Bryan Danielson / YMMV

Accidental Innuendo: Bryan once had a theme song called "Big Epic Thing." No wonder all the ladies loved him...
Alternative Character Interpretation: His rather abrupt Face–Heel Turn at the end of 2021 left a lot of room for ambiguity, especially considering how starkly his actions after Full Gear in 2021 contrasted his actions before it.^note Was Danielson always an arrogant and sadistic bully hiding under a superficial veneer of niceness, or did he just succumb to his worst impulses once the World Championship title was within his grasp? Did he originally challenge The Elite to end their reign of terror, or because he wanted their dominant position at the company for himself? Relatedly: did he pick his vicious feud with "Hangman" Adam Page because he didn't believe that Hangman was worthy of the championship, or was he motivated by his former association with his arch-rival Kenny Omega and determined to get Revenge by Proxy?
Awesome Music:
- He went from Europe's "The Final Countdown" to a really generic hard rock riff... to Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"!
- And shortly after winning Money in the Bank, he had switched to Freefall by Two Steps from Hell.
- This rap song, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" is equally awesome.
- As to "The Final Countdown", here's how awesome it was. At ROH's "The Chicago Spectacular" in 2006, as a heel, he was scheduled to defend his world title against Homicide later that month. Homicide had a match against Brent Albright on that particular night, which ended when Albright locked a crowbar submission hold onto Homicide and would not release it even after Homicide grabbed the ropes. Albright was obviously not interested in winning the match so much as he was in injuring Homicide, but why? The reason was revealed very quickly: as Albright was walking to the back, Bryan walked out to meet him and, with a smug grin on his face, gave Albright a big handful of cash. This garnered him tremendous heat from an crowd that was already hostile to him, starting up a loud "FUCK YOU DRAGON!" chant. With that match over, the show moved on, until it was time for the main event: a steel cage match in which Bryan would defend his title against Homicide's friend Samoa Joe. As much as this crowd wanted to see Joe destroy him, as firmly against him as they were, they still sang along with "The Final Countdown" during his entrance. When Danielson reused the song at ''Forbidden Door'' in 2023, the crowd erupted and, despite being a heel, he couldn't help but smile over coming out to the song again. It helps that Tony Khan paid for it to be used for Danielson again for just that event due to it being expensive to use frequently.
- He's using "Ride of The Valkyries" again...but now it's FUCKING METAL YES! YES! YES!.
- His AEW theme, "Born for Greatness", feels like a tribute to all of the previous stages of his career — combining "Ride of the Valkyries" with his classic American Dragon chant — while announcing his arrival at AEW in a Boastful Rap.
Crosses the Line Twice: A big part of why his heel character was so popular. He had little to no redeeming qualities. He was a misogynistic douchebag, a preachy vegan extremist, cheated and connived his way through most of his matches leading to totally bogus finishes. To summarize, he was just a shameless douche in general. And yet... he was not loved by his fans in spite of this all, but partly because of it. It was such a radical departure from the average cocky pretty boy heel, and his over the top promos culminating with that magical three letter word just made it hard to hate him for too long; you can just tell he was having fun. And of course, the fact that he's an amazing wrestler doesn't hurt at all.
Draco in Leather Pants: To the point where Danielson could get loudly cheered and applauded for kicking the dog.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- It seems like every time WWE tried to make him look like a joke, he gets more popular. Fire him for being too violent? Next PPV is bookended by chants of his name. Make him an undeserving champion? He gets a popular catchphrase. Make him lose in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania? He becomes the most beloved star of the following Raw, more so than hometown hero The Rock and a returning Brock Lesnar.
- Really, if WWE was trying to get fans to hate him by turning him into an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy Manipulative Bastard Heel, then it backfired spectacularly as it had only made him even more popular than he already was. Casual fans preferred his Heel persona due to disliking the squeaky clean babyface persona from before, and Smarks preferred his Heel persona due to his in-ring talent and a reminiscence of his Heel run in Ring of Honor. It really all came down to the fact that Danielson simply made a fantastic heel.
