Daniel Bryan: The American Dragon Part 2

By CJ Blaze

In part 2 of the American Dragon's story, we take a look at his days in Ring of Honor.
 
Part 2- Ring of Honor
 
In 2002, Danielson joined Ring of Honor. He soon earned the name “Founding Father” because he was a prized-possession to the company in it’s early days. Danielson had outstanding matches in Ring of Honor with the likes of Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, and even an eighty-minute match with Austin Aries! On September 15, 2005, he defeated James Gibson to win his first ROH World Championship.
 
Danielson continued defending the world title for almost a year against rivals such as Chris Hero (Kassius Ohno) and Samoa Joe. He even went on to defeat Nigel McGuinness in a unification match for the ROH World title and the ROH Pure title. Bryan’s fifteen month reign as champion ended when Homicide defeated him at Final Battle 2006.

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Ring of Honor made its national television debut with the program, Ring of Honor Wrestling, and Danielson made his television debut in its third episode by defeating Austin Aries. In the meantime, Bryan and Tyler Black (Seth Rollins) attempted to win the ROH Tag Team titles, but they came up short several times.

On August 23, 2009, it was announced that Bryan Danielson had signed a deal with WWE. He won his last match in Ring of Honor against Nigel McGuinness, who was also competing in his final match with the company. Danielson made his debut in a dark match at Raw on January 4, 2010, where he defeated Chavo Guerrero. A week later, he went to FCW, WWE’s developmental territory, to train shortly before he came to the main roster. During a dark match before Raw soon after, it was announced that Bryan Danielson received his official WWE name: Daniel Bryan.
 
Next Time: Part 3- WWE and NXT