The Way of The American Dragon, Daniel Bryan

[Larryhausen]

I've been thinking about Bryan's character arc, if you will, and wanted to type out a timeline. The Thread Title was just too good to pass up.

Please, if I've omitted or misremembered anything, please correct me.

NXT/Nexus: So here we are introduced to Daniel Bryan: Wrestling Machine. Here it appears to me that Bryan came in with a big head, since, objectively speaking, he was the most technically sound guy on the show. So, his ego gets the better of him and he goes on a losing streak, and gets eliminated. He gets frustrated and takes it out on Cole, and leads to him joining Nexus. Here, he REALLY lets his frustration out, which gets him fired.

Return/US Title run: After getting rehired, he decides to play it safe, relying on his skills alone, and burying his ego. This leads to a US Title run, and a few dates with a Bella(hindsight is funny, innit?), but not much else. Which brings us to.....

MITB/WHT run: now he feels he's got his chance. He's in a match where his skills can finally give him a chance to crack the glass ceiling. He wins MITB, and tries to do the honorable sportsmanlike thing and announce his cash in before hand, but his ego starts getting the better of him. Other people get in his ear and tell him he's a fool for waiting. He sees his chance and takes it, becoming World Champ. He beat the odds, became one of the "top" guys in the company, and had a smoking hot girlfriend. Ego goes into overdrive, and it finally consumes him: he becomes an arrogant, self absorbed jackass, treating every fluke win as if he had just broken The Streak. It couldn't last forever though, because....

18 Seconds/Anger Management/Team Hell No: Here's where he loses it. He gets cocky and loses the title on The Grandest Stage of Them All. In Record time. This sends him off the deep end, publicly humiliating his now ex girlfriend, getting in fans faces, and blaming everyone else around him for his shortcomings. So management places him in Dr. Shelby's class with Kane leading to Hell No. They had great success, but being teamed with a monster like Kane has to have had an effect on Bryan's already bruised ego, which lays the seeds of an inferiority complex, constantly being compared to your partner, a seven foot monster who has control over fire. Bryan starts believing he IS the weak link, so.....

Present day: He pushes himself harder than he ever has before, taking down the SHIELD, beating Orton, and having amazing matches week in and week out. Because of this, the fans are FINALLY, almost universally, and LOUDLY behind him. Cena can't deny his crowd pleasing tendencies, and grants Bryan the Summerslam match. But now we find out that Vince has no faith in him, and doesn't want him as champion. But Bryan is finally at the point where he has a platform to vent his frustrations vocally, lashing out at Corporate Avatar Cena, for being basically handed what Bryan had to fight and scrape and claw his way to, simply because he is a wrestler, and not a Sports Entertainer

I won't go into last night, since that is still fresh.

I'm sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to type it out and see how it all ties together. I know a lot of it is basically theoretical, but it does kinda make sense. To me at least.


Thoughts? Corrections? Comments?

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

In summary of his WWE career so far, all I can think of is one of the famous quotes from Star Wars... "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

And from the day he walked in the door, that's how it's been for Bryan... Having the less experienced Miz talk down to him like he was nothing because he was the NXT Pro to his "Rookie", a losing streak, Michael Cole tearing him down on commentary every week for 3 years for seemingly no reason other than TV non-ownership, being legitimately fired for being too aggressive in an unprecedentedly violent group beatdown, becoming the subject of a supposed sex bet between The Bella Twins, being bumped off his first WrestleMania, more losing streaks (despite being the MITB holder), losing the World Heavyweight Championship at his second WrestleMania in 18 seconds, being dumped at the altar by AJ Lee and losing his mind, anger management, a forced alliance with Kane (that he eventually grew to embrace), a crisis of confidence, being told to his face by his own boss that he doesn't deserve to be champion and, now, having his crowning moment stolen from him by collusion between his advocate Triple H and Randy Orton... Yet, he's still managed to be the hottest babyface act to come down the pike in many years, through sheer hard work, insane chemistry with most of the roster and an infectious fire that you can't help but get behind.

[Deleted]

It really is remarkable the connection that Bryan has with the audience. No matter what kind of nonsense that they throw at him he ends up more over because of it. I think that a lot of it stems from the fact that he's just a regular guy and he was never supposed to make it this far, so whether some people realize it or not there is a latent feeling of living vicariously through Bryan and every time that the E throws something stupid at him the crowds just get stronger for him because he has become an avatar of the fans. A hero for anyone that has ever been told to give up, that they would never make it, or wondered if it is truly possible to live their dreams. Daniel Bryan is living proof that it is possible and is in harmony with the audience and that is what makes a Bryan as a performer truly special.

[Larryhausen]

You guys both make great points, but my post was supposed to be in kayfabe.

But I also thought of something else: comparing Bryan's rise to The Summer of Punk. Two things come to mind.

Punk, for all his rebellious tendencies, just isn't the Everyman that Austin was and Bryan appears to be. I don't want to get into another argument about his views, but he just can't appeal to everyone. He's stubborn in his views, and very vocal about it. He's covered in tattooes, which could turn off a lot of some more conservative viewers. And the straight edge thing could hurt him with a lot of the audience. He's over like rover, don't get me wrong, but he just can't connect with everyone.

Punk also never got that big moment of being screwed over. All of the hurdles he had to jump happened off screen. When Vince tried to screw him, he came out on top. When Trips came to power, they were both faces, which led to some awkward promos. Nash screwed him, but was gone soon for whatever reason. Big Johnny, as entertaining as he was, was just a Yes Man. He was trying to screw Punk to please his boss, not for his own satisfaction. It's like rebelling against your suck up assistant manager. Punk was basically a Rebel Without a Cause.


Bryan has that Everyman quality. He's had a long and logical rise to the top. And now, he's had that definitive Austin moment that's defines him as the guy battling the machine with clear antagonists.

[Ganon83]

Another thing you could look at was his ROH tenure- right now he's more or less his ROH character without The Final Countdown and his name switched around.