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120-408: American Dragon may refer to: Bryan Danielson , professional wrestler who used the ring name "American Dragon" American Dragon: Jake Long , an animated television series See also [ edit ] American Dragons , a 1998 film Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
240-557: A Velocity taping in January, Rico at a Heat taping in February, John Cena at a Velocity taping also in February, and made his final appearance in November in a tag team match against Paul London and Spanky at a Velocity taping, in which he was partnered with John Walters. This was his final appearance for the promotion for over five years. Danielson went to Japan after his release from
360-432: A ten-man tag team match in which a man from each team starts in the cage and a random wrestler enters periodically thereafter. During the match, Danielson turned on his team by assaulting his rival Samoa Joe before leaving the match and effectively abandoning his involvement in the animosity between the two promotions. As the interpromotional hostility with CZW heightened, Danielson also defended against challengers from
480-569: A thumb war , before singing " John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt " along with the crowd. In May, he made another appearance teaming with Paul London, referring to himself as "American Dolphin" in a parodied manner. On September 4 at Guerre Sans Frontières during his last night in PWG, Danielson defeated Chris Hero to win the PWG World Championship for the second time and immediately vacated it afterward. Following his return from his injury in 2007,
600-623: A ROH title. In 2005, Danielson explained in the company's newsletter, The ROH Newswire , that he had quit ROH after being frustrated by his inability to defeat Austin Aries for the ROH World Championship . It was later revealed Danielson had become frustrated in general with professional wrestling and planned to take some time off to evaluate his career options. However, Danielson had several dates booked in Europe and Japan, leading fans to believe that
720-652: A Squared Circle Wrestling event. On September 10, he returned to the IWA using the name Daniel Bryan and lost the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship to Dennis Rivera . The following day, Danielson returned to EVOLVE by defeating Munenori Sawa in the main event. Later that same night, Danielson wrestled for New York Wrestling Connection in a tag team match, where he and Tony Nese defeated Dimitrios Papadon and Alex Reynolds. On September 25, Danielson returned to Dragon Gate USA and defeated YAMATO in
840-526: A WWE Championship match and instead forcing him to face Kane on August 19 at SummerSlam , where Bryan emerged victorious. As a result of Bryan and Kane's issues, AJ enrolled them in anger management classes hosted by Dr. Shelby and they were later forced to "hug it out". At the arrangement of Dr. Shelby and AJ, the two adversaries formed a team whose constant bickering and infighting even during matches inadvertently resulted in them defeating The Prime Time Players ( Titus O'Neil and Darren Young ) to become
960-576: A battle royal at Judgment Day for the title. Christian won the battle royal to win the championship and restore a secondary singles title for Raw wrestlers to compete for. Eventually, WWE did the same thing for SmackDown and created a separate set of titles for that brand; for its secondary title, SmackDown reactivated the United States Championship that had been unified with the Intercontinental Championship in 2001, placing
1080-506: A brain lesion . He then took on a non-wrestling role for WWE as the on-screen general manager of SmackDown and remained in the role until 2018, when he was unexpectedly cleared by doctors to return to in-ring competition. His WWE contract expired in May 2021, and he made his AEW debut four months later. Since joining AEW, he has headlined several AEW pay-per-view events and won the men's 2024 Owen Hart Cup . He defeated Swerve Strickland to become
1200-566: A fan of wrestling ever since. He considered himself shy and antisocial as a child and teenager, but still competed in sports such as football and track and field . To help his mother support the family after his parents' divorce, he and his sister both delivered newspapers as children, and later worked at McDonald's as teenagers. For a brief time in high school, he lived with his father in Castle Rock, Washington . During his sophomore year at Aberdeen High School , Danielson decided to pursue
1320-657: A fellow trainee from the TWA, and they competed in several tag team matches. He won the TWA Tag Team Championship with Spanky on March 21, 2000, defeating The Board of Education (Jeromy Sage and Ruben Cruz), but they dropped the titles back to The Board of Education two weeks later. While touring the country's independent circuit , Danielson was signed to a developmental deal by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to work in their developmental system and
