Daniel Bryan

[Jmare007]

6 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

My favourite match tagging with Rowan was vs. Heavy Machinery at Stomping Grounds 06/23/19. Not a great match or anything but it's great Bryan performance, especially when you think about how really not on his level the other three are.

The match with Roman Reigns against Harper and Rowan at Hell In A Cell 2019 is really good too. Btw if you ever watch that show, just watch the first two matches then turn it off.

Oh shit, you are right! Editing my post.

[El Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Quentin said:

The Fiend match is way better than it has any right to be and I would probably say it’s Bryan’s most impressive babyface match in WWE.

I think it's that, having a plus 20 minute match with old ass Hunter that's legit great, and his ability to get a huge moment and awesome match out of Kofi, who was solid in that match but nowhere close to Bryan, remains his most impressive WWE performances. 

[Kadaveri]

You know, I'm probably voting Bryan #1, but I don't honestly believe that HHH match was some kind of carryjob. For some utterly baffling reason, Hunter decided that for once in his life he'd actually wrestle as someone with the gimmick "The Cerebral Assassin" should wrestle and had a classic.

[Matt D]

So much of that match was that they went short since he was wrestling twice. Cut ten minutes off of every HHH match and see what happens.

[El Dragon]

1 minute ago, Matt D said:

So much of that match was that they went short since he was wrestling twice. Cut ten minutes off of every HHH match and see what happens.

Can we get all of Hunter and Shawns students to take the advice of taking 10 minutes off there matches too please?

[Jmare007]

5 minutes ago, Matt D said:

So much of that match was that they went short since he was wrestling twice. Cut ten minutes off of every HHH match and see what happens.

Plus a Tiger Suplex.

 

 

edit: that spot was always kind of a sign that maybe Bryan had more input than an usual Hunter opponent.

[El-P]

21 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

You know, I'm probably voting Bryan #1, but I don't honestly believe that HHH match was some kind of carryjob. For some utterly baffling reason, Hunter decided that for once in his life he'd actually wrestle as someone with the gimmick "The Cerebral Assassin" should wrestle and had a classic.

Agreed, it was one of HHH's best performance. Stephy was really good as a valet again too. 

The Kofi match on the other hand, I really thought watching this that Bryan was just working some magic trick with a "pretty good" worker.

[Kadaveri]

9 minutes ago, Matt D said:

So much of that match was that they went short since he was wrestling twice. Cut ten minutes off of every HHH match and see what happens.

The match was 25:59, they didn't go short at all. It just feels shorter than Triple H matches of the same length (it's actually longer than the HHH vs. Rollins match at WM33 which everyone complained felt like forever) because it's actually worked in a compelling way.

[Matt D]

Just now, Kadaveri said:

The match was 25:59, they didn't go short at all. It just feels shorter than Triple H matches of the same length (it's actually longer than the HHH vs. Rollins match at WM33 which everyone complained felt like forever) because it's actually worked in a compelling way.

I'm going to GLF that at some point to see if reality hasn't warped in the last seven or eight years.

[Boss Rock]

4 hours ago, Quentin said:

The Fiend match is way better than it has any right to be and I would probably say it’s Bryan’s most impressive babyface match in WWE.

Just watching that match you could tell he was trying so hard to make it interesting, and he succeeded as well as one could in that match.

[MoS]

On Grimmas's excellent opening podcast, it was mentioned that one of the criticisms about him was that he doesn't have some significant signature match to his name. Would you say he has any matches that would be on a list of the greatest matches of all time? I checked good brother @NintendoLogic 's Reawakening thread, and he has 1) v. Morishima 2007; 2) v. Sheamus 2 out of 3 falls 2012; 3) v. HHH 2014. Apart from these, I would also rate his Lesnar Survivor Series match, which is the first time I have seen a big man-little man worked that way, with the small still-face-but-turning guy being cocky and literally mocking the big monster heel, except the monster heel gets cheered anyway generally cuz he is so cool. I go back-and-forth in it, but maybe the Kofi match too, which went up several notches in its last 10 minutes, and by the time it ended, people were crying in the audience. 

[Stiva]

Brock vs Bryan is up there for me. The nut shot alone is one of the all-time great momentum shift spots and that simple reversal of the usual Suplex City section sets the match into overdrive. Bryan unleashing ROH World Champion wrestling machine on Lesnar while building a WWE Main Event climax is pretty stupendous. The Styles and Balor matches had a similar blueprint but neither man could structure it better and make it more memorable than Bryan

[Kadaveri]

The Manhatten Mayhem match against Morishima is up there as a Top 20 match of all time for me. I'd rate the 2014 HHH match, the Kofi match and the Unified match against Nigel McGuinness in the Top 100. I do think it's fair to say that when you're talking absolute top tier all time matches, Bryan doesn't have as strong a list as a Flair/Misawa/Kobashi/Hansen, but he's not that far below and he does surpass those guys in other areas (sheer longevity as a top worker above all else).

[Boss Rock]

The Unified match with Nigel is absolutely one of the greatest matches ever. The 2008 Anniversary Show match is also up there. I agree that his peaks dont quite reach the likes of Hansen, Flair, or the Pillars, but he's extremely hard to beat on overall volume and good matches with lesser opponents (Miz, Wyatt, Triple H).

