10 Wrestlers Who Actually Asked To Drop The Title!
10. Daniel Bryan – WWE Championship
Since making his comeback at WrestleMania 34 Daniel Bryan has done all he can in trying to get the new and underappreciated talent over. He’s not concerned with wins or titles as much as is working with the younger guys like Drew Gulak to help them find their feet once they graduate to SmackDown from NXT or 205 Live and help the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura remind audiences why he was once the biggest star in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Even with this outlook/mindset, creative couldn’t help but book Bryan to win his fourth WWE Championship in 2018 after low-blowing AJ Styles and kicking off his eco warrior persona in a fantastic heel run.
Kofi Kingston around the same time after some amazing performances in gauntlet and Elimination Chamber matches gained a lot of momentum with fans, with fans starting campaigns to get him in a match at WrestleMania to fight Bryan for the title. Bryan it turned out not only backstage politicked for this to happen but to lose to Kofi too, with Kofi revealing on the After the Bell podcast:
“Bryan pushed for that to happen. The plans weren’t for me to be at WrestleMania. I’m not sure who it was for Daniel to face, but Daniel went in and went to bat for me and the situation and the title match for us to happen.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Kofi beat Bryan in a 23 minute thriller to become WWE Champion that popped the 82,266 crowd huge in New Jersey.