Bryan Danielson: Difference between revisions

 

 

Danielson is frequently regarded by wrestling critics as one of the best overall professional wrestlers in the world today, having won the Wrestling Observer's "Best Technical Wrestler" and "Most Outstanding Wrestler" awards several times. He was trained by a who's who of wrestling, including certified legend [[Shawn Michaels]]; former WWE Intercontinental Champion [[William Regal]] once said that the greatest accomplishment of his career was having a hand in Danielson's training.

 

Per usual, [[That Other Wiki]] has a rundown on his life and career.

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* [[Accidentally Accurate]]: His reason for not calling his finisher the LeBell Lock: "Who did Gene LeBell ever beat anyway?" As a pro wrestler, no one really. While LeBell is one of the toughest men alive and revered as a martial artist and as a trainer, he was a preliminary worker during his pro wrestling career.

* [[Acquired Situational Narcissism]]: Since become World Heavyweight Champion, he's progressively gained more and more of this each week.

** He did this in ROH as well.

* [[Adorkable]]: His first WWE gimmick was that he's a quirky, awkward, good-natured guy...[[Beware the Nice Ones|who just happened to be able to make anyone on the roster tap out]], and had the hottest women on the show fawning over him.

** In the WWE, [[The Miz]] and [[Michael Cole]].

*** On Smackdown, you could probably put [[Cody Rhodes]] and [[The Nexus|Wade Barrett]] here too.

** And by "better", we mean "[[Determinator|good enough to keep wrestling on]]". That's strength of character right there.

* [[Badass]]: One of the biggest in the industry.

** [[Badass Longcoat]]: His scarlet boxing style entrance coat, which he of course [[The Coats Are Off|removes]] before a fight.

* [[Bastard Boyfriend]]: Of the Unconflicted variety towards AJ ever since turning heel.

* [[Beard of Evil]]: With his heel turn.

* [[Beard of Sorrow]]: During his first ROH feud with Homicide, Danielson grew his [[Fan Nickname|Hobo Beard]]. During this time, he also came to the ring to a remix of [[Crowning Music of Awesome|The Imperial March]].

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: After being fired from the WWE for his actions, Bryan was kayfabe exiled from the Nexus for "showing remorse". Two months later, he's rehired...and made the 7th man for Team WWE against The Nexus. [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|Cue markout]].

* [[Big Yes|Big YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!]]: How Bryan celebrated his victories during his run as World Heavyweight Champion, whether he earned it or won by sheer luck.

*** He wasn't going to, but certain events, such as being [[Mark Henry]]'s punching bag for a few weeks, made him realize that he might not be healthy enough for [[Wrestlemania]] and took the first opportunity he got to cash it in.

* [[Blessed with Suck]]: After winning The Money in the Bank briefcase, he began to lose more matches than winning them. He got better.

** Topped with WrestleMania starting with Daniel Bryan chants and the next night's RAW ending with them.

* [[Borrowed Catchphrase]]: [http://www.gq.com/entertainment/tv/blogs/the-stream/2012/04/daniel-bryan-on-wrestlemania-his-history-with-the-wwe-and-being-a-vegan-pro-wrestler.html In an interview for GQ] admitted that he got the idea for YES chants from [[UFC]] fighter Diego Sanchez.

* [[Breakup Breakout]]: [[Wade Barrett]] has done well, but his push has been derailed due to injury. As of now, Bryan is the only member of the original Nexus lineup (Bryan, Barrett, Slater, Gabriel, Otunga, Sheffield, Young) to win a world title. Most of the others have been shipped back to FCW or are floundering around in the midcard.

* [[Bullying a Dragon]]: Spent a week or two leading up to the Rumble antagonizing [[The Big Show]], who was already somewhat irritated with Bryan in the first place. Then he bitch-slaps him on live [[WWE Smackdown|(sorta)]] television. Not the best course of action when the guy you're slapping around is well north of 400 pounds and gets to fight you in a steel cage over the weekend.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: While he will manage to crush anyone at a PPV, he's not as successful on ''Raw''. He lost to Michael Tarver immediately after his return to the WWE (mostly due to [[The Miz]]'s interference), and was absolutely destroyed by Sheamus which many claimed destroyed his credibility (Sheamus jumped him before the match and was eventually disqualified for repeatedly kneeing DBD's head at the ropes), then lost ''again'' to Sheamus (although he did [[Underestimating Badassery|scare the hell out of Sheamus this time around]]). He's been getting better about it recently, though, ever since his feud with Dolph Ziggler, and most recently he had a great match with former World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger and won.

