The Match That Changed Daniel Bryan's Career
Since his foray into WWE on January 4 2010, Daniel Bryan has gone on to take the industry by storm. The Washington-born wrestler has gone on to clinch three World Heavyweight Championships. Bryan was also a part of Team Hell No, along with Kane and enjoyed a 245-day reign as WWE Tag Team Champion.
Speaking to the official WWE website, Bryan recounted the match that he feels changed his career. The match is a flashback to his days with the Ring Of Honor. ROH World Champion Bryan had to lock horns with ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness in order to unify the two titles. Bryan went on to beat McGuinness on August 12, 2006 in a blood-soaked title clash.
Talking about that fateful day Bryan says, " My No. 1 match that changed wrestling for what it shouldn’t be is a match against Nigel [McGuinness] that I had in England, and I consider it one of my best matches. I grabbed his arms and pulled him into the post. Once. Twice. Three times. I gave it one more. I pull him in and WHACK. He bled so much. It was his home country and people were going nuts for him. It was such an emotionally charged match, it was just awesome."
But Bryan admits that McGuinness had to face a lot of injuries due to the clash. And now when he ponders about it, Bryan isn't too happy about it. "But, the negatives of that, he had this big welt on his face. The next day, his eyes were all bloodshot. The blood had just drained down. The price that Nigel paid for that match was not worth the reaction that we got. It sold a ton of DVDs and did a lot for an independent company, but if you were to ask Nigel now if that was a good idea, I guarantee you he would say, no. After that, safety became of the utmost importance," confesses the 33-year-old.
Currently nursing a neck injury, his slow recovery has cast doubts over his participation at the upcoming Money In The Bank in a stretcher match against Kane. The neck injury along with wife Brie Bella's tiff with Stephanie McMahon had earlier led to Bryan being stripped of his WWE World Heavyweight title.