[soup23]

Bryan vs Cena from SummerSlam finished 10th when PTBN ranked the greatest WWE matches in history. That is a strong showing. 

[Boss Rock]

Agreed, one of the greatest WWE matches ever.

[El-P]

3 hours ago, Kadaveri said:

I do think it's fair to say that when you're talking absolute top tier all time matches, Bryan doesn't have as strong a list as a Flair/Misawa/Kobashi/Hansen, but he's not that far below 

And this my friends, is exactly the reason why he has no shot at being my #1. Because in the end, I value the experience of the greatness in a pro-wrestling match actualized into an aesthetic that I actually care for. And the fact Daniel Bryan worked his prime years in the one context I care the less for and has maybe some of the greatest pro-wrestling work against people you'd have to pay me to willingly watch at this point (hello Kane, coucou Miz) just makes it impossible for me to consider him as my #1 guy. He is just missing that one little Japanese experience or one US big time promotion (hell, even TNA !) work outside of the WWE patterned and overproduced context (which he has successfully tweeked as much as humanly possible because he's just that great). I would love for him, even at this stage, to work that one G1 Climax... Bryan ended up in the WWE system too soon, which has deprived me (and other people) of watching him in the prime of his years in different contexts where he could have expressed his genius in much more satisfying ways. Won't keep him out of my top 10 (or even 5) though.

[Witlon]

 Daniel Bryan is my working number one, as well, so I should probably join in here. 

 I've never seen a bad Daniel Bryan match, truthfully, and while he might not have the myriad of 5* classics, there's plenty of the ****1/2+ stuff that makes up for it. I know other candidates like the AJPW guys and Flair have the same resume, with the long list of 5*s, but the little things are just kind of outweighing it in my mind. The great match list here includes, as others have noted, Bray Wyatt and The Miz, and while I've come around on Miz (maybe more than almost anybody else), nobody else has ever gotten anything close to MOTY level with Bray in a singles, in my mind.

 The real turning point, though, was when I saw Survivor Series 2010 again, and it was a pretty meh/throwaway show, I legitimately remember nothing from it except the opener where Daniel Bryan goes about 10 minutes with Ted Dibiase Jr. and has a very good match. I've seen enough Ted Jr. singles matches to not even think it was possible, but Bryan did it. And maybe that's an arbitrary reason, but I don't know if it was possible for anyone else to do that (I'm probably opening a can of worms with that one, but ya know.) 

 He excelled at the indy style of putting on good matches, and he excelled in a company that wasn't focused on putting on good matches. I just can't call anyone better. 

[Jmare007]

9 hours ago, MoS said:

On Grimmas's excellent opening podcast, it was mentioned that one of the criticisms about him was that he doesn't have some significant signature match to his name. Would you say he has any matches that would be on a list of the greatest matches of all time?

Yeah, I found that puzzling. He has two contenders for best WM match ever in HHH and Kofi (two workers that would never sniff having that kind of match with another opponent) and has the Cena and Sheamus matches as strong candidates for a short list of "goat match".

You then take some of his indy stuff and he certainly has signature matches to his name for a generation of fans that became fans in the 2000s.

Regardless how people actually feel about those matches and if they are indeed "greatest of all time" material. I do think a big number of fans (and  eventual voters) do put them at that level so the idea that he doesn't have signature matches to his name strikes me more as not realizing how his work is perceived or just taking in to consideration the WON/Torch/you-name-it narrative of what the best matches ever are. And in that regard, I don't think it will matter.

To add to list some of you have already mentioned. I think a couple of his matches with Low Ki in 2001 are no doubt GOAT match list material. To me, the one from Round Robin Challenge is one of those.

 

 

 

[Boss Rock]

The round-robin and submission matches are great. He already looks like one of the best in the world.

[Clayton Jones]

The Anniversary show match VS Nigel, the FWH VS Morishima, and the Cena match are all way up there for me. Glory By Honor VS KENTA isn't far off or that last Hero match in PWG. And yeah the Ki Round Robin match for certain too. I think that's a pretty strange criticism for Danielson, and we're only scratching the surface.

[Reel]

I think its in the Zellner/Dylan GWE podcast where Dylan talks about part of Cesaro's case being that we could have a good match on Main Event with Kofi and how daunting that was. Bryan went out there and had one of the best matches in WWE history on a WrestleMania card with the guy. It's as much as a signature match as pretty much anyone could have.  

That's not to knock Kofi, but his list of great singles matches up to that point is non-exsistant. 

[El Dragon]

I have clear bias on this subject, as stated in the pod, but the original Epic Encounter with Paul London is almost my ideal wrestling match. No real storyline just a basic rivalry and an incredibly well worked 2/3 falls match were everything feels earned the entire match. Nobody else would probably put it at that the level I do, but I'd register it as a signature match.

[dkookypunk43]

Bryan was my number 1 in 2016 and is on that short list for 2026. Does everything you ask of him in a wrestling ring really well. There isn't a weakness and manages to never have bad matches. I'd say the Morishima match is his signature match where his retina is detatched

[Jmare007]

I also think his wXw match against Hero in the 16 Carat Gold Tournament from 2008 is in the shortlist of most underrated match of that decade. I've always pimped Bryan's performance during that whole tournament as a stand out of his career and that Hero match is coronation of it. Sure, wXw fans can be annoying as hell but those two put on a fucking clinic that day.