Bryan Lloyd Danielson is an American professional wrestler signed with AEW. He is best known for his work with NJPW, ROH, WWE, and AEW. Danielson is a former WWE and ROH World Champion. Danielson is considered one of the best technical wrestlers of all time.
Bryan Danielson was born on the 22nd of May, 1981 in Aberdeen, Washington. His mother is Darlene Danielson, a therapist, and his father is Lumberjack Donald "Buddy" Danielson. Born in Aberdeen, Danielson and his family moved to Vernal, Utah, Albany, and Oregon before finally shifting back to Aberdeen owing to his father's job. His parents divorced when he was of a young age. To help his mother, Danielson and his sister Billie Sue distributed newspapers as teenagers and also worked at McDonalds.
In 1999, Danielson began training as a professional wrestler. Danielson enrolled in Shawn Michaels wrestling school and was trained by William Regal. Regal has been a tremendous influence on Danielson's career and is often mentioned by Danielson or during his matches. Danielson had two short stints in WWF/E in his early years. Later, Danielson won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in Japan.
In 2002, Danielson joined ROH and was one of the company's founding fathers. Danielson had several great rivalries, with wrestlers such as Austin Aries, CM Punk, Homicide, Nigel McGuinness, and Samoa Joe. In 2005, Danielson defeated James Gibson to become the ROH World Champion. In 2006, he feuded with Chris Hero during a promotion war with CZW. Later, he feuded with Nigel McGuinness for the ROH Pure Championship and won. After winning the title, he retired the championship.
Danielson lost the ROH World Championship to Homicide and took some time off. After his return, Danielson spent his time across several independent promotions and ROH, where he won several championships and had acclaimed matches. In 2009, Danielson had a farewell tour where he faced his old rivals such as Austin Aries and Nigel McGuinness before leaving the company. After finishing his remaining dates, Danielson joined WWE.
In 2009, Danielson joined WWE and began working for FCW and they changed his name to Daniel Bryan. After a few months, they moved Bryan to NXT season 1 where he was mentored by The Miz. On the debut episode, Bryan lost to Chris Jericho. During the Nexus attack, they fired Bryan from the company. Bryan spent the next few months back on the independent circuit before re-signing with WWE.
At SummerSlam, Bryan joined Team WWE to fight against The Nexus and won. At Night of Champions, Bryan defeated The Miz to win the United States Championship. At WrestleMania XXVII, Bryan lost the title to Sheamus. In 2011, he won the Money in the Bank ladder match. He spent the year feuding with Wade Barrett and was involved in a storyline with AJ Lee.
At TLC, Bryan cashed in and became the World Heavyweight Champion. At WrestleMania XXVIII, Bryan lost the title to Sheamus in less than 20 seconds. Bryan spent the first half of the year feuding with Sheamus and CM Punk for the World Championships. Later, he performed comedy skits with Kane and formed a tag team called Team Hell No.
Team Hell No became instantly popular and defeated Kofi Kingston and R-Truth for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Later, they began feuding with The Shield. At TLC, The Shield defeated Team Hell No and Ryback. At WrestleMania XXIX, Team Hell No defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E. At Extreme Rules, they lost the titles to The Shield.
After Team Hell No, Bryan began his solo's journey to the top. Cena gave Bryan a championship match at SummerSlam. At SummerSlam, Bryan defeated Cena to become the new WWE Champion. However, Triple and Randy Orton turned on Bryan. Randy Orton cashed in and won the WWE Championship and formed The Authority. Bryan also feuded with The Wyatt Family, where he joined the stable for a while.
The Authority feuded with Bryan for a year, where Bryan won the championship on two occasions. At Royal Rumble, Bryan was defeated by Bray Wyatt. After Royal Rumble, Bryan began his Yes Movement and demanded a championship match. At WrestleMania XXX, Bryan defeated Triple in the opening match. In the main event, Bryan defeated Randy Orton and Batista to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
The movement didn't last long as Bryan was severely injured during a match with Kane. At Money in the Bank, Bryan vacated the championship and took some time off. In 2015, Bryan failed to win the Royal Rumble match and challenged Roman Reigns for his spot at WrestleMania 31. At Fastlane, Bryan was defeated by Roman Reigns.
