Before he was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and the most popular wrestler in the world, he was "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson and the original "Best in the World" He regularly competed with Claudio Castagnoli (more on him later) as Team Uppercut, with Dave Taylor as the occasional third man. Together, Team Uppercut made it to the finals of the 2009 King of Trios before being defeated by CHIKARA mainstays F.I.S.T. Later in the year, Bryan would sign with WWE and eventually debut on the first season of NXT. After the Nexus invasion angle where Daniel Bryan was fired for choking Justin Roberts with his tie, he quickly returned to the independents. His first match back was for CHIKARA only two weeks after leaving WWE, against Eddie Kingston. While throwing streamers into the ring to show your support for a wrestler is traditional in many independent and international promotions, the CHIKARA fans went one further and threw neckties to show their support. Bryan defeated Eddie Kingston in his first match back, and on the next night he defeated Tim Donst. This was Bryan's final involvement with CHIKARA, and only a month or two later he'd return to WWE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1QzDuhGLbE
