10 Wrestlers Who Saved World Championships
2. Daniel Bryan - WWE Championship
The WWE Championship had a difficult trajectory following AJ Styles' first reign in 2016. John Cena had a transitional reign to pass the torch to Bray Wyatt, who completely bombed with Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Orton lost not long after to Jinder Mahal, who had a critically reviled reign that helped ruin SmackDown's reputation in 2017. Even when AJ reclaimed the belt, his reign disappointed, with dream rematches against Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe failing to live up to expectations.
Bryan's difficulties in 2018 were similar. He returned miraculously in one of the best moments in wrestling history, but got pushed to the side, stuck in nothing feuds and not getting to properly pay off his years of storytelling with The Miz. One single booking decision rejuvenated both, with Bryan's heel turn and victory of the WWE Championship on an episode of Smackdown shocking absolutely everyone and leading to a masterful reign.
Bryan would become the best talker in the company, have a classic with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series and engage in WWE's best WrestleMania narrative since Bryan's own coronation with Kofi Kingston. Bryan made the belt mean something, proved to everyone why he was still the greatest of all time, and created countless memories in his 5 months as champion.