On Tuesday’s episode of Smackdown Live, Daniel Bryan turned heel by using nefarious methods to capture his fourth WWE Championship (tying him with The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Edge, and the man he’ll face at Survivor Series, Brock Lesnar). While many were shocked at this “new” Daniel Bryan, longtime fans of his work in Ring of Honor and elsewhere as Bryan Danielson will recognize this shady persona of Daniel Bryan as being awfully reminiscent of his run as The American Dragon.

Daniel Bryan Returns To Old Ways To Win WWE Championship

https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/1062541218171813888

During his 2006 run as Ring of Honor World Championship run, Bryan was a cocky, arrogant wrestler who used his technical prowess to enforce his bravado, pushing the limits on illegal holds and rope use, insisting to the referees that he “had until five, ref!”.

Daniel Bryan was a heel earlier in his WWE career, during his run with Team Hell No with Kane, where the No movement became the YES movement. But they never really got to see “The American Dragon”. With the heel turn coming out of nowhere – perhaps to cause some buzz after the hotly anticipated Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey match was changed due to Becky’s unfortunate injury – hopefully, they can redeem the out-of-the-blue heel turn and title change by truly unleashing the Dragon.