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#17329028189491440-549: A good luck kiss from AJ. On the following episode of SmackDown , Bryan blamed AJ for his title loss and ended their relationship. Despite AJ's attempts to mend their relationship, Bryan cruelly rebuffed her multiple times, leaving AJ an emotional wreck. At Extreme Rules on April 29, Bryan failed to regain the World Heavyweight Championship from Sheamus in a two-out-of-three falls match , losing two falls to one. The next night on Raw SuperShow , Bryan became
1560-496: A hardcore match the next week. As a result of the victories over Hardy and Dreamer, Van Dam is regarded as the last European and Hardcore champion in WWE history; these were his first and fourth reigns with those respective titles. On September 30, 2002, Bischoff scheduled a match to unify the Intercontinental Championship with the recently created Raw-exclusive World Heavyweight Championship . The unification match took place at No Mercy
1680-503: A legitimate nerve injury , which was a stinger resulting in Bryan being unable to feel both his arms for the rest of the match. He's the most technically proficient wrestler the WWE main-event scene has seen possibly since Bret Hart , and he connects with the crowd (the whole crowd — sorry, Mr. Cena) in a near-euphoric way we haven't seen consistently since The Rock in his prime. —David Shoemaker of Grantland , while declaring Bryan as
1800-687: A losing effort against CM Punk , which led to a brief feud between the two. Danielson's biggest success came in 2006 by winning the FIP Heavyweight Championship , holding the belt for eleven months before losing it to Roderick Strong . Danielson wrestled his last match for FIP in December 2006 at Florida Rumble, where he lost to Erick Stevens . Danielson also wrestled in the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) promotion. He made his debut in November 2003 at An Inch Longer Than Average in
1920-530: A losing effort to PWG Champion Frankie Kazarian . He continued to appear in PWG over the next couple of years, winning the PWG World Championship in 2007 and holding it for six months before taking an eleven-month hiatus from the company. He made his return to PWG at the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles tournament. In April 2009, at PWG: One Hundred, Danielson defeated Kenny Omega . The match was notable for its opening, which included Omega and Danielson performing variable tests of strength, including arm wrestling and
2040-542: A match that ended in a no contest, and the second match was a Hell in a Cell match at Hell in a Cell , where Orton won the title. WWE Intercontinental Championship The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a men's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE , defended on the Raw brand division . It is one of two secondary championships for WWE's main roster, along with
2160-407: A new Intercontinental Champion. On May 7, 2010, after failed attempts of getting Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre to stop attacking Matt Hardy , Smackdown General Manager Theodore Long fired McIntyre and vacated the title. The following week, Kofi Kingston won a tournament to become the new champion, but Mr. McMahon reverted Long's decision. Due to the decision by Mr. McMahon, the vacancy of
2280-432: A new champion was then set to begin on the May 15 episode of SmackDown . † Neither Jeff Hardy nor Elias were able to compete in the semifinals, as Elias was ( kayfabe ) injured in a car crash and Hardy was accused of causing it and arrested. AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan were given the option of having a bye in the tournament. Styles opted for the bye to automatically advance to the final on June 12 while Bryan opted to have
2400-452: A new opponent; Sheamus subsequently won a battle royal to qualify for the vacant spot in the semifinals against Bryan that night. Following the brand split on March 25, 2002, all titles in WWE became exclusive to either the Raw brand or SmackDown brand. The brand split was discontinued on August 29, 2011, and revived on July 19, 2016. The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of
2520-471: A no contest. This culminated in a triple threat steel cage match to exclude outside interference at the Royal Rumble on January 29, where Bryan escaped the cage after freeing himself from Big Show's grasp to retain the championship. At Elimination Chamber on February 19, Bryan defeated Big Show, Cody Rhodes, The Great Khali , Santino Marella, and Wade Barrett in an Elimination Chamber match to retain
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#17329028189492640-514: A number of CZW wrestlers. Hero intensified the rivalry, leading to the two wrestling at ROH's Hell Freezes Over event on January 14, where Danielson successfully defended the ROH World Championship. On July 15 at Death Before Dishonor IV, he soon filled the vacant slot on ROH's five-man team which participated in one of CZW's more popular attractions, a steel cage match called the Cage of Death ,
2760-640: A professional wrestling career and attempted to train at Dean Malenko 's wrestling school in Florida. However, by the time he graduated in 1999, the school had closed down. Following a friend's suggestion, he instead began training under Shawn Michaels and Rudy Gonzalez at the Texas Wrestling Academy (TWA) in San Antonio, Texas . After his wrestling debut in December 1999, he toured Japan with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) alongside Lance Cade ,
