5 Times champions lost non-title matches in WWE

#3 - Daniel Bryan(c) vs Kofi Kingston, WWE Smackdown, February 12th, 2019

The "New" Daniel Bryan was on fire back in 2019

Daniel Bryan's return from early retirement is one of the more heartwarming events to have happened in WWE in recent years. But it's hard to admit that while he may carry an extraodinary amount of favour with fans, his work as a villain is second to none.

Bryan was able to reach the pinnacle of sports entertainment once more in 2018, knocking off a very game AJ styles, albeit with some very underhanded tactics. But it was the unprovoked assault of a prone Styles after the match that ultimately confirmed Bryan's switch to the dark side. And thus, the "New" Daniel Bryan was born.

Some months later, Bryan would meet Kofi Kingston (who was due a very strong push in popularity from the fans) in the opening round of a gauntlet match on Smackdown, to determine who would enter the upcoming Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship in the promising final position. But the title was not on the line here.

In the end, it would be Kofi who was able to topple the reigning WWE Champion in a thoroughly entertaining back-and-forth affair. It would be this moment, and several other impressive showings around this time (and also an untimely injury sustained by an on-the-rise Mustafa Ali), that would catapult Kofi and the WWE universe into the grips of "KofiMania", eventually culminating with a euphoric WWE Championship victory against Bryan at Wrestlemania.

Fans had been clamoring for a Kofi Kingston WWE Championship victory for years, and there's a very strong argument to be made that it should have come up to a decade sooner when many would have considered him to be in his prime. But it would be Wrestlemania where the Kofi Kingston story would come full-circle in what was a truly monumental moment that all began in one of the more memorable non-title matches in WWE.

Sadly, after a six-month run with the belt, Kofi would end up dropping the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar in a match that lasted less than ten seconds.

Thankfully, both Bryan and Kingston still remain integral parts of the WWE roster and have been entertaining fans throughout this global crisis each and every week.