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Bryan Danielson

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Bryan Danielson
Born (1981-05-22) May 22, 1981 (age 43)[1]
Aberdeen, Washington[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)American Dragon[2]
Bryan Danielson[2]
Daniel Bryan[2][3]
Billed height5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[2]
Billed weight190 lb (86 kg)[2]
Billed fromAberdeen, Washington[2]
Trained byTexas Wrestling Academy[1]
Rudy Boy Gonzalez[2]
Shawn Michaels[2]
William Regal[4]
Tracy Smothers[2]
Masato Tanaka[2]
DebutOctober 4, 1999[5]

Bryan Danielson[1] (born May 22, 1981)[1] is an American professional wrestler, who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the ring name Daniel Bryan. He is also known by his alias, and later nickname, the American Dragon.[1][7]

In professional wrestling, Danielson is a three-time world champion, having won the ROH World Championship in Ring of Honor (ROH) once[8] and the PWG World Championship twice in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG).[9][10] He has also held the FIP World Heavyweight Championship once in Full Impact Pro and the wXw World Heavyweight Championship once in Westside Xtreme Wrestling. In addition, Danielson has also won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship once in Pro Wrestling Noah and is officially recognized as the last ROH Pure Champion, as he unified the Pure title with the ROH World title in 2006.[11] He also won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in New Japan Pro Wrestling with Curry Man.[1]

Until 2009, Danielson primarily competed on the independent circuit. ROH was generally regarded as his home promotion, but he also worked in FIP, PWG, and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). He has also worked internationally, most notably in Pro Wrestling Noah through ROH's involvement in the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance, a global organization of cooperative promotions that allow their competitors to travel abroad to other companies.[12] He also competed in a handful of matches in WWE before signing an actual contract with the company in 2009.[2][13]

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1999–2004)

Danielson's first exposure in wrestling was as a backyard wrestler competing for Backyard Championship Wrestling (BCW) under his real name with the nickname "The Dagger". There he won the promotion's Heavyweight Championship.[2] After Danielson graduated from high school in 1999, he decided to pursue wrestling professionally and initially attempted to train at Dean Malenko's wrestling school. Due to its subsequent closure, however, he instead trained under Shawn Michaels at the Texas Wrestling Academy.[14] Danielson debuted in Michaels' promotion, the Texas Wrestling Alliance (TWA), and on March 21, 2000, he won his first professional wrestling championship, when he teamed with Spanky to win the TWA Tag Team Championship by defeating Jeromy Sage and Ruben Cruz.[1]

As Danielson continued to tour the country, he was signed to a developmental deal by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to work in their developmental system where recently signed performers train and refine their skills before debuting on WWF's television programming, and was assigned to Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW). There, Danielson gained exposure, and was trained by WWF competitor, William Regal. It was during this time that Danielson adopted his well-known moniker "American Dragon".[15] WWF severed its ties with MCW in 2001, releasing Danielson from his contract, but not before he won the MCW Light Heavyweight Championship and the MCW Tag Team Championship with Spanky.[1] Danielson returned to the company on later dates after it was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment to compete on its secondary programming, Velocity and Heat, initially as enhancement talent before being allowed to compete in longer matches; he once wrestled future WWE Champion John Cena in a losing effort.[16][17]

Danielson also toured Japan with the promotion, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) with fellow trainee from the Texas Wrestling Academy, Lance Cade, competing in several tag team matches.[2][5] He returned to the country after his release from the WWF, competing in Japan's premier promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). In NJPW, he used his American Dragon persona, and donned a red, white, and blue mask reminiscent of a dragon.[18] As a part of the junior heavyweight division, Danielson had success in both singles and tag team competition in the company, the latter of which culminated on March 12, 2004 when Danielson (sans mask) won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Curry Man from division veterans, Jado and Gedo, on the Hyper Battle tour.[19]

Ring of Honor

Founding father (2002–2005)

Danielson posing in 2004

In 2002, Danielson joined the independent promotion, Ring of Honor, where he is acknowledged as a "Founding Father" of the company by fans,[20] as he was one of the wrestlers who made the company prominent during its inception, and competed in the main event of the company's debut show, The Era of Honor Begins, in a three-way match against Low Ki and Christopher Daniels.[21] He continued to have critically-acclaimed matches in the company that would last for extended periods of time with numerous wrestlers, including a match with Austin Aries that lasted for eighty minutes.[22] One of the more notable rivalries he had in the early years in the company was with Homicide; the two embarked in numerous matches with a variety of stipulations, culminating in a steel cage match at The Final Showdown, which was won by Danielson.[23]

NXT (2010)