2880-531: A result of the WWE Draft ; the 2023 draft moved the title back to Raw. The term "intercontinental" in the title originally referred to North and South America . In 1985, the championship belt design changed, the centerplate now centered on the Atlantic Ocean , in a map including western Africa and Europe . On April 7, 1989, the championship was first defended outside of North America, by Rick Rude against
3000-529: A six-man tag team match. The Shield went on to take out Undertaker and rack up wins over Bryan and Kane in both singles and tag matches that also included WWE Champion John Cena. On May 19 at Extreme Rules , Bryan and Kane lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, ending their reign at 245 days. As Bryan being pinned led to the loss of the WWE Tag Team Championship, he became obsessed about proving that he
3120-478: A third secondary title in WWE. However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand in September 2021. On November 22, 2019, episode of SmackDown , Sami Zayn presented a new belt design to champion Shinsuke Nakamura . The redesigned Intercontinental Championship returned to being on a black strap with an entirely new center plate with an irregular shape. The center portion of
3240-468: A title match and quickly pinned Henry, but SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long revealed that Henry was not medically cleared to compete and voided the match, so Henry remained champion and the briefcase was returned to Bryan. Regardless of his briefcase, Bryan won a fatal four-way match on the same episode of SmackDown to become the contender for Henry's championship. On the live November 29 episode of SmackDown , Henry managed to pin Bryan to retain
3360-449: A title that should bestow prestige." Cook wrote that it had been "treated as something of an afterthought" for the previous two decades. The championship was only defended on two pay-per-views in 2021 and was not defended at any within the first quarter of 2022, including WrestleMania 38 ; its absence on the premiere event was widely criticized by fans. After Vince McMahon retired as chairman, CEO, and Head of Creative on July 22, 2022,
3480-530: A winner, with a title changing hands by countout and disqualification and a draw forcing a restart. Danielson won the match on August 12 and retired the Pure title as its last champion (the title would be reinstated in 2020). During a match with Colt Cabana on August 26, Danielson suffered a real injury when he separated his shoulder, tearing two tendons in it and he tore another tendon in his chest. Danielson returned at Glory by Honor V: Night 2 on September 16 and
3600-499: Is Earned , which had Danielson team with ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima against Nigel McGuinness and Kenta. Danielson's team won after Danielson made Kenta tap out to his signature submission hold , the Cattle Mutilation . Danielson vied to contend for the ROH World Championship by defeating McGuinness at Domination on June 9, which appeared on the company's next pay per view named Driven which took place on June 23, but
3720-461: Is an American semi-retired professional wrestler . He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a former AEW World Champion . He is also known for his tenure on WWE , where he performed under the ring name Daniel Bryan from 2010 to 2021. Noted for his technical wrestling style and popularity with fans, he is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Danielson began his professional wrestling career in 1999 on
American Dragon - Misplaced Pages Continue
3840-580: Is the current champion in his second reign. He won the title by defeating Jey Uso on the October 21, 2024, episode of Raw in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . The Intercontinental Championship's early years have been praised. Samuel Kendall of Comic Book Resources lauded the championship during this era, stating: "It was a foregone conclusion that the Intercontinental Champion was the workhorse of
3960-586: The AEW World Champion at All In 2024 , his first championship in the promotion. At WrestleDream 2024 , Danielson lost the AEW World Championship to Jon Moxley in what was billed as the final match of his full-time professional wrestling career. Bryan Lloyd Danielson was born in Aberdeen, Washington , on May 22, 1981, the son of therapist Darlene and lumberjack Donald "Buddy" Danielson. His mother
4080-608: The European and Hardcore championships were unified into the Intercontinental Championship, which itself was unified into the World Heavyweight Championship (original version) . The next year, it was reactivated for Raw, followed by the United States Championship's reactivation as a counterpart championship on SmackDown. The Intercontinental Championship has switched between brands over the years, usually as
4200-635: The MVP for the WWE Midseason Awards in October 2013 Heading to SummerSlam, Bryan started a storyline where WWE chairman Vince McMahon was against Bryan due to Bryan's image not fitting of McMahon's vision of a typical WWE wrestler, while WWE chief operating officer Triple H was in support of Bryan. At the event, Bryan defeated John Cena to win his first WWE Championship, but after the match special referee Triple H performed his Pedigree finishing move on Bryan, leading to Randy Orton cashing in his Money in
