{"id":10373,"date":"2016-02-09T14:02:18","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T20:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=10373"},"modified":"2016-02-09T14:02:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T20:02:18","slug":"10373","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/02\/09\/10373\/","title":{"rendered":"MITCHELL: Daniel Bryan Sets the Standard Once Again (#1443)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4110690163\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Hey, I get it.<\/p>\n<p>Shinsuke Nakumura is debuting at the WrestleMania weekend NXT Takeover show. A.J. Styles is already on Raw. Hideo Itami will be back from injury soon enough. Kevin Owens is a Raw regular, too. Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, and even Samoa Joe will be there soon enough. Hell, Dean Ambrose, Neville\u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/vip.pwtorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Staff11Mitchell_1201.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2161\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/vip.pwtorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Staff11Mitchell_1201.jpg\" alt=\"Staff11Mitchell_120\" width=\"120\" height=\"138\" \/><\/a>Can you imagine the match ups, the rub that all this this talent, so much like their role model in their WWE newness, their superlative ability, and their independent experience would get?<\/p>\n<p>And then there\u2019s this year\u2019s WrestleMania. What is it missing, well, besides a main event or two? A WrestleMania moment, that\u2019s what. We haven\u2019t had one of those since, well, you know\u2026<\/p>\n<p>So, I get the disappointment that Daniel Bryan, the best, most influential professional of his generation, stepped up Monday night and retired from the sport he loved. Concussions? He seems fine to me. Aren\u2019t there doctors who say it\u2019s okay for him to get back in the ring?<\/p>\n<p>If WWE doctors (and who trusts them?) won\u2019t let Bryan back in the ring, then what\u2019s stopping him from leaving and going to any of the several good-working independent promotions, jump-starting their businesses while metaphorically tearing their houses down? What\u2019s stopping him is the nature of his WWE contract, that they can freeze the time left from the moment he was injured.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Nakamura and A.J. Styles for Daniel Bryan? Seems fair, or at least more fair\u2026<\/p>\n<p>So, like I said, I get it. There\u2019s a lot of sports and entertainment left on the table if Daniel Bryan retires. This is an era where NXT wrestling is upstaging the boys on the main stage, and Daniel Bryan is the first, and greatest, of the NXT wrestlers. It\u2019s a shame he won\u2019t be in the ring to enjoy NXT\u2019s continued rise.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1780094197\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>The truth is, there are higher stakes involved here than even ones involving great entertainment for fans and money for rich promoters.<\/p>\n<p>Before there was Daniel Bryan, there was&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>THIS FULL ARTICLE IS A VIP EXCLUSIVE:<\/p>\n<p>-VIP MEMBERS, <a href=\"http:\/\/vip.pwtorch.com\/2016\/02\/09\/vip-article-mitchell-daniel-bryan-sets-the-standard-once-again-1443\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLES<\/a><\/p>\n<p>-NOT VIP YET? NO PROBLEM. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/pwtorch-vip-membership-information\/\">CLICK HERE FOR MOBILE-FRIENDLY SIGN-UP INFO<\/a>\u00a0and gain access to over 1,400 back issues of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter dating back to the 1980s, around 100 VIP-exclusive audio shows (ad-free) per month including new content and vintage 1990s and 2000s radio shows, the VIP website with ad-free access to everything on PWTorch, all desktop\/laptop\/mobile friendly.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1934542529\"><div id=\"pwtor-237174252\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Hey, I get it. Shinsuke Nakumura is debuting at the WrestleMania weekend NXT Takeover show. A.J. Styles is already on Raw. Hideo Itami will be back from injury soon enough. Kevin Owens is a Raw <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/02\/09\/10373\/\" title=\"MITCHELL: Daniel Bryan Sets the Standard Once Again (#1443)\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,43,60],"tags":[79,394,224,1585],"class_list":["post-10373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-vipexclusivealerts","category-takes_mitchell","tag-bruce-mitchell","tag-bryan-danielson","tag-daniel-bryan","tag-vip-article"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/02\/BrianDanielWK-diving_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10376,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10373\/revisions\/10376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}