WWE: 15 Greatest Technical Wrestlers – Number 3

Today, we look at a wrestler who is not only known as the king of the independent scene, or as the ‘indy darling’, but is now one of the hottest ‘superstars’ in the WWE. Spending nearly a decade traveling around the world, honing his craft, putting shows in front of crowds, no matter if they were in mere hundreds or thousands, he dedicated his life to the industry.

Working his way from nothing more than just an athletic ‘small guy’, he made a name for himself in the independent scene as the best wrestler on the planet. He had legendary feuds against the likes of Nigel McGuinness, Austin Aries and Samoa Joe. He is also one of the founding fathers of Ring of Honor, and wrestled on the very first show of the company. He is none other than the ‘American Dragon’, Bryan Danielson, better known to the WWE Universe as Daniel Bryan.

 

From humble beginnings to becoming the face of the biggest organization in the world, Daniel Bryan’s journey was anything but easy. Being the student of a technical genius such as William Regal, and the protégé of one of the greatest professionals of all time like Shawn Michaels put a lot of pressure on Bryan to make it big in a business which looks down on people who’re not 6 foot and over 260 pounds.

Bryan started his journey from the bottom, working his way up and was signed to a contract by the then WWE, who sent him to their developmental, but was released soon. This gave Bryan the opportunity to tour the world and put on great matches, as he picked up the monicker of the ‘American Dragon’. Bryan wrestled in Japan and came back to the United States, where he started performing for the newly formed Ring of Honor.

During his time in Ring of Honor, Danielson made a name for himself as the greatest technical wrestler in the world, putting on great matches against the likes of Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe. In ’05, Danielson won the RoH world championship, and had some outstanding 80 minute matches. It was no surprise that Danielson was named the ‘Most Outstanding Wrestler’ by Wrestling Observer for 6 years straight, from ’05 to ’10.