Daniel Bryan has had one of the craziest rides in his WWE career, and it rivals nearly any other Superstar's run with the promotion as well.
Bryan got his first shot in the WWE back in 2000 when he was signed to a developmental deal for a few years. He then began working in Japan along with doing work for Ring Of Honor (ROH), in addition to doing multiple shows on the independent circuit. He was once again signed to a developmental deal in WWE back in 2009 and was made a member of the inaugural season of NXT.
He, along with his fellow NXT rookies, formed the group Nexus and invaded an episode of Monday Night RAW during a match between John Cena and CM Punk. During the invasion, however, Bryan used ring announcer Justin Robert's own tie to choke him, and a disturbing image of this was caught on camera and angered a lot of parents of young WWE fans.
Bryan was released from the company as a result and the WWE issued an apology apologizing for what had transpired. After a few months away from the company Bryan was brought back at the SummerSlam pay-per-view (PPV) and the rest, as they say, is history. Bryan went on to have a great championship career as a singles competitor but was unfortunately forced to retire from in-ring competition early due to an injury. He currently serves as the General Manager of SmackDown Live.
Justin Roberts, who Bryan choked to get released, recently did an interview with Cult Of Whatever to talk about his time with the WWE. During the interview, Roberts revealed that Bryan was, in fact, choking him with the tie (quotes via Wrestling Inc.):
"That was crazy, every week for years I would look around and the people around me would get beat down but they never got me. They would always get the timekeeper and I was always safe.
"On that night when the Nexus invaded Monday Night Raw Arn Anderson told me before hand I may not be safe and that is when we found out what was going on.
"As far as the tie is concerned it wasn't planned like Daniel came up to me and said he was going to get a tie and do this to me.
"He had a general idea of what was going to happen and Daniel Bryan is very smart, he is great at what he does and when he saw my laying there with my shirt off and tie around my neck instinct just took over and he saw an opportunity to get the job done which he was supposed to get done.
"They were told to go out there and cause havoc, nobody said don't do this or don't do that, they were told to make an impact.
"He really did strangle me and people still to this day ask me if I was acting and I wasn't acting, I was legitimately getting choked. I tried to get my finger in-between me neck and the tie but I just couldn't get it to go in, I was choked for a short amount of time but I was fine and when I got to the back everybody was happy with the way the segment went.
"Vince was happy, I was happy, Nexus were happy, the fallout came afterwards when one of the sponsors wasn't pleased."
What are your thoughts on Bryan really choking Roberts during the NXT invasion segment on Monday Night RAW? Have YOUR say in the comments section below and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!
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