** Also, he lost to [[Alberto Del Rio]] in the first round of the 2010 King of the Ring.

** Even as World Champ, he was not immune to this, as ''WrestleMania 28'' proved.

** "I have until five, ref!"

** During NXT, he (and people talking about him) were throwing around "You tap, or you snap!", a holdover from his time in the independent leagues.

*** However, since [[Michael Cole]] (repeatedly) got it wrong, it was dropped in short order.

'''Brie & Nikki''': Uh, nooo. }}

* [[Cheap Heat]]: He is so over right now that he is using this in his promos to get crowds to boo him.

** WWE remembers, Heath Slater mentioned Bryan's brief stint in Nexus on the July 22, 2011 episode of Smackdown. Wade Barrett also repeatedly brings it up whenever Bryan is mentioned around him.

** Hilariously enough, this applies even when he returned in season 4 of NXT. The commentators were talking about how much he's earned his spot as a Pro, about coming full circle, etc etc etc and otherwise talking as if he'd been in WWE for a very long time. Though it neglects his stint in Nexus and such, it's more hilarious that - due to the way NXT tapes - he returned to NXT within months of him leaving it!

** On a darker side, his finishing move (the LeBell/YES! Lock) is very similar to the Crippler Crossface. And as the WWE has struck Benoit from the history books, some of the commentary can be very much full of retcons in regards to the move.

* [[Couch Gag]]: As ROH World Champion, Danielson would constantly force ring announcer Bobby Cruise to introduce him with a different outrageous superlative, such as "the best wrestler in the entire world, with an emphasis on entire world," "the best champion in ROH history," "the best wrestler to ever step foot in the ECW Arena," "really too good to wrestle in front of all these pricks," and "even better than [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]]."

** Inverted by his mentorship of NXT rookie Derrick Bateman in that while Bryan is the humble technician, Bateman is a [[Large Ham]] [[Cloudcuckoolander]] performer who can't even be taught a simple heel hook without slipping off into his own little world about how he's doing "SUBMISSION WREST-LING!" while Bryan plays the frustrated straight man. Surely, many a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] will come from this.

* [[Professional Wrestling/Awesome Music|Crowning Music of Awesome]]: He went from Europe's "The Final Countdown" to a really generic hard rock riff...to [[Richard Wagner]]'s '''"[[Ride of the Valkyries]]"'''!

** As to "The Final Countdown", here's how awesome it was. At ROH's "The Chicago Spectacular" in 2006, a heel Danielson was scheduled to defend his world title against Homicide later that month. Homicide had a match against Brent Albright on that particular night, which ended when Albright locked a crowbar submission hold onto Homicide and would not release it even after Homicide grabbed the ropes. Albright was obviously not interested in winning the match so much as he was in injuring Homicide, but why? The reason was revealed very quickly: as Albright was walking to the back, Danielson walked out to meet him and, with a smug grin on his face, gave Albright a big handful of cash. This garnered Danielson tremendous heat from an crowd that was already hostile to him, starting up a loud "FUCK YOU DRAGON!" chant. With that match over, the show moved on, until it was time for the main event: a steel cage match in which Danielson would defend his title against Homicide's friend [[Samoa Joe]]. As much as this crowd wanted to see Joe destroy Danielson, as firmly against him as they were, they ''still'' sang along with "The Final Countdown" during Dragon's entrance.

** He's using "Ride of The Valkyries" again...but now it's '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R50LCqCr5_0 FUCKING METAL]'''.

* [[Determinator]]: Both in and out of character. He defended the ROH World Championship for three months with a separated shoulder just so that he could finish the build to Homicide's championship win.

** Wrestling with a broken eye socket. Enough said.

** Not just a broken eye socket, ''[[Eye Scream|a detached retina]]''.

* [[Distaff Counterpart]]: Sara Del Rey. They trained together, use some of the same moves (Le Bell Lock, Royal Butterfly), and have used the same entrance music ("The Final Countdown", "[[Ride of the Valkyries]]")

** He and his current on-screen girlfriend AJ Lee. Both considered very much members of geek culture, both fairly easily among the smaller yet more talented of their peers, both with at least a decent amount of indy success in their time pre-WWE.

