5 Things We Learned From Total Bellas
3. Daniel Bryan Was Preparing To Fight Brock Lesnar
In one episode, Daniel Bryan and Nikki Bella visit the NXT training facility in Orlando, where they run into Sami Zayn. Bryan demonstrates a new “animalistic” style of wrestling he was working on “for wrestling Brock.” Queue amazing video package with Lesnar's music showing the Total Bellas audience various clips of the Beast looking scary and doing scary things. A bit unfair that neither Bryan nor Cena ever got such a good VT package but, you know, whatever.
Bryan developed this style to take very few bumps, and from the little we saw on the Total Bellas segment, it involved being close to ground, with a more fluid way of taking and absorbing impact by rolling through the bump as opposed to hitting hard against the mat. It was actually more reminiscent of traditional wrestling, with a lower centre of gravity and more focus on holds and submissions.
Had Daniel Bryan been cleared to wrestle and gone through with the development of this new style, it would have been fascinating to see. As to how effective it would have been against Brock Lesnar is another matter. There are only so many ways you can absorb an F5 (most of them painfully). Still, Lesnar was a legitimate NCAA Division I heavyweight wrestling championship in his youth, and maybe he would have been willing to accommodate. They might even have produced a match similar to Benoit and Angle's bout at WrestleMania X-Seven.
It does at least show how serious Daniel Bryan was about returning, and how he had actively been working on a new in-ring style that would be easier on his health. Shades of what could have been.