The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 18

Daniel Bryan (September 15, 2013 - September 16, 2013)

Daniel Bryan: Recaptured the gold at Night of Champions

Daniel Bryan delighted the WWE Universe at SummerSlam 2013 when he dethroned WWE's top star, John Cena, clean in the middle of the ring.

Fans thought they had seen the crowning of wrestling's next superstar babyface a la The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin.

However, those hopes were just as quickly dashed, when permanent main event fixture, Randy Orton raised his seventh WWE Championship and tenth World title overall by defeating Bryan moments later via Money in the Bank cash in.

In the immediate aftermath of the bout, WWE management, ad nauseum, told their audience that Bryan was a "B+ player" and not fit to be a headliner.

This was no storyline. In WWE's eyes, Bryan was a placeholder champion to occupy new champion Orton until the real star, Batista returned to the company.

Nevertheless, to prolong the feud, WWE did book Bryan to regain the strap at the company's next pay per view offering, Night of Champions on September 15, 2013.

However, this was a false dawn. The very next night, The Authority double act of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon stripped Bryan of the title and held it up in yet another rematch at Battleground in October. That would be a contest that would signal the end of Bryan's top line push. For several months anyway.