At WrestleMania 31, Bryan won the Intercontinental Championship in a ladder match. After a few months, Bryan was unable to continue due to his prior injuries and retired from wrestling. Bryan vacated the Intercontinental Championship.
In 106, Bryan returned and became the SmackDown General Manager. Bryan was heavily involved in an angle with The Miz, which continued in 2018. After two years, Bryan made a comeback at WrestleMania 34, where he and Shane McMahon defeated Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
Before feuding with The Miz, Bryan feuded with Big Cass and won. At SummerSlam, Bryan was defeated by The Miz. After feuding with The Miz, Bryan turned heel and won the WWE Championship from AJ Styles. In 2019, he began feuding with Kofi Kingston after Kingston's acclaimed performance in a gauntlet match.
At WrestleMania 35, Kingston defeated Bryan to win the WWE Championship. Later, Bryan won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship with Rowan. In the summer, Bryan began teaming up with Roman Reigns and feuded with Harper and Rowan. In 2020, Bryan turned faced and feuded with The Fiend and lost. At WrestleMania 36, Sami Zayn defeated Bryan to keep his Intercontinental Championship.
Bryan spent the year in the mid-card division before feuding with Roman Reigns. In 2021, Bryan began feuding with Edge and Roman Reigns for the Universal championship. At WrestleMania 37, Bryan and Edge lost to Reigns. In April, Bryan lost another championship match to Reigns and left the company.
At All Out, Danielson made his AEW debut. In the following months, Danielson began feuding with Kenny Omega, and the match ended in a draw. The match received 5 stars from Dave Meltzer. Later, Bryan turned heel and began feuding with Hangman Page. At Full Gear, Bryan won the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament.
In 2022, Danielson received his first loss by Hangman Page for the AEW World Championship. At Revolution, Moxley defeated Danielson and formed a team. The duo was last seen on Dynamite along with William Regal.
On the 31st August 2022 edition of Dynamite, Bryan defeated Jake Hager. On the 2022 All Out PPV, Daniel Bryan lost to Chris Jericho in a hard-hitting match. He would then go on to compete for the AEW World Championship in a tournament where he was eliminated by Moxley. The following months saw Danielson's challenge for the ROH World Championship and AEW World Championship against Chris Jericho and MJF respectively, to no avail.
He then shifted his focus from titles to his Blackpool Combat Club. Danielson, alongside Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta and Jon Moxley defeated The Elite (Kenny Omega, Adam Page, and The Young Bucks in Anarchy in Arena match at Double or Nothing 2023. The following week, he appeared on NJPW to challenge Kazuchika Okada for a match at AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door, and the latter accepted the match.
At the event, Danielson suffered a legitimate broken arm. However, he still went on to beat Okada by submission.
As per various sources, former WWE Superstar Bryan Danielson is worth around USD 12 Million as of 2023. Do click here to know everything about the net worth of The American Dragon.
Bryan Danielson is married to fellow wrestler and former co-worker Brie Bella. Brie Bella is one-half of the Bella Twins, which is a Hall of Fame team in WWE. Bella and Danielson shared screens quite a few times on the WWE programming while dating each other in real life. After dating for about three years, the two finally tied the knot on April 11, 2014, and have been together ever since.
The pair has two children - a girl named Birdie, born in 2017, and a boy named Buddy, born in 2020. The couple currently resides in Napa County, California, United States.
Also Read: How did Brie Bella and Daniel Bryan meet?
Bryan Danielson is billed at 5 ft 10 inches in AEW.
Daniel Bryan's biceps are around 16 inches in size.
Former WWE and current AEW Superstar Bryan Danielson is worth around USD 12 Million in 2023.
Daniel Bryan left WWE in 2021 because he supposedly wanted to try something different from WWE and wanted to partake in more gruel bouts, something which is very common in AEW.
