10 Wrestlers Who Succeeded Against The Odds

4. Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan is a modern day Rocky Balboa, and at the peak of his popularity, he was an avatar for pro-wrestling fans around the world. His size, look, and indie-centric move-set placed him at the opposite end of the spectrum to Vince McMahon’s “ideal” main eventer, but the WWE Universe took to Bryan like none other.

Bryan had to leap over all kinds of hurdles throughout his WWE run. It looked like his career was being cut-short when he was fired for choking Justin Roberts during the Nexus’ inception angle, but he came back to WWE and quickly rose through the ranks. Bryan scraped the glass ceiling, but initially struggled to burst through.

He was famously beaten by Sheamus at WrestleMania in eighteen seconds, and countless others were ascended in his rightful place.

But Bryan persisted. He birthed the Yes Movement, occupied Raw, and continued to get over on the strength of his work. The 2014 Royal Rumble saw him passed over, but WWE saw the support he was gaining and decided to flip flip the switch. Bryan’s WrestleMania XXX title win remains one of the most cathartic in the sport’s history because of all the hoops he had to leap through to get there, and though his reign on-top was cut short, it’s a moment that’ll live long in WWE history.

We all know how his story ended at this point, but the man once branded a “B+ player” by Stephanie McMahon achieved remarkable success while being set-up to fail. Few wrestlers have overcome such a level of corporate distrust as Daniel Bryan, and even fewer have made a success of it.