There is no way to deny Daniel Bryan his place in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
Bryan has won numerous Observer awards, including Most Outstanding Wrestler (2006-10) and Best Technical Wrestler (2005-13). At WWE, he’s been in main-event programs and headlined WrestleMania.
But most of Bryan’s Observer awards were won while working in front of comparatively few people. He shortened his career, it can be argued, by working an unnecessarily perilous style. In his attempt to do things right, Bryan did a lot wrong. He considered work rate and 5-star matches to be important at a time when they’ve never been less so. Bryan has charisma, connects with the fans, and cuts good promos. He should have relied more on that, and less on risk.
In short, Bryan is a mark. Always has been.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Bryan is from an era where the smart people buy tickets, and the marks are in the ring.
But the smart people aren’t so smart. Mostly, they just ruin shows.
When the internet wrestling community was born and people got smartened up (or so they think) en masse, it gave birth to the notion that anybody could be a pro wrestler. Because it’s fake, right? Pretty soon, everybody tried.
Bryan is an extreme example of that. He’s listed at 5-10. Not even close. It wasn’t long ago that a performer that size just wouldn’t get a chance, except perhaps in a tag team. These are simulated fights. A 5-6 guy wasn’t seen as a threat.
But Bryan became a main-eventer, much to his credit. So did a skinny tattooed kid named C.M. Punk. How could Punk be perceived as a legit threat to the Undertaker? But he was, at WrestleMania 29. Punk lasted 25 minutes with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam ’13. On TBS at 6:05, that’s a 90-second squash.
It’s fake. Anybody can do it. Bryan and Punk did it great, though I don’t see Punk as a Hall-of-Famer. (More later.)