4320-713: The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) published a video of Danielson stating his intent to challenge for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , as the establishment that sanctioned the title at the time, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, was relinquishing the title back to the NWA. A tournament, titled Reclaiming the Glory, was held to determine the new champion with Danielson making his way to finals, scheduled to compete Brent Albright on September 1, but due to
4440-823: The WWE Tag Team Championship (as part of Team Hell No with Kane ) and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship (with Erick Rowan ), becoming the 26th WWE Triple Crown Champion and the 15th WWE Grand Slam Champion . He also won the 2011 Money in the Bank ladder match and the "Superstar of the Year" award at the 2013 Slammy Awards , and headlined several major WWE events , including the 2014 and 2021 editions of their flagship event WrestleMania . Danielson retired from wrestling in 2016 due to injuries arising from multiple concussions , which led to seizures and
4560-634: The WWE United States Championship on SmackDown . The current champion is Bron Breakker , who is in his second reign. He won the title by defeating Jey Uso on the October 21, 2024, episode of Raw . The championship was established by the then- World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on September 1, 1979, as a result of the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship being unified with an apocryphal South American Heavyweight Championship, with Pat Patterson as
4680-504: The World Association of Wrestling (WAW), and Premier Promotions. He returned several times over the next five years, working for various promotions. In February 2005 at New Dawn Rising, he made his debut in ROH's sister promotion, Full Impact Pro (FIP), teaming up with Rocky Romero in a match against Austin Aries and Homicide. The next night at Dangerous Intentions, Danielson competed in
4800-501: The independent circuit , and signed an 18-month contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 2000; he later went on to make appearances in WWE until 2003. He joined Ring of Honor (ROH) in 2002, wrestling in the main event of the promotion's first event; considered a mainstay of ROH, he stayed with the company until 2009, winning the ROH World Championship and ROH Pure Championship once each. He unified
4920-463: The third and eighth In Your House shows, Backlash in 2001 , and at Extreme Rules in 2018 . It has been called a "stepping stone" to a WWE world championship. In November 2001, the then- WCW United States Championship was unified into the Intercontinental Championship. In 2002, after the introduction of the first brand split , it became exclusive to Raw and the WWF was renamed WWE . Later that year,
American Dragon - Misplaced Pages Continue
5040-530: The wXw World Heavyweight Championship against Bad Bones and held it over a month before losing it to Absolute Andy. After his departure from wXw, Danielson made his debut with Philadelphia -based independent promotion CHIKARA to compete in their King of Trios tournament , which saw him team with Claudio Castagnoli and Dave Taylor in a contingency called Team Uppercut. In the same year, Danielson competed in Dragon Gate USA 's second show, losing to Open
5160-641: The "title has proven an albatross for the past decade, with almost all title holders doomed to tread water, usually only beating people decisively when the title is on the line". The albatross metaphor was also used to describe the title in 2014 by James Caldwell of Pro Wrestling Torch , while Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said that year that "the [Intercontinental] title isn't booked to mean much." Various commentators in 2014 and 2015, including from The Baltimore Sun , Rolling Stone , PWInsider, and Pro Wrestling Dot Net have pointed out that
5280-543: The 2010s, WWE was criticized for its booking of the Intercontinental Champions, with champions either not defending during long periods of time or losing in many of their non-title matches. Chris Jericho said that WWE promoter Vince McMahon told him that "nobody fucking cares about the Intercontinental Championship" after he asked to be placed in a match for the title at WrestleMania 29 in 2013. Also in 2013, Darren Gutteridge of Pro Wrestling Dot Net wrote that
5400-466: The Bank , Bryan won the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match which earned him a World Heavyweight Championship match at any point within the following year. After several months of losing matches, Bryan began a feud with then World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry . On the November 25 episode of SmackDown , Henry was knocked out again by Big Show, at which point Bryan cashed in his briefcase for
5520-452: The Bank contract to win the title from Bryan. When [Vince McMahon] had HHH call Bryan a B+ player, that is because Vince saw Bryan that way. Vince was just going to screw Bryan in the storylines and then push him down the card. —Dave Scherer of PWInsider.com's analysis of Bryan's feud with The Authority The next night on Raw , Triple H and the McMahons endorsed Orton as "the face of