- During the anger management skits with Daniel Bryan and Kane, their fellow classmate Harold ended up getting quite the fanbase, especially when it was revealed that Harold was in fact indy wrestler Scorpio Sky.
- He puts HBK in the Yes Lock, the crowd is Completely on his side.
- It seemed to have happened again. After Daniel Bryan was knocked down to the midcard to team with CM Punk to feud with the Wyatt family, audiences have been chanting either his Catchphrase or his name even when he is not in the ring.
- In Royal Rumble 2014, when the crowd realized Daniel Bryan wasn't in the rumble, all the excitement of the match fading was audible, which then culminated into outright booing and chanting for Daniel Bryan at any opportunity. Poor Sheamus's attempt at a Brogue chant was replaced with NOs. Batista's eventual victory got booed or replaced with the "NO!" chants. Hell Rey Mysterio of all people was booed for being number 30 and people cheered when he got eliminated. That should tell you something.
- The Yes Movement pretty much sealed this trope in a can. Bryan went from being the runt of the WWE roster to getting a shot at the WWE World Heavyweoght Title, and winning.
- He showed up in Royal Rumble 2015...and was eliminated in an anti-climax before the show was even halfway done. You could feel all the heat drain from Wells Fargo Center the moment he went over that top rope. His departure started an outburst of anger and disappointment that became uglier and uglier with the abrupt elimination of other darkhorses like Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler, and eventually culminated in the crowd booing The Rock when he came to congratulate Roman Reigns on his victory. Of all people to boo during that event, the fans went ahead and booed. The. Rock.
Evil Is Cool: He's an absolutely savage fighter who sees himself as the best wrestler in the world which is hard to deny given his track record of incredible matches since he's arrived in AEW.
Fan Nickname:
- Because of his name in the WWE (it's easier to market people when their names have fewer syllables), many people had started calling him Daniel Bryan Danielson, D-Bry, or or "DBD," to avoid confusion.
- When he was first signed in WWE, speculation on what his WWE ring name would be led to to the creation of "Dirk Dickbutt".
- D Bryan Danielson
- During the short time in the independent circuit after being fired from WWE in 2010, he teased going to TNA and competing by the name of "Lloyd Boner". After the mere mention of TNA got quite a few boos from the crowd, he simply asked "What? You guys wouldn't want to see a match between Desmond Wolfe and Lloyd Boner?" The crowd responded with "Boner! Boner! Boner!" chants. Amusingly, in a 2012 interview, Bryan revealed that among a list of possible names he was given when starting in WWE, one of the names actually was "Lloyd Bonaire."
Fan-Preferred Couple: Bryan/Brie? Bryan/Nikki? Bryan/Gail? Bryan/AJ? Forget all of those, the OTP is Daniel Bryan/Derrick Bateman.
Fridge Logic: During his match with AJ Styles at IWA Mid-South An IWA Homecoming, September 16, 2004, he hit a suplex and told the crowd, "Clap for me my baboons." He didn't get a reaction, since he hadn't considered that Compliment Fishing and Take That, Audience! don't go well together.
Growing the Beard: Since his "18 Seconds" at WrestleMania 28, Bryan's gone on to have one of the longest tag team title reigns in recent memory, defeated The Shield, gave Ryback a run for his money, got the best of Randy Orton of all wrestlers in a street fight, and now he's main eventing SummerSlam facing John Cena for the WWE Championship and Bryan's beard has never looked fuller...Fridge Brilliance is a funnily awesome thing, isn't it?
- On the one hand, he only got to hold the WWE Championship for a few minutes before it was ripped away from him by Triple H Pedigreeing him and Orton cashing in. On the other hand, the preceding match vs. John Cena was itself entirely clean without interference or distractions. The last guy to beat Cena that way? The Rock.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- Shortly after being injured in 2015, Bryan had an interview where he revealed that he had pitched a match against Shinsuke Nakamura as part of a WWE/NJPW cross-promotion, which never came to boot. In 2016, Bryan announced his retirement mere weeks before Nakamura formally signed his WWE contract.
