8 Wrestling Megastars That Started As Backyarders

3. Daniel Bryan

Liv Morgan Daniel Bryan
WWE Network

Like just about anything to do with Daniel Bryan, the story of his backyard past was impossibly charming despite the obvious violent undertones. Describing in detail his time with friends in their BCW (Backyard Championship Wrestling) promotion, the 'Yes! Man' hilariously outlined life between the 'ropes' in his WWE autobiography.

As he put it there; "The biggest development was when I found out that my friends had created their own wrestling league...Sometimes they'd wrestle each other but most of the matches involved Big Bad Brown, a giant teddy bear who was also their Champion. Before the shows started, we'd clear everything out of our family room and lay out a mattress on the floor, thus transforming the room into the BCW Area. Sometimes we would actually try to seriously learn the moves we'd seen on TV, but more often we would just be goofing off."

It wasn't all soft play though. Bryan noted that he didn't even tell his mother about their shenanigans, particularly after he broke his friend's jaw with a botched twisting senton.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett