Daniel Bryan

Daniel has maintained that he is a Vegetarian since 2009 and will continue to be one. In 2012, PETA awarded him as the ‘Most animal friendly athlete’ in the world.

In 2014, Daniel married Brie Bella, a fellow wrestler, after dating for quite some time. Bella retired from wrestling post marriage and the couple had their first child ‘Birdie Joe Danielson’ in May 2017.

Bryan Lloyd Danielson was born in Washington DC on 22nd May 1981 in a modest middle class family. His father worked as a logger and his mother supported the household working as a therapist. Daniel has an older sister named Billie Sue.

Daniel’s parents divorced while he was still young and that scarred the young boy emotionally. However, he didn’t let it bring him down and he started moving towards athletics and by the time he was in school, he was a pretty good football player. Daniel said in an interview later that he couldn’t live his childhood to the fullest due to the separation of his parents and that changed his perspective on life forever, infusing a deep sense of discontentment inside him.

In 1999, Daniel moved to learn professional wrestling once out of the school and joined Dean Malenko’s wrestling school, which was shut sometime later. He then moved on to Texas Wrestling Academy, maintained by the likes of Shawn Michaels, an affluent wrestler himself.

In 2000, WWF signed Daniel on for a developmental tour, and he was sent to Memphis Championship wrestling, where he was coached by superstar wrestler, William Regal. Just when the small time contract was about to come to an end, Daniel had already won Light Heavyweight Championship and due to his ferociousness inside the ring, he earned the moniker ‘American Dragon’ - he gives William Regal the credit to shape him up into a ‘dragon’.

Daniel wrestled in Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling in Japan for sometime after being released from WWF contract and joined independent promotion Ring of Honour in 2002. One of his matches in the tournament lasted for 80 minutes. Daniel had a long rivalry with a wrestler named Homicide, and ultimately he defeated him in a steel cage match.

Daniel got his hand on the ROH world championship by defeating James Gibson in 2005 and successfully saved the title from many opponents, until the final ROH event of 2006, where his 15 months reign was ended by Homicide. The match was emotionally and physically destructive, and Daniel suffered a shoulder injury, which kept him away from professional wrestling for quite some time.

In May 2007, Daniel made a return to the ring with ROH, which eventually made a debut on the American television in 2009 and in his first ever match which was telecast on the national television, Daniel defeated Austin Aries. Later in 2009, Daniel signed up for WWE, and in a farewell match for the title shot against Aries at ROH, he lost. However, he fought very last match for the company in September, in which he emerged victor against McGuiness, who was also bidding farewell to the Ring Of Honour.

In his first match for WWE, Daniel defeated Chavo Guerrero and made his debut on NXT in February 2010. His feuds with WWE stars, The Miz, and John Cena, ended with Daniel being excessively violent and WWE announced that he is about to get fired due to his excessively violent behaviour on an ‘entertainment’ show.

As of June 2017, Daniel Bryan’s net worth is USD 8 million.