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“Daniel Bryan…he reminds me a lot of my brother Owen. The moves that he has — he just has a look or a feel a little bit like Owen.” – Bret Hart
2010 was a ground-breaking year in the WWE. It saw the rise of CM Punk as the ‘Straight Edge Savior’, and also one of the greatest debuts in the history of professional wrestling when eight rookies attacked the main stay of the WWE, the flag bearer of the company, John Cena.
Out of those eight, one ‘wrestler’ was not a rookie; he was one of the most respected wrestlers in the world. He already had a decade of experience and had travelled all over the world, taking on some of the biggest names in professional wrestling. He was also known as an ‘Indy darling’, and was one of the biggest fan favourites in the world. His peers consider him to be the best wrestler of this generation. He is none other than the ‘American Dragon’ – Bryan Danielson aka Daniel Bryan.
Daniel Bryan is a former World Heavyweight champion in the WWE, and for the past year, many fans and performers wanted to see Daniel Bryan in the main event scene. WWE used Bryan and Kane to fill the void in the tag team division, and Bryan played his role to perfection, being the perfect ‘imperfect partner’ for Kane. They held the WWE tag team championships for a long duration, and when the team disbanded recently, there was hope that Daniel Bryan would be pushed into the main event scene.
Ever since WrestleMania ended this year, Daniel Bryan has been the hottest superstar in the company, receiving tremendous response from the crowd where ever he went. With WWE needing new opponents for John Cena, people hoped that this year would be Daniel Bryan’s time to cement himself in the main event scene.
Recently, there were rumours going around that WWE wanted to have a Daniel Bryan–John Cena program for the WWE championship throughout the summer, starting at Summerslam. With Daniel Bryan putting on ‘Match of the night’ performances for months, it all boiled down to the Money in the Bank PPV, and people expected Bryan to win the briefcase. But when that didn’t happen, everybody thought WWE would drop the ball with Bryan.
But this past week on RAW, it was revealed that Daniel Bryan will face John Cena at Summerslam for the WWE championship, which blew the roof off of Barclays Center! With Daniel Bryan now having the opportunity to make a name for himself as a main eventer, the question remains: will he be able to pull off a ‘CM Punk’ at Summerslam?
“I do know that they are both very talented. It does not surprise me one bit that they have phenomenal matches, that they can continue to have something very special and consistent through the years because they’re both very talented.” – Shawn Michaels on CM Punk and Daniel Bryan
A couple of years ago, Punk wasn’t seen as a main eventer, but as an above mid card performer. But in ’11, Punk changed all of that with his ‘Summer of Punk’ storyline, which saw him becoming the hottest superstar of the year and resulted in him holding the WWE championship for a record 434 days, the longest in over 25 years!
CM Punk became the number two guy in the company, and the biggest superstar for quite a while. With CM Punk now being the franchise player in the WWE, one can say that he grabbed the opportunity he received with both hands and elevated himself in the company.
Daniel Bryan is quite similar to CM Punk, whether it is in size, background or wrestling skills. Both the performers were given little to no chance of making it big in the global organization, but they slugged it out and became the top names in WWE.
Daniel Bryan now finds himself on the verge of breaking the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’, as he has done what no one was able to since the ‘Summer of Punk’ storyline, and that is to captivate the imagination of the WWE Universe and the wrestling fans alike. Daniel Bryan is the most beloved superstar in WWE today, and one believes that with a good storyline and some faith in Bryan, he can be the breakout star of the year!
Everyone witnessed what can happen if WWE believes in an individual, as displayed by their faith in CM Punk. We have to wait and see if Daniel Bryan will be able to something similar and start a new revolution.
