With the debut of former ROH Champion Bryan Danielson a mere four days away, now is a good a time as any to take a look at a bizarre twist of fate. This Tuesday on the Syfy network, Danielson will debut as Daniel Bryans, a rookie wrestler trying to make his debut in the WWE as part of the their NXT initiative (formerly ECW). While I do admit most wrestling fans have never heard of ROH or any of its talent, I would never in my wildest dreams refer to Danielson as a rookie. Danielson has been wrestling since 1999 and has already had a brief stint in WWE developmental in 2001. Throughout his career he has wrestled elite wrestlers such as C.M. Punk, Brian Kendrick, Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, Samoa Joe, Paul London, AJ Styles, and Charlie Hass, as well as shitty yet more famous wrestlers like John Cena. Danielson was trained by some of the best, studying under both Shawn Michaels and William Regal, and has won best technical wrestler every since 2005 and most outstanding wrestler every year since 2006. Not to take anything away from the Miz, who has certainly come into his own since his 2003 wrestling debut (2006 WWE debut), but Danielson is far and away the superior WRESTLER.


On the converse, The Miz certainly has the advantage on Danielson in terms of public speaking ability; one would have to be oblivious to say Danielson is uncharismatic. During his tenure in ROH Danielson was able to captivate crowds, not only due to his superior wrestling ability but also due to his numerous catch phrases interjected during his matches. Akin to Jericho’s recent addition of “ask him” during submission moves, Danielson has always informed the referee that he has till five! on rope breaks, something he always got the audience to reiterate for him. Danielson has even managed to make a song as cheesy as Europe’s “The Final Countdown” into a cult phenomenon.

WWE needs to realize, that as Danielson himself says, he is “the best in the world”. Pairing him with Miz is just another example of Vince McMahon refusing to accept the fact that a wrestler or company (ECW) could become popular without him and this is his attempt to either recreate Danielson or destroy him. I know Bryan agrees with everything I’m saying, but I urge him not to comment, I would want Vince to derail his push because of something as silly as the truth (we all know Vince hates the truth).