5640-535: The Dream Gate Champion Naruki Doi . Danielson re-signed with WWE in August 2009, under his real name. He made his debut on January 4, 2010, in a dark match prior to Raw , defeating Chavo Guerrero . He went to Florida to train with Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), the WWE developmental territory , to acclimate himself to his new work environment and work on his ring rust . He debuted at
5760-632: The FCW television tapings on January 14 and lost to Kaval. At the February 11 tapings, he was given the ring name Daniel Bryan. He later said that he was given a list of 10 possible ring names to use in WWE (including Daniel Bryan, Buddy Peacock, and Lloyd Bonaire) but his real name was not on the list. His name was given by William Regal. Bryan made his debut on the inaugural episode of NXT on February 23, losing by submission to then World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho and being attacked by his storyline mentor The Miz for disrespecting him earlier in
5880-400: The Intercontinental Champion often loses non-title matches, while Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview questioned how Intercontinental Champions losing too much is supposed to bring prestige to the title. The championship continued to receive criticism into the 2020s. Kendall panned the recent reigns as forgettable and wrote that the title had "turned into a prop to be lugged around, rather than
6000-599: The Intercontinental Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands. The inaugural champion was Pat Patterson who, as the WWF North American Heavyweight Champion in September 1979 was also declared "South American Heavyweight Champion" after allegedly winning a tournament in Rio de Janeiro . Patterson unified the two championships into the Intercontinental Championship. Since then, there have been 187 reigns among 91 different champions. Chris Jericho has
6120-595: The Intercontinental Championship was unified with the European Championship in a ladder match , in which then-Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated then-European Champion Jeff Hardy . On August 19, 2002, Bischoff made a six-minute gauntlet match for the Hardcore Championship , with the winner facing Van Dam in a second unification match the next week on Raw . Tommy Dreamer successfully retained his title in that match, and lost to Van Dam in
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#17329028189496240-476: The June 14 episode of SmackDown , Bryan (with Kane and Randy Orton as his tag team partners) ended The Shield's unpinned and unsubmitted streak in a televised six-man tag match by forcing Rollins to submit. On June 16 at Payback , Bryan and Orton lost against Rollins and Reigns for the WWE Tag Team Championship. The following night on Raw , a match between Bryan and Orton ended via referee stoppage after Bryan suffered
6360-527: The Limit, Bryan interfered in a match between Punk and Kane to frame Punk attacking Kane with a steel chair, leading to a three-way feud. During this time, a jilted AJ Lee turned her affections to both Punk and Kane. On the June 1 episode of SmackDown , Bryan's interference caused WWE Championship match between Punk and Kane to end in a double disqualification, resulting in a triple threat match being set up on June 17 at No Way Out , where Punk managed to retain
6480-520: The NWA Legends Fanfest. Despite returning to WWE on August 15, Danielson honored most of his independent bookings, making his first appearance on August 20 and defeating Jon Moxley at Heartland Wrestling Association's Road to Destiny. The following day, he was defeated by Drake Younger at Insanity Pro Wrestling's Ninth Anniversary Reign of the Insane. On August 22, Danielson defeated J Freddie at
6600-496: The Pro to Rookie Derrick Bateman . In late 2010, The Bella Twins began competing for Bryan's affection, leading to them supporting him at ringside and competing in mixed tag team matches together. On the January 24, 2011 episode of Raw , it was revealed that Bryan had been secretly dating Gail Kim , who began accompanying him to ringside. On the March 14 episode of Raw , Bryan lost
6720-601: The ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness had a match to unify the titles. They met at April 29 in a match fought under pure wrestling rules and McGuinness left Danielson outside the ring after a chair shot to win by countout —this was enough to retain the Pure title, but not to win Danielson's World Championship. They had another unification match in McGuinness's native England; ROH decided that there had to be
6840-753: The Ultimate Warrior in Turin, Italy . On March 30, 1991, Mr. Perfect made the first Asian defense against The Texas Tornado at a WWF co-promotion with Super World of Sports in Tokyo, Japan . It first came to Africa on April 6, 1997, when champion Rocky Maivia pinned Savio Vega in Durban, South Africa . Shelton Benjamin made the first Australian defense on April 7, 2005, pinning Gene Snitsky in Brisbane . WWF North American Heavyweight Champion Pat Patterson became