On February 16, it was announced that he would be wrestling on the WWE NXT show, using the name Daniel Bryan, with The Miz as his storyline mentor.[24] He made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, losing by submission to the World Heavyweight Champion, Chris Jericho. After the match, Bryan was attacked by The Miz for disrespecting him earlier in the show.[25] Over the next several weeks, Bryan failed to win a single match, but despite having a win-loss record of 0–5, he was ranked first in the inaugural Pros' Poll on the March 30 episode of NXT.[26][27] After losing five more matches on NXT, Bryan earned his first victory on the May 10 episode of Raw by pinning Santino Marella in an eight-on-four handicap match.[28] The following night on NXT, he was eliminated from the show, along with Michael Tarver, as neither man had confidence in themselves to win the competition.[29] Later that night, in an interview, Danielson said that the elimination might be the end of Daniel Bryan, but that Bryan Danielson will be fine.[30] Despite his elimination, he appeared on the following editions of NXT, being interviewed by Matt Striker and attacking both Michael Cole, who had constantly belittled him on commentary, and The Miz.[31][32]

Raw (2010-present)

On the May 31 episode of Raw, Bryan defeated The Miz in a singles match, and after the match, he threw The Miz into Cole, who was commentating at ringside.[33]

Personal life

Danielson is a vegan.[34]

In wrestling

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References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Milner, Jason. "Bryan Danielson". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-02-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "Daniel Bryan profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference DanielBryan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ The LilsBoys (2006-01-03). "Interview with William Regal". WrestleView. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
  5. ^ a b "Bryan Danielson". Gerweck. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference WV was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c d e f Cite error: The named reference DGUSA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "ROH World Championship History". Ring of Honor. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  9. ^ "PWG World Champion". Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  10. ^ "Bryan Danielson's second reign". Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  11. ^ Saks, Stu. Pro Wrestling Illustrated 2007 Almanac and Book of Facts. Blue Bell Publishing, 2007.
  12. ^ "Global Professional Wrestling Alliance!". Pro Wrestling Zero1. 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
  13. ^ Nagy, Adam (2008-06-10). "6/9 WWE Raw Holt report: What the live crowd saw that the TV viewers didn't (and why they were especially upset)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  14. ^ Clevett, Jason (2006-09-21). "Fiery words from American Dragon". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer.
  15. ^ Meltzer, Dave. "Wrestling Observer – headlines". Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
  16. ^ "SmackDown! January 16, 2003". Online World of Wrestling. 2003-01-16. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  17. ^ "SmackDown!". Online World of Wrestling. 2003-01-23. Retrieved 2003-01-23.
  18. ^ "Dragon mask". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  19. ^ ""NJPW Hyper Battle tour results"". Strong Style Spirit. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  20. ^ "ROH Founding Fathers". Ring of Honor. 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  21. ^ "The-Independent-Mid-Card-01.30.07:-Danielson-vs.-Rave.htm 411mania.com: Wrestling – The Independent Mid-Card 01.30.07: Danielson vs. Rave". 411 Mania.
  22. ^ "Testing the Limit". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  23. ^ "Final Showdown". Online World of Wrestling. 2004-05-13.
  24. ^ Martin, Adam (2010-02-17). "Cast information for WWE's NXT". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  25. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-02-23). "WWE NXT: Jericho, Bryan kick off series in style". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  26. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-03-24). "WWE NXT: Rookies team up in both matches". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-04-03. Bryan to 0–5
  27. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-03-30). "WWE NXT: Bryan laughs first, Otunga laughs last". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  28. ^ Plummer, Dale (2010-05-10). "RAW: The final show at the Igloo". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  29. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-05-11). "WWE NXT: Not 1, but 3 rookies eliminated from show". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  30. ^ Tedesco, Mike (2010-05-12). "WWE NXT Results – 5/11/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  31. ^ Caldwell, James (2010-05-18). "Caldwell's WWE NXT TV Report 5/18: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of NXT on Syfy Week 13". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
  32. ^ Bishop, Matt (2010-05-25). "WWE NXT: Feud between Cole, Bryan ignites further". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  33. ^ Plummer, Dale (2010-05-31). "RAW: Ashton Kutcher hosts Killer show". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  34. ^ "PETA smells what Daniel Bryan isn't cooking". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  35. ^ a b Wilson, Kevin (2009-07-01). "Bryan Danielson". Puroresu Central. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
  36. ^ a b Vetter, Chris (2007-12-18). "DVD Review: ROH "Death Before Dishonor, N2" (8-11-07), w/ 8-man tag, Danielson-Quackenbush". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  37. ^ Hubbard, Aaron (2009-10-06). "What's All The Hubbub: ROH Undeniable". 411Mania. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference Unified was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ Vetter, Chris (2007-03-27). "DVD Review: New Japan: "Best of Super Juniors," (4-16-04), with Danielson, Kazarian, Samoa Joe, X-Pac". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  40. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hell%25252520freezes%25252520over was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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