Daniel Bryan Becomes WWE Champion On SmackDown Live; Now Facing Brock Lesnar At WWE Survivor Series

Daniel Bryan is back on top of the mountain!!!!

On March 20th of this year the WWE Universe was shocked as the news was broken by WWE that former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan had been cleared to return to in-ring competition after being retired for two years due to concussion related issues. It was a long road for D.B. but he continued to push forward and made his in-ring return at WrestleMania 34.

Throughout his comeback Daniel Bryan went on to face the likes of Big Cass, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, The Miz and “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles. Daniel Bryan had his first singles match back on SmackDown Live against AJ Styles but little did both men know that later on in the year they would be battling for the WWE Championship. The feud between Daniel Bryan and Styles began when Bryan defeated The Miz at Super Show-Down in Melbourne, Australia for an opportunity to challenge Styles at ‘Crown Jewel’ for the WWE Title. Bryan beat The Miz in that match but it was soon reported that Daniel Bryan told WWE that he was not traveling to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel so he and AJ’s WWE Championship match was hot-shotted to the SmackDown Live prior to Crown Jewel. 

AJ Styles tapped Daniel Bryan out with the “Calf-Crusher” but just a few weeks later the two men would be meeting once more with the Championship on the line. To open tonight’s WWE SmackDown in St. Louis, AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan got into a brawl that was instigated by Paul Heyman. Heyman taunted AJ about wanting to see a Bryan versus Brock Lesnar match opposed to another AJ versus Lesnar match at Survivor Series this Sunday. The brawl between Bryan and AJ became so intense that SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon decided to let the two bulls go one-on-one tonight with the title on the line. That bout was the main event of tonight’s show and both competitors came out guns blazing.

The end of the bout saw both AJ and Daniel lock in their respective submission finishers but AJ gained the advantage and was able to temporarily blind Bryan with a shot to the face. AJ then went to the outside to set up his “Phenomenal Forearm” but Bryan ducked out the way which sent AJ flying into the referee. Bryan took the advantage and low-blowed AJ Styles and followed up by delivering his signature flying knee and a matter of moments later Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles to become WWE Champion and is now moving on to Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view to go one-on-one with the WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. 

To hear some thoughts and opinions on tonight’s momentous SmackDown Live, head over to the Fightful Wrestling YouTube channel where our crew is reviewing the show.