6960-452: The United States Championship to Sheamus , ending his reign at 176 days. Bryan was originally scheduled to have his rematch against Sheamus for the United States Championship on the main card at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3, but the match was rescheduled as a dark lumberjack match that ended in a no contest when the lumberjacks fought among themselves to trigger the start of a battle royal , which he lost. Bryan lost his title rematch
7080-715: The United States and abroad. In 2003, he toured the United Kingdom for the British promotion All Star Wrestling (ASW), where he sometimes used the name Dynamic Dragon. While there, he won the World Heavy Middleweight Championship on May 6 in an eight-man one-night tournament in Croydon , defeating James Mason. He spent the next six months in the United Kingdom, working for ASW, Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA),
7200-453: The WWE again. After being released, Danielson received several offers to sign with other wrestling companies, being contacted by TNA, albeit indirectly and some Japanese promotions. Two weeks after his departure from WWE, Danielson made his return to the independent circuit on June 26, defeating Eddie Kingston at the CHIKARA event We Must Eat Michigan's Brain. Rather than receiving streamers,
7320-472: The WWE name on it while claiming the lineage of the old WCW title of the same name (much as they did with the Cruiserweight Championship when that became WWE exclusive). On October 2, 2011, at Hell in a Cell , Cody Rhodes introduced a modified version of the classic championship belt design with the white strap, with the modern WWE "scratch logo" and other embellishments. Following the end of
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#17329028189497440-435: The WWE" while labeling Bryan a "B+ player" and forming The Authority faction. With Triple H threatening to fire anyone who disobeyed him, Bryan was left alone to take on and suffer attacks from Orton and The Shield. Despite Bryan regained the title from Orton at Night of Champions , he was stripped of the title the following night on Raw by Triple H. Bryan wrestled Orton for the vacant titles twice, one at Battleground in
7560-608: The WWF, competing in Japan's premier promotion, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he used his American Dragon persona and donned a red, white and blue mask reminiscent of a dragon. As a part of the junior heavyweight division , Danielson had success in both singles and tag team competition in the company, winning (without wearing a mask) the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Curry Man on March 12, 2004. In 2002, Danielson joined
7680-544: The World Heavyweight Championship. After the match, Royal Rumble match winner Sheamus attacked Bryan and chose him as his WrestleMania opponent for the World Heavyweight Championship. In March, Bryan began to mistreat AJ, publicly demanding her to shut up and claiming that she always got in his way. Despite these actions, AJ continued to stand by Bryan. Bryan's reign as World Heavyweight Champion ended at 105 days when Sheamus defeated him in 18 seconds at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1 due to Bryan being distracted with receiving
7800-404: The altar and instead accepted Mr. McMahon 's offer of the position of permanent Raw General Manager. Bryan's night turned from bad to worse as he was later attacked by The Rock and insulted by celebrity Charlie Sheen . AJ's rejection of Bryan turned him into an angry and bitter individual and resulted in Bryan lashing out at audiences. AJ continued to exact her revenge on Bryan by denying him
7920-414: The beginning of 2006, Chris Hero , a representative from Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), invaded ROH and targeted Danielson—the two exchanged words over the internet before having a match together, with nearly the entire roster of both companies embarking on an interpromotional feud. Danielson became personally invested in this feud and invaded CZW himself, which led to him having physical altercations with
8040-403: The center plate features an oval-shape. The top half of the oval says "Intercontinental" and the bottom half says "Champion"; the word "Heavyweight" sits in a banner on the inner side of the oval above the word "Champion". At the center of the oval is a diamond shape, representing a wrestling ring viewed from above, with the WWE logo over a globe. On the sides of the center, plate is two halves of
8160-478: The championship has been featured more prominently after Paul "Triple H" Levesque took over as the new Head of Creative. The championship has been featured in the main event of numerous episodes of SmackDown , and has even received two five-star ratings from Meltzer. The first was Gunther defending against Sheamus at Clash at the Castle , while the second was Gunther defending against Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in
8280-462: The championship was contested in an Elimination Chamber match for the first time. In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split. During the 2016 draft , then-Intercontinental Champion The Miz was drafted to SmackDown. Just days later, he successfully defended the title against Raw draftee Darren Young at Battleground , making the title exclusive to SmackDown. During the following year's Superstar Shake-up , Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose
8400-741: The championships at one point and was also the inaugural winner of the annual ROH Survival of the Fittest tournament. In 2022, he was named as part of the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame . He also wrestled extensively in Japan, winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He won numerous titles on
8520-454: The company and the next in line for the World Heavyweight Championship". Steve Cook of 411Mania wrote that "nearly anybody that was a big deal in WWE held the championship at some point." Steve Austin said he considered the Intercontinental Championship to be as important as the world titles and he remains in possession of the physical belt that represented the championship during his reign because of its historical importance. Throughout
8640-494: The company held a show in Japan named Tokyo Summit on September 14, where Danielson wrestled GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru and won the championship. Following his victory, NOAH allowed him to defend the title in Ring of Honor, with his first defense being at Glory By Honor VII on September 20, defeating Katsuhiko Nakajima . However, this was his only successful defense as he returned to Japan on October 13 to lose
8760-479: The company, he was released from his WWF contract in July 2001. Danielson revealed in his 2015 autobiography that he was close to being called up to the main roster during the 2001 Royal Rumble match: he explained that the WWF thought of using him as one of their key figures in the newly created cruiserweight division , which was inspired by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 2002, Danielson wrestled two matches for
8880-531: The dark match main event of Return of the Dragon. After the match, Danielson joined BxB Hulk , Masato Yoshino , Naruki Doi and PAC as the fifth member of the stable World-1. On July 30, Danielson returned to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, competing in a match where he defeated Roderick Strong. On August 7, Danielson unsuccessfully challenged Adam Pearce for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at
9000-454: The default side plates consist of the WWE logo over a globe. On the September 30, 2024, episode of Raw , upon Jey Uso winning the championship from Bron Breakker the week prior, the championship received slight changes by adding blue on the globes in the centerplate. The WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship Tournament was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion after previous champion Ultimate Warrior
9120-469: The eye injury he sustained at ROH's Manhattan Mayhem event, he withdrew from the tournament and instead acted as the referee of the match. In 2009, Danielson's contract with Ring of Honor expired, which opened up Danielson to travel to other companies more freely while competing in his home promotion. In 2009, Danielson also signed a short-term contract with German wrestling promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw). Shortly after his debut, Danielson won
9240-448: The fall of 2009, Danielson signed with WWE after a farewell tour with ROH, during which he challenged Aries for the title again and lost. On September 26 at Glory by Honor VIII: The Final Countdown, he won his last match in the company against McGuinness, who was also having his final match with the company until 2023. Aside from competing primarily in ROH, Danielson has also competed in a multitude of other independent promotions, both in
9360-527: The fans instead threw neck ties in light of the Justin Roberts incident in WWE. The following day at CHIKARA's Faded Scars and Lines, Danielson defeated Young Lions Cup holder Tim Donst in a non-title match. On July 3, Danielson returned to wXw, defeating Wade Fitzgerald and TJP in the round robin stage of the Ambition 1 tournament. The following day, he defeated TJP in a rematch and finally Johnny Moss in
9480-602: The finals of the tournament to win Ambition 1. On July 17, Danielson debuted in the International Wrestling Association (IWA), being booked to defeat Q.T. Marshall for the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. On July 23, Danielson debuted in the fledgling EVOLVE promotion, which was originally conceived to be built around Danielson as their top star before he signed to WWE. In the main event, Danielson defeated Bobby Fish. The following day, Danielson returned to Dragon Gate USA and submitted Shingo in
9600-488: The first brand split on August 29, 2011, the title could be defended on both Raw and SmackDown . On August 18, 2014, the Intercontinental Championship belt, along with all other pre-existing championship belts in WWE at the time, received a minor update, replacing the long-standing scratch logo with WWE's current logo that was originally used for the WWE Network that launched earlier that year in February. On May 31, 2015,
9720-428: The first occasion against Big Show when Bryan goaded Mark Henry into attacking him and causing a disqualification; the second occasion a no disqualification rematch with Big Show which ended abruptly after Big Show accidentally ran into AJ, hospitalizing her within the storyline for which Bryan blamed him; and the third occasion against Henry in a lumberjack match when Bryan provoked the lumberjacks to interfere and cause
