge period of time. His popularity literally forced WWE to change creative plans for what they had envisioned as the biggest Wrestlemania main-event of all time.

If you think that none of these things qualify Bryan for the HOF, then by your own metric the HOF would be empty. GTFO.
 
#103 ·
I never really saw it in him either. Sure, good worker, pretty good talker, etc. To me, it's as if Chris Benoit (the wrestler of course) had more charisma. To me, Bryan was more of an upper mid-card guy, essentially like the B+ that The Authority would say he was storyline-wise.

I'm surprised WWE did so much hoopla for him last night. He was around for like four years, and a true main eventer for like one of them at most.
 
#107 ·
I'm not even trying to troll, but this is my opinion, if you guys don't like it that's your problem. I've never liked him. He does absolutely nothing for me. I find him to be mediocre at best in the ring and below average on the microphone. His matches weren't interesting to me and I don't like comedy acts so I didn't care when he was teaming with Kane. I don't like the underdog gimmick. It's overplayed in every aspect of entertainment. I much preferred CM Punk's "BEST IN THE WORLD" gimmick. I don't want the underdog to win. I want the guy that SAYS hes the BEST to win. I've been watching RAW the past few weeks because of AJ Styles. After his segment I simply turned the TV off. Didn't care about the whole retirement thing.

It sucks for his fans. I was upset with CM Punk "retired," I was very upset when Chris Benoit died, but I think this guy is vastly over rated. Right up there with Shawn Michaels. They weren't even the best in their own generation.
 
#115 ·
I'm not even trying to troll, but this is my opinion, if you guys don't like it that's your problem. I've never liked him. He does absolutely nothing for me. I find him to be mediocre at best in the ring and below average on the microphone. His matches weren't interesting to me and I don't like comedy acts so I didn't care when he was teaming with Kane. I don't like the underdog gimmick. It's overplayed in every aspect of entertainment. I much preferred CM Punk's "BEST IN THE WORLD" gimmick. I don't want the underdog to win. I want the guy that SAYS hes the BEST to win. I've been watching RAW the past few weeks because of AJ Styles. After his segment I simply turned the TV off. Didn't care about the whole retirement thing.

It sucks for his fans. I was upset with CM Punk "retired," I was very upset when Chris Benoit died, but I think this guy is vastly over rated. Right up there with Shawn Michaels. They weren't even the best in their own generation.
You had me hooked until I got here.

I cant even....

Besides that, honest post.
 
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