Before he was the WWE Champion and leader of the YestleMania, Daniel Bryan was a “rookie”
on the first season of NXT.
He was constantly being told he was a joke and a nerd by heel commentator Michael Cole,
and was eliminated from the show in Week 12.
But after the series finished, Bryan’s career took a sharp turn.
He was part of the biggest WWE invasion angles in a decade, but just a few days later, he
found himself unemployed.
I am Luke Owen and this is the real reason Daniel Bryan was fired by WWE in 2010.
Headline: The Nexus Invade
The date is June 7th, 2010 and Raw was emanating from Miami, Florida with a “Viewer’s Choice”
special.
It was a seemingly normal episode to the audience, but big plans were in store backstage.
The competitors from the first season of NXT – a reality-based TV show where rookies
were mentored by pros in a set of stupid and unscripted challenges – were brought in
to do something on Raw.
They were asked to hide behind a black curtain away from everyone else, and were then brought
into Vince McMahon’s office.
There, Vince and Michael Hayes told them they’d debut later that night in the main event and
make their presence known.
“Vince [McMahon] and Michael [Hayes] had specifically said they wanted a gang-style
beat down – and that’s what we gave them.”
– Daniel Bryan, YES!, 25th February 2016
The main event was John Cena vs. CM Punk, and during the match NXT season one winner
Wade Barrett walked down to the ring.
Then his fellow NXT performers – Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield, Michael
Tarver, Darren Young, David Otunga and Daniel Bryan - came to ringside through the crowd.
The McMahon-requested gang-style beatdown ensued, beating up Punk, the Straight Edge
Society, Jerry Lawler, security guards and even tore up the ring mats and the ring itself.
At one point during this melee, Daniel Bryan noticed ring announcer Justin Roberts knocked
down.
In his autobiography Yes!: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania, Bryan notes
that he wanted the beatdown to look as real and violent as possible...so he grabbed the
tie of Roberts and began to choke him with it.
Like, actually choking him.
“The cameras picked up on this and pulled back because it was a great visual: Justin
on his stomach being choked by his tie around his neck, his face turning purple.
Some people thought he was just selling goofy, but he wasn’t.
I don’t trust non-wrestling people to sell very well, especially when it comes to a big,
important angle.
So it’s better to be a little rough - as long as you don’t hurt them.”
- Daniel Bryan, YES!, 25th February 2016
At some point during this choking incident, someone from production ran down and told
Bryan “no choking” – which was good timing as Bryan was about to grab a cable
wire and do it to someone else.
In fact in the ring, Heath Slater was about to take the ring rope and choke Cena with
it – but Big Match John told him no chocking allowed on the PG product.
Bryan joined the rest of his Nexus cohorts to surround John Cena.
They were all given a chance to shine by hitting big moves on the face of the company, and
Bryan used this as a chance to scream “YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN ME!”
[31] before spitting in his face.
“Everybody from Vince down was happy with what took place…
The Nexus came to the door and shook my hand and apologized as we all exchanged thank-yous,
instead.
I told them that was great, and I thought it went well, and the bosses seemed to be
happy.
It made for awesome TV, and everybody was fine, so it was perfect.”
– Justin Roberts, Best Seat in the House, March 2017
But while everyone was pleased with it, someone clearly wasn’t.
Bryan and the group were asked when they got backstage who choked Cena and who spat on
him – which Bryan owned up to.
He was then told that choking and spitting are not part of their PG guidelines.
Bryan then apologised to both Cena and Roberts, but claims neither of them cared.
Bryan then went to Smackdown the following night and was booked to work an FCW show in
Florida on Wednesday.
The Miz – who was at the show with Bryan working in the main event – told him not
to worry about the situation and that it would all blow over.
Sadly it did not.
One June 11th 2010, Vince McMahon called Daniel Bryan personally, telling him that because
he broke the PG guidelines, WWE had to let him go.
According to Bryan, Vince said that he didn’t want to do it, and didn’t even tell many
people he was firing Bryan before calling him.
“[WWE] apologized and said they had sponsors they had to deal with and whatnot.
And I said don't worry about me, I'm probably going to make more money this year than I
did the last year when I was on NXT.
I had people from Japan calling me, I had TNA people talking to me.”
Daniel Bryan, Baltimore Sun, April 28th 2012
“Vince McMahon informed everyone in a position of power in the company, including John Laurinaitis,
that Danielson had been fired.
McMahon wouldn't give a solid reason as to why, except that pressure from some mysterious
unnamed outside force unhappy with strangulation on WWE TV had necessitated it.”
– Bryan Alvarez, Figure Four Weekly, June 15th 2010
Bryan writes in his autobiography that - as an independent wrestler who had only been
with the WWE for a few months - he didn’t know what PG really meant.
And he and his Nexus pals weren’t told what they could and couldn’t do during the beatdown.
“It was tough for us to get that [TV-PG] logo in the beginning.
For us to violate that content agreement, we get in trouble with our TV providers, we
get in trouble with our sponsors, it pretty much is not good business.”
- John Cena, Busted Open, August 15th 2013
“This was a typical example of a rule being broken without anybody knowing that it even
existed.
It wasn’t like guys haven’t choked each other before, but for some reason this choking
incident got Bryan terminated.”
- Justin Roberts, Best Seat in the House, March 2017
It was reported that several people were very upset about Bryan’s firing, including his
original trainer Shawn Michaels [35 - screen] and Cena himself who took to Twitter asking
fans to send him ‘re-sign Bryan’ petitions.
“I would like Bryan to come back to the WWE.
I would like to sign your petition to bring him back.
I was taught to stand up for what I believe in.
I tried and failed, so I could use some help.
Tell me how to sign and I will.”
– John Cena, Twitter, June 2010
Bryan did return to WWE that summer to take on his former Nexus teammates in a Summerslam
main event that practically killed the group.
Relive that and several other Summerslam disasters!
And what was the real reason The Rock was released in 2005?
Click the videos to the left to find out more.
Press subscribe and support WrestleTalk on Patreon.
I’ve been Luke Owen and that was reasons.