5. He Has A Beard (And Hes Not Afraid To Use it)
Daniel Bryan has gotten over with the majority of WWE fans mainly by growing a beard. Thats actually a skill in and of itself. Not everyone can be beloved simply for the growing of facial hair (it didnt work for Cody Rhodes, after all). Now, hes a wonderful wrestler and storyteller as well, but the casual fans dont really care about all that. They are in it for the beard, first and foremost. As Bryan Danielson, or The American Dragon, D-Bry had awesome matches all over the world, but he wasnt anything like as popular as he is now that hes...um, embeardened. Respect the beard, people. Thats the genius of the Daniel Bryan character, he took something that, like, 50% of the population can quite easily do and sold out arenas with it. That actually takes more talent than somersaulting off of the top turnbuckle does, because its something that simply cant be taught. Look at Daniel Bryan, I mean really look at him, hes short, hes funny looking and hes a vegan. Hes not a legitimate badass like Ken Shamrock or Kurt Angle; hes not a heartbreaker like Shawn Michaels or Jeff Hardy, hes not a super heavyweight monster like Earthquake, Vader or Kane. Hes a short, funny looking vegan. With a beard. Thats just who Bryan is and rather than being saddled with a dumbass gimmick (like a comic book superhero or a stereotypical lunatic), hes simply been given the freedom to add to his own character and thus create something unique, surreal and refreshingly earnest. Daniel Bryan is a funny guy, hes loveable and not afraid to laugh, in that respect, he reminds me of perhaps my all-time favourite wrestler, Eddie Guerrero. Eddie was an amazing athlete, but he was just as much fun to watch outside the ring, his promos and vignettes actually got him over just as much as (if not more than) his incredible ring work ever did. Bryan can seemingly take anything and make a solid gimmick out of it; seeing him grow this (to paraphrase Jim Broadbent in Hot Fuzz) GREAT BIG BUSHY BEARD! and sell it so very well feels to me like hes finally found himself, or, at least hes found the character he wants to be. Whats more, he turned Flight of the Valkyries into WWEs most popular entrance theme, made YES! YES! YES! And NO! NO! NO! into the most memorable catchphrases since The Rocks limitless stream of one-liners and got Kane to act as his straight man. However, I digress, this section is about the beard... That beard is probably worth several million Dollars. How often do you get to say that? So, in conclusion, Daniel Bryan made millions of fans notice him just by going for a couple of months without a shave. Now thats talent. Its a sign that the fans want to like him before hes even locked up with his opponent.