- In his official autobiography, Bryan talked about his WWE feud against CM Punk in one chapter and ended things by saying he would never say never but he had a feeling after Punk walked out of WWE that he and Punk would never face each other again. Many years later, this got seemingly subverted by Punk joining All Elite Wrestling where Bryan also worked, giving them the opportunity to work together once again. However, CM Punk's real life issues with Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, and eventually Jack Perry ended up getting Punk suspended in 2022 and finally fired in 2023, with Punk and Bryan not being able to face each other in the ring during their short time together in the same company. And with Bryan officially saying he would no longer be an active full time performer in 2024, the likelihood of the two ever wrestling again goes down even further. So in retrospect, Bryan's statement about how he suspected he would never face Punk again ended up being a lot more prophetic than he possibly intended it to be. And the prospects of them sharing a ring again becomes even more dim in light of Bryan playing a sizable part in firing Punk when he was part of the disciplinary committee that reviewed Punk's case.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- What was Bryan's first word when debuting on NXT? Why it's "Yes.". The Miz even tells him to "have a good catchphrase" in the same segment.
- In January 2012 he was presented with an award from PETA for being the "Most Animal Friendly Athlete" for his veganism. Within weeks, his on-screen character started throwing his veganism around in a smug manner during promos. In September 2012 he gave up veganism due to troubles finding food on the road. Another noteworthy fact is that he used to go fishing and hunting with his father before converting to a vegan diet.
- All those memes saying "The Wyatt Family? Hell yeah, more beards"? Downright hilarious with them feuding now. Threatened to cross into Harsher in Hindsight with Bryan joining the Wyatts at the end of 2013, but was quickly made simply hilarious again after January 13, 2014.
Hollywood Homely: DBD may not have the super defined bodies of a lot of his peers, but put him in any other circumstance and he'd be quite studly. On a meta-level, this also applies to his vanity WWE title made out of kayfabe eco-friendly materials, which looked really good.
Ho Yay:
- He and his manly... so manly...oh, so manly NXT rookie, Derrick Bateman. So, so much.
- Also kind of with Kane, given their When Harry Met Sally... diner skit, when it sounded like they were having a simultaneous orgasm remembering beating up the other tag teams with chairs.
Like You Would Really Do It: The "Loser Leaves WWE" match he had against Roman Reigns in 2021. Everybody called that he would lose the match, but nobody thought it would actually result in him leaving the company in any long-term capacity, with most assuming it was just to give him a break from wrestling or allow him to transition into more of a backstage role. Then the news broke that Daniel Bryan's WWE contract had expired the same day with no renewal, and only then did people start taking the idea that he was a free agent seriously.
Love to Hate: It remained to be seen how an Ensemble Dark Horse like Bryan could get over as a heel, but man, oh man, had his character turned into a bastard during his time as World Heavyweight Champion.
Memetic Mutation:
- The Final Countdown. It started as an ROH thing but has mutated into something far more. As late as 2014, Shane McLane making his U Know Pro debut with the Final Countdown as his entrance theme instantly got him boos and chants of "You're not Danielson!" (for reference, not only had Danielson not used Final Countdown in four years, McLane had been wrestling thirteen years before Danielson debuted anywhere, that's how strong the association had become)
- After Danielson was fired from the 'E for choking Justin Roberts with his tie, he supposedly gained a reputation for heinous tie-related violence◊. Made all the worse by WWE.com advertising ties for Father's Day shortly thereafter. Fans at his later indie appearances threw ties into the ring and asked him to autograph their ties, too.
- SUBMISSION WRESTLING.
- White Swan of SUBMISSION.
- From his Ring of Honor days: "You're gonna get your fucking head kicked in!" (Chanted to the tune of what is known in Australia as the "You're going home in the back of a divvy van!" chant)
- Indirectly responsible for "Is Samoa Joe gonna have to choke a bitch?"
- YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Stemming from his run as World Heavyweight Champion.
  - This could be headed for Ascended Meme status, as WWE crowds are starting to adopt this as a chant not only in support for Bryan, but for EVERYTHING.
  - WWE also has officially made a "YES! YES! YES!" shirt.
  - The chant has popped up at Ring of Honor shows, high school sporting events, Michigan State's celebration of their NCAA victory, Mexico vs. Nigeria soccer games, and even being acknowledged by the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.◊^note
- "I AM THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS!" was swiftly adopted by the WWE fans after Bryan and Kane took to yelling this at one another following their tag team championship win.
- THE Ryback.
- SO RIDICULOUSLY OVER!
- "...vs. Daniel Bryan in a Triple Threat match!" - after his very late insertion into the WrestleMania 37 main event with Roman Reigns and Edge, this took off due to the internet's Broken Base reaction^note and Bryan's Unintentionally Unsympathetic character portrayal in the build to the match itself. Given that this was the second time Bryan had been thrown into a Wrestlemania main event that originally featured a current top star and returning star from the past, the meme kind of grew legs from there and began to feature Photoshops of previous match graphics with Daniel Bryan inserted, expanding beyond WWE and even beyond Wrestling itself.
- An image exists of Daniel Bryan with his face extremely close to Buddy Murphy, whilst staring at him and Buddy is looking away.
- In AEW, during one of Bryan's promos, Bryan makes a rather...unnerving face that's often used as a reaction image.
Mexicans Hate Bryan Danielson: Despite managing to get over nearly everywhere in the world, Danielson had particular trouble getting a reaction in Mexico, even after working with Konnan, who is to Mexico what Hulk Hogan is to Danielson's native land.
Misblamed: It's par for the course when it comes to the WWE. Nevertheless, he received some major criticism during his post-WM30 championship run. Everything from the storylines to his injuries were apparently all his own doing.
Narm Charm:
- He is a Large Ham with some truly epic Narm Charm moments, such as declaring himself a "ONE MAN RIOT SQUAD!" in the build up to Final Battle 2006 (seen here at 1:59).
- His dancing with the Raw divas.
- YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Even as a heel, Danielson is Narm Charm incarnate.
Never Live It Down: Danielson was always a good wrestler, but from 2002-2005 his promo and speaking ability were...well, "lacking" is generous. He improved quite a lot as ROH Champion and afterward, but he seems incapable of escaping the label of "talented in the ring, but no personality," no matter how much he has hammed it up since then. NXT tried its best to alter that perception. His feud with The Miz was helping too, especially since the Miz is awesome at promos. These days, however, no one questions his ability to cut a good promo or get a good reaction entirely on his charisma. Becoming an extremely Large Ham following his World Heavyweight Championship victory might have had something to do with it.
- More recently, Daniel Bryan has become strongly tied to his "YES!" catchphrase. Time will tell if he can shake that association off.
Older Than They Think:
- The crowd alternating chants goes back at least to ECW's "The Shah" Hack Myers, since fans would chant "Shah" when he hit a move^note and "Shit" when his opponent retaliated.
- Back in WCW in 1995, the Zodiac (Brutus Beefcake) of the Dungeon of Doom spoke only in "YES! NO! YES! NO!".
- Whenever people think of wrestlers proudly declaring themselves the "best in the world" in the 2010s, either Chris Jericho or CM Punk will come to mind (in fact, Jericho and Punk feuded exactly for that reason, even though Jericho's catchphrase was actually about being the "best in the world at what I do"). However, in Ring of Honor before then, Bryan Danielson was already declaring himself to be that, with the crowd even chanting "best in the world" during his matches.
One-Scene Wonder: Danielson's WWE Pay Per View experiences had been like this when he had just re-debuted; he wrestled in the first or second match on the card, but those matches usually winded up match of the night. Examples include Miz/Morrison/DBD at Hell in a Cell, DBD/DiBiase at Survivor Series, or DBD/Ziggler at Bragging Rights.
