 |
| YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Points: 2801
Votes Received: 29
Highest Vote: 1st Place (Robert Lamb)
2009 and 2010 Rankings: 15th in '09, 1st in '10
TH: Last year, I voted Daniel Bryan 1st place. This year, I voted him 4th. That's the definition of a "down" year for the American Dragon, which is funny, because a "down" year for most anyone would have them in the bottom half of my ballot or left off it altogether. While Bryan was typically great in his appearances this year, there were a few things that knocked him down a few pegs for me.
The first was that his exposure wasn't as pervasive as it was in '10. Obviously, longer matches and better positioning on the card will lend itself to more of a fleshed-out template for a master like himself to create. In '10, he got his stint in the indies where he could be Bryan Danielson for one last time before he went back to WWE ostensibly for good, and those promotions that booked him were happy to give him all the time he wanted and needed to tell whatever story he wanted to tell. When he got back to WWE, he was given spotlight feuds with The Miz and Dolph Ziggler to have long matches. This year, a lot of that was missing, especially for the first part, although he did have a few really excellent TV matches against Miz and Sheamus.
He popped up again in the summertime when he won the Smackdown Money in the Bank and had a really good match with Wade Barrett at Summer Slam. Still, there was something categorically missing. Despite having the briefcase, he wasn't featured every week, and really, his push that continues now wasn't started until around Survivor Series. I'm not complaining though, because from the end of November on, Bryan got the spotlight he was missing, and it produced his first really, truly worthy match of the year candidate in his cage match with Mark Henry on the live Holiday Smackdown.
I don't mean to come off as overly negative about AmDrag though, because he really was good this year. No one can be first place every year, as referenced by Dylan finally not giving Rey Mysterio his first place vote for the first time in three ballots. It's hard to stay on top, even for someone who is talented as Bryan is. I expect a huge bounce back year in 2012, but even then, it's not to say that his '11 was bad. It was just "down" I guess, which again, for Danielson? It's only a relative term.
Dylan Hales: I am writing this without knowledge of the results, but I expect Bryan to finish second. He doesn’t deserve to. That is not to say he did not have a quality year. When he was on he was on and when he was given chances he delivered. His matches with Barrett, Regal and Henry were standouts. Early in the year he had an excellent TV match with The Miz, and later in the year he hit a home run vs. del Rio. Still this felt like a less consistent year for Bryan. At times he seemed more formulaic in the ring than he ever has at any point in his career, the most glaring example being his match with Drew McIntrye, where he just rolled out spots giving the extremely talented Drew Mac no room to add flavor. All totaled this is a minor criticism of a great worker who had a pretty damn good year. He sat just outside of my top ten and with a flip of a coin I could have seen him as high as eighth. Second or third? That seems like a real stretch, though he’s well on his way to earning a top spot for 2012.
Kevin Friskey: YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Sorry, had to be done!
Mike Germano: The way I organized my list is who would I most like to see an in-ring match between. If Ziggler is unavailable, Mah Bawy D-Bry is next on the list. I am a sucker for the stiff kicks, submission counters, and badass beards, but it seems Bryan is almost incapable of having a bad match. The American Dragon’s improbably run as a Money in the Bank winner solidified him first as an underdog, and now as Benoit 2.0.
Dave Musgrave: One of my favourite wrestlers of all time rose above the ridiculous handling of his career by the WWE to become a main eventer. His character work has been really strong since he won the title and things that are easy to forget are how strong his work with Sin Cara was, to the point that he pretty much saved his WWE career. He has become a go-to guy for WWE and I can’t think of a better wrestler to go to.
