No matter how much realism is injected into professional wrestling, it is still a fictional world of superheroes and villains, of good defeating evil, of men and women of virtue overcoming those with more nefarious motives. Many (myself included) fall in love with the art as children, where we watch these heroes with wide eyed amazement, copying taunts and mannerisms in the mirror and believing, if only for a second, that we can be heroes too. They provide inspiration, hope and the comfort that comes with knowing that there is a world of possibilities out there. In this respect, professional wrestlers are role models to the audience. For the overwhelming majority of performers this is unnoticed, Aldo Montoya didn't inspire me to wear a yellow jockstrap on my head, Duke Droese didn't improve my opinion of bin men and I didn't start a new fitness regime due to Simon Dean. It is the big stars that provide the biggest influence. Daniel Bryan was exactly the type of influential role model one should want from their fictional heroes. As he ascended the ladder of WWE he did it through hard work and persistence in the face of adversity. He showed that being the best that you can be is worth fighting for, that sticking true to what you believe in and know to be right can bring the results we so desperately crave. He was the most human of professional wrestlers, an anomaly in a world where larger than life personalities are everything. He often spoke of his fairly unconventional views when it came to ambition, wanting more to better himself than to follow any dreams of fame and financial success. He was a vegan in a world of intense physical pressure. As I've stressed many times throughout, Daniel Bryan was a remarkable ordinary human, and in a world of such lofted expectation that is more important than ever. Daniel Bryan is gone as an in-ring performer, and when the tears dry we will be able to step back and count ourselves lucky to be able to be a part of what was a truly important career. For that, we are grateful.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.