50 Ups & 50 Downs For WWE's Decade: The 2010s
41. The New Daniel Bryan
Though his heel turn should have taken place about a million years after his return (more on that later) instead of within f*cking eight months of it, Daniel Bryan's versatility was such that he took less than a year of poor booking and transferred it into the frustrations of one of the most forward-thinking characters of the decade. Literally so, if his supposedly selfless intentions were to be believed.
The New Daniel Bryan had no patience for sh*t scripting, nor the fanbase that once adored him, nor even the WWE Championship belt he secured at the starting point of his turn.
Taking environmentalism to a torturous extreme, Bryan played up his world-saving side to such a pretentious and pernicious degree that he threatened the very fabric of the organisation. Few characters could be trusted with literally binning the industry's top prize on screen - Bryan didn't just manage it, he got over a hemp replacement that looked more like his cardigans than an ostentatious reflection of capitalism's excess. Even its eventual sacrifice was under the most noble of circumstances.