- Given his former status in the mid-card, pretty much every wrestler he's fought since Night of Champions (Miz, Ziggler, etc) has had their "best match ever" in many people's eyes with Danielson.
Pandering to the Base:
- Bryan beating up Michael Cole was awesome not just because of the angle, but because there is significant overlap among WWE fans who hate Michael Cole and WWE fans who like Bryan Danielson. For that exact same reason, Cole goes over the top in heeling it up whenever he's announcing a Danielson match.
- The same is true, to a somewhat lesser extent, with his feud with The Miz. Smarks actually tend to like Miz (as a rule, they're fans of charismatic heels)... but they didn't like the much less experienced Miz being made the NXT mentor for the man whom many consider the best wrestler in North America (for reference, Bryan was already wrestling while Miz was still a cast member on The Real World).
- And of course, the build-up to his Summerslam 2013 match against John Cena ran on this, complete with him declaring about his new shirt to Cena: "This shirt is a parody of you, because I think that you are a parody of wrestling."
Shocking Elimination: On NXT, especially after ending up in 1st place in the previous poll. He was removed from the competition due to him not being all in, as WWE management called it, along with Michael Tarver.
Signature Scene: Oh where do we start?
- Choking Justin Roberts with his tie that lead to his release before returning to SummerSlam months later.
- Him betraying the Wyatt Family on January 2014 on top of a Steel Cage.
- His 18 second WrestleMania XXVIII match against Sheamus that gave birth to the "YES!" chants.
- His WrestleMania XXX victory ending him with both Championship belts in his arms.
- His first retirement in 2016.
- Announcing that he has been cleared to return to the ring in 2018.
- Making his AEW debut at the end of All Out 2021.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Daniel Bryan isn't the WWE's most cherished worker, but he had enough Popularity Power to force major rewrites after the PR disaster that was the 2014 Royal Rumble. Even now, the WWE and their fanbase don't seem to see eye-to-eye on just how much D-Bry is worth, though his neck injury now provides some justification for the WWE's reluctance to rely on him.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: His tendency to be screwed and/or injured out of title shots and/or reigns can make one see it hard, if not futile, to stay invested.
Unexpected Character: Danielson's surprise AEW debut at the end of All Out 2021 made him this. Everyone pretty much knew he was coming at some point, much like CM Punk's return it was an Open Secret by that stage, but AEW swerved everyone by having Adam Cole make his own shocking debut at the end of the show, which would have been surprise enough, only to bring out Danielson as well barely two minutes after Cole!
Unintentionally Sympathetic:
- The beginning of Bryan's WHC run. Yes, he is now a heel that has a high opinion of himself. Yes, that was a dick move using AJ to take a hard bump from The Big Show in a title match. However, it was a little hard to not root for him. Putting aside his admirable past work for a moment, his feud going into the 2012 Royal Rumble alone was "David v. 2 Goliaths" of Mark Henry and The Big Show (who were also booked to No-Sell most of Bryan's offense). In addition, he defended the title three times before the Rumble, coming out with somewhat clever methods to walk out with the title against the odds (though again, using A.J. to help in one of those matches was questionable at best).
- There's also the fact that Michael Cole, an unambiguous heel commentator (and ridiculously annoying one at that) still hated his guts.
- For that matter, even the other commentators other than Josh seemed to flop back and forth as to whether they support him or are against him. Josh for his part remained the face and while he doesn't outright question Bryan, he will often call the others out for their conflicting statements.
- His WrestleMania match against Sheamus. Despite everything which had happened up to then, entering into WrestleMania as champion as he had wanted, only to lose the title in 18 seconds after Sheamus takes advantage of distraction from his pre-match good luck kiss left a bad taste in the entire show.
  - This was taken to an entirely different level on the 4/2/12 RAW, where the Miami crowd, filled with leftover fans from the previous night's WrestleMania, took over the show and spent the entire night chanting variations of "YES!" and "DANIEL BRYAN!"

YMMV / Bryan Danielson

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