* [[Everyone Has Standards]]: [[Driven to Suicide| Someone trying to take their own life]] in front of him… that’s where he DRAWS THE LINE… just ask AJ.

* [[Face]]: [[Bryan Danielson]] started off as a heel during his ROH championship run, but he was so awesome the crowd never stopped cheering for him. In the WWE, he spat in [[John Cena]]'s face and declared war on the WWE as a member of the Nexus, but unfortunately was released around that time. The WWE brought him back the moment they could, and they of course brought him back as a face because they figured crowd would probably never boo the guy after that.

* [[Fan Nickname]]: Because of his new name in the WWE, (it's easier to market people when their names have fewer syllables) many people have started calling him Daniel Bryan Danielson, or "DBD," to avoid confusion.

** When Danielson was first signed in WWE, speculaion on what his WWE ring name would be led to to the creation of "Dirk Dickbutt".

** D Bryan Danielson

* [[Finishing Move]]: He primarily uses a submission hold called the Cattle Mutilation, but he's also known as "Mr. Small Package" for his tendency to use small package pins to win matches.

** He also had multiple finishing moves that involved holding the opponent down and elbowing or stomping their face in.

** [[Five Moves of Doom]]: Although he has a nearly unlimited moveset, many of his later ROH matches had a final stretch in which Danielson would use several of his potential finishers in sequence - the Cattle Mutilation, the Crossface Chickenwing, the MMA elbows, "You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in," and the triangle choke in some order or another.

* [[Follow the Leader]]: Averted; Michael Cole called him out into believing he'd cash in Money in the Bank just like almost<ref> except Kennedy and Rob Van Dam</ref> every winner before him. Danielson replies that he's going to be cashing it at Wrestlemania 28. {{spoiler|Cole was right.}}

* [[Geeky Turn On]]: He gets quite excited after watching Gail Kim do some submission holds.

** Then on the 1/13/12 show, he manipulated his new girlfriend AJ (who confessed her love for him that VERY night) into taking a nasty looking hit from Big Show, taking advantage of the latter's [[Heroic BSOD]] to have the match called off, while likely getting Show off of his back for good. Dick move Daniel... dick move.

* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]: As ROH World Champion, whether Danielson was a face or heel depended entirely on who he was wrestling and where. He always wrestled heel in Chicago, notably against Roderick Strong and Colt Cabana; he wrestled Nigel McGuinness twice as a face, and then as a heel when they wrestled in Britain; he wrestled face against Chris Hero and Sonjay Dutt; and he was always unquestionably a heel when wrestling Homicide. After that, he remained a face - and like [[Ric Flair]], his heel mannerisms became face mannerisms due to how integral they had become to his character.

** Now we can add AJ Lee to the list as well.

*** Does anyone else get that vibe that he and AJ Lee are channeling Macho Man [[Randy Savage]] and Miss Elizabeth?

* [[Hypocrite]]: [[Michael Cole|Cole]] calls out Bryan on the 11/28/2011 Raw for cashing in his MITB briefcase against a KO'd Mark Henry far before his promised match at WM 28. Bryan admits that, yes, he's a hypocrite for doing it, but considering that [[Ax Crazy|Henry]] had been pretty much been trying to [[Kick the Dog|end Bryan's career on a weekly basis]], [[The Dog Bites Back|plans change]]...

** But now that he has cashed it in successfully and won the World Heavyweight Championship, [[Alternative Character Interpretation|is]] [[Michael Cole|Cole]] [[Cue the Flying Pigs|right?]]

* [[I Thought It Meant]]: Somehow the Bella Twins confused "virgin" with "vegan." Cue the [[IWC]] declaring "[[I Knew It!]]!" when that's how the angle played out (see also: RAW 1/24/11).

* [[Jerkass]]: Most Heels are, but after spending most of the first part of his WWE tenure as a [[Nice Guy]] face, the level of dickishness that came with his heel turn was especially jarring.

** YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

* [[Law of Chromatic Superiority]]: Red is more than a [[Shout-Out]] to [[William Regal]], it's <s> awesome</s> the best in the world.

* [[Legacy Character]]: In a subtle way, his [[Underwear of Power|red trunks]] and one of his moves he uses, the Regal-Plex (bridging leg-hook belly to back suplex), were used/invented by his trainer William Regal.

* [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]]: Five ten and one hundred ninety pounds puts him firmly in the small category, especially when [[The Giant|giants]] are so common in wrestling. However, he isn't a [[Fragile Speedster]] like similarly sized wrestlers - he goes toe to toe with wrestlers twice his weight and wins.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: The ending of the 01/13/2012 edition of ''[[WWE Smackdown]]'' had Bryan telling Big Show that "You... are a bastard" for accidentally tackling his girlfriend, AJ.

** And then, when the NXT rookies invaded a Raw main event to tear apart the set and brutalize [[John Cena]], Bryan looked [[John Cena]] in the face while screaming "YOU! ARE NOT! BETTER THAN ME!"

** His current heel run has Bryan declaring himself as the "WORLD! HEAVYWEIGHT! CHAMPION!", combining it with "YES! YES! YES! YES!" for added ham.

* [[Romance on the Set]]: Several months after he dumped her (and her sister) in storyline, Bryan and Brie Bella started dating In Real Life (while, in storyline, he's with AJ.)

* [[Schedule Slip]]: Justified. His Youtube channel and website have not been updated very much, but Bryan is too busy being in the main event on Smackdown.

** Subverted by his current entrance music, the ''very'' identifiable "Ride of the Valkyries".

* [[Shocking Elimination]]: On ''NXT'', especially after ending up in 1st place in the previous poll.

* [[Shout-Out]]: His signature dark-red trunks are a tribute to his real-life mentor William Regal.

** The "YES!" chants were inspired by Diego Sanchez' "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_8WJzhsow Yes cartwheel]"

* [[Smug Straight Edge|Smug Vegan]]: His current heel run in WWE, where he'll definitely flaunt his vegan tendencies and rub it in everyone's faces.

* [[Squash Match]]: Danielson was on the losing end of several of these in his run on ''NXT''.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Gives one to [[Alberto Del Rio]] on the August 19, 2011 episode of Smackdown, pointing out how Del Rio's "prophesized" WWE Title victory was nothing special and all he'd done is the same old thing every other Money In The Bank winner had ever done.

** [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]

** He even celebrated ''his girlfriend's'' victory like he won the match himself on a recent episode of ''[[Smack Down]]''.

* [[Straight Edge Evil|Vegan Evil]]: His current role model gimmick could be basically summed up as [[CM Punk]] as a vegan instead of Straight Edge. Even CM Punk himself lampshaded it on an episode of Smackdown, stating that if Daniel Bryan shaved AJ's head, he'd sue for gimmick infringement.

* [[Villainous BSOD]]: In contrast to his normal heel persona, where it's hard to get him to shut up, when Josh Mathews asked him about {{spoiler|his [[Squash Match]] loss}} the RAW after Wrestlemania, he didn't respond. At all.

** Both Danielson and longtime ROH nemesis Nigel McGuinness were believed to have both signed with WWE, leaving many to wonder how well the two would do in the company. Then it was discovered that Nigel, in fact, ''hadn't'' signed with WWE, but instead had signed with ''TNA'' (eventually debuting there as Desmond Wolfe).

*** Nigel/Desmond has disappeared from TNA television entire due to health issues, the same health issues that cause WWE management to pass on him in the first place. Now imagine Nigel on the WWE road schedule and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what would have been.

*** And now we'll never see [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Desmond Wolfe vs. Lloyd Boner]].

** How the Nexus angle would have been handled if Danielson had been able to stay around. Out of all of the rookies, he had the biggest issues with WWE management. Combine this with the fact that can cut some pretty good heel promos, and the fact that he's one of the best pure wrestlers in the world today, and the entire angle could have gone very, ''very'' differently.

** Using "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_rGt_zNHZI Ride of the Valkyries]" as his entrance music after becoming WWE United States Champion.

*** What, using [[Narm Charm|The Final Countdown]] doesn't qualify? It's one of the cheesiest songs ever!