WWE: Remembering how much Daniel Bryan’s heel run owned

Last year at WWE Survivor Series, Daniel Bryan knee’d Brock Lesnar down under and nearly completed an upset for the ages. The “New” Daniel Bryan may be a thing of the past, but it was a hell of a run while it lasted.

When Daniel Bryan returned to in-ring action and carried Shane McMahon’s “babyface” butt to a WrestleMania victory, it was like a dream come true. Here was the greatest male wrestler of our generation doing what he does best again and wrestling in a WWE ring, when it seemed like his career would end due to concussions.

The honeymoon period was nice. Bryan did his stuff, started a feud with The Miz and reminded us all why he’s one of the best in the business. But something was missing. It just … it just felt like Bryan didn’t quite have the same edge as a babyface. He was reliving the past and it was fun, but we wanted something new.

And we got it.

For months during his feud with The Miz, Cleveland’s biggest star since LeBron James kept talking about Bryan’s true intentions. Even as he instigated fights with Bryan, he painted the lovable babyface as someone with ulterior motives.

Then, in a rivalry with then-WWE Champion AJ Styles, Bryan finally snapped. He couldn’t beat Styles fair and square, so he hit him with a low blow on the Nov. 13 episode of SmackDown Live to finally end Styles’ lengthy reign at the top and recapture the title for the first time since his return.

But he didn’t do it as our favorite babyface.

He did it as the “New” Daniel Bryan.

The “New” Daniel Bryan’s first test as champion wasn’t a title match, but, rather, a date with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. As has become his gimmick, The Beast Incarnate played his role perfectly in a “David vs. Goliath” match. Bryan didn’t win, of course, but he more than passed his first test, helping Lesnar produce one of the best-told matches of his illustrious career.

What Bryan did afterwards will forever live in our hearts. Yes, he was the bad guy. And, yes, he talked down to us. But damn it, he had a cause in mind. Bryan was “The Planet’s Champion” with an environmentally-conscious belt NOT made out of leather, a verbose vocabulary, a love for wildlife, a desire to educate us about our waste, and a few anti-capitalism rants directed at Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

He also had one more thing that separated him from the rest of the pack. He had a dangerous big man by his side in Erick Rowan, who revitalized his career as Bryan’s henchman.

Rowan was far from the only wrestler to benefit from working with Bryan, who proved to be just as much of a once-in-a-lifetime performer as a heel as he was as a babyface. His heel run in 2018-2019 was on par with his babyface run leading up to WrestleMania 30, because his heel run helped tell an even more special and genuine story at WrestleMania 35.

#KofiMania is one of the greatest moments to happen in wrestling history, because it meant so much more than any wrestling storyline. This was real life. Kofi Kingston is one of the best wrestlers of our era. Yet, he had never been given a world title opportunity after more than a decade with WWE.

Mustafa Ali, who was a talented babyface in his own right benefiting from a thrilling program with Bryan, suffered an injury that helped opened the door for Kofi.

The New Day’s most experienced star blasted the door down, and, on the strength of his incredible Gauntlet match and Elimination Chamber performances, he became Bryan’s No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship.

WWE didn’t drop the ball here, as much as fans feared an ugly surprise. Kingston and Bryan went at it, with Bryan and McMahon doing everything possible to keep Kingston down. Bryan became who he once hated, and, thus, he became the hypocrite we hated.

So when Kingston beat Bryan in one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all-time and raised the WWE Title above his head in celebration with Xavier Woods and Big E, wrestling fans lost it. This moment meant everything to Black wrestling fans, who had been waiting for a dark-skinned man to hold the WWE Championship. And here was Kingston – a Black wrestler born in Ghana – holding the title as the undisputed champion after a memorable run to WrestleMania 35.

Kingston was the company’s MVP, but it’s hard not to kick a little bit of praise to Bryan for the role he played as a heel. Before dropping the title to Kingston, Bryan helped revive Rowan’s career, put Ali on the map, and be the perfect heel foil for one of the best babyface runs in WWE history.

As Bryan prepares to face one of WWE’s hottest acts at Survivor Series for the WWE Championship he once proudly held earlier this year, let’s remember how awesome his heel run was. It was truly as special as his babyface run five years ago, and it overlayed with an even better babyface run from Kingston.

If a heel is measured by putting others over and drawing “good” heat in a unique manner, then Bryan’s run has to be ranked among the best in wrestling history. We are truly blessed to be able to watch a wrestler of his caliber.