10 Reasons Why Daniel Bryan Belongs On WWE's Mount Rushmore
4. Staying Relevant Throughout His Entire Retirement
771 days is how long Daniel Bryan spent retired. Yet, he remained relevant for all 771 of those days.
No one else could have achieved that. Your writer is, for example, the biggest Edge fan going, but even he couldn't have accomplished this during the nine years he spent retired. Bryan managed what any other wrestler - or athlete period - couldn't have.
WWE knew they didn't want to let go of Bryan even though he could no longer actively perform, and thus, he continued to make sporadic WWE appearances in non-in-ring roles, most notably as SmackDown's general manager, Talking Smack's co-host and, alongside Mauro Ranallo, the commentator for the entirety of WWE's summer 2016 Cruiserweight Classic.
Having a world-renowned announcer joined by a legitimate professional wrestler in the booth added further depth to this tournament that is now sadly lost in WWE's archives. Simply by hearing Bryan delighted to call the matches of Kota Ibushi, Zack Sabre Jr., and, um, Sean Maluta added that extra dash of reality to a tournament that so desperately needed it.
Daniel Bryan was kept on WWE programming in major roles for the duration of his retirement. He didn't need to be, though; no one was going to forget the legacy he had left behind.