Bryan Danielson had been recognized as one of the best young wrestlers in the world since the early 2000s, but by 2005 rumors began to circulate that the 24-year-old prodigy was considering retirement. Thankfully, it was all part of a storyline, and Danielson came back to capture the ROH World Championship from James Gibson (Jamie Noble) that September. From there, Danielson adopted a new attitude while forging a legacy. He represented ROH in an interpromotional feud with CZW, then abandoned his side during a grizzly Cage of Death match. After that, Danielson defeated Nigel McGuinness to unify the ROH World and Pure Wrestling Championships, and continued to rack up big wins - including a five-star victory over NOAH star KENTA (Hideo Itami). By the time his reign ended in December of 2006, he had usurped Samoa Joe as ROH's greatest World Champion ever and won acclaim as the best wrestler alive, bar none.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