9840-402: The following month and saw then-World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeat then-Intercontinental Champion Kane , making him the Raw brand's sole male singles champion. Over Bischoff's objections, Raw co-general manager Stone Cold Steve Austin reactivated the Intercontinental Championship on the May 5, 2003 episode of Raw and declared any former champion on the Raw roster eligible to enter
9960-415: The globe. The left side features the continents of North and South America as well as Africa and Europe, while the globe on the left shows Asia and Australia; both globes show a portion of Antarctica. The rest of the center plate is filled with ornamentation. Like all of WWE's other championships, the belt features two side plates with a removable center section that can be customized with the champion's logos;
10080-506: The inaugural champion on September 1, 1979. It was said he had unified his title with the South American Heavyweight Championship, in a tournament in Rio de Janeiro , although both the tournament and South American Championship were entirely fictional. On April 1, 1990, at WrestleMania VI , Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion the Ultimate Warrior defeated WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan to win
10200-486: The inaugural champion. It is the third-oldest championship currently active in WWE, behind the WWE Championship (1963) and United States Championship (1975), but the second-longest tenured championship, as WWE has only owned the U.S. championship since 2001. Although generally contested in the midcard at WWE shows, it has been defended in the main event of pay-per-views including WrestleMania VI , SummerSlam in 1992 ,
10320-531: The independent circuit, including the PWG World Championship , the FIP Heavyweight Championship , and the wXw World Heavyweight Championship . Danielson again signed with WWE in 2009, but was fired after an incident in 2010. Upon his return three months later, he went on to win the WWE Championship four times, the World Heavyweight Championship once, and the WWE United States Championship and WWE Intercontinental Championship once each. He also won
10440-447: The independent promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is acknowledged as a "Founding Father" of the company. On February 23, 2002, he competed in the main event of the company's debut event, The Era of Honor Begins, in a three-way match against Christopher Daniels and Low Ki , a match that Low Ki won. One of his matches with Austin Aries , performed on August 7, 2004, at Testing the Limit, lasted seventy-four minutes before Aries
10560-441: The main event of the evening. The following day, Danielson defeated Jon Moxley . On October 1, Danielson wrestled the last of his independent matches by defeating Shelton Benjamin at a Northeast Wrestling event. Danielson returned to WWE as Daniel Bryan at SummerSlam on August 15, 2010, where he was revealed as the surprise seventh member of Team WWE for the seven-on-seven elimination tag team match against The Nexus. Bryan
10680-405: The most reigns with nine. At 666 days, Gunther 's reign is the longest in the title's history, both as a singular reign and for most cumulative days as champion. Prior to his reign, Pedro Morales had the longest combined reign at 619 days over two reigns, and held this record for over 41 years. Dean Douglas had the shortest reign at just 13 minutes and 52 seconds. Chyna is the only woman to win
10800-425: The new WWF Intercontinental Champion after former champion Stone Cold Steve Austin forfeited the belt after his neck injury. The tournament was held between September 8 and October 5, 1997, with the finals occurring on October 5 at the pay-per-view. The tournament brackets were: Notes: Ken Shamrock initially won the match. But he was injured so Faarooq advanced. The WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament
10920-628: The next night on Raw , after which he was saved from Sheamus by the debuting Sin Cara . On April 26, Bryan was drafted to SmackDown as part of the 2011 supplemental draft . On the May 6 episode of SmackDown , Bryan made his debut for the brand by losing to Sheamus. Cody Rhodes then started a feud with Bryan by attacking him after losing their match and placing a paper bag on his head. Bryan then aligned with Sin Cara to feud with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase . On June 28, Bryan returned to NXT to manage Derrick Bateman once again. On July 17 at Money in
11040-467: The number one contender to CM Punk's WWE Championship when he won a Beat the Clock challenge by defeating Jerry Lawler in under three minutes. Bryan received his title match at Over the Limit on May 20 and suffered a controversial loss—when Bryan rolled back onto his shoulders as he applied the "Yes!" Lock , Punk tapped out immediately after the referee counted a pinfall win for Punk. Shortly before Over
11160-413: The number one contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championship on the September 10 episode of Raw and then defeating champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth to win the championship on September 16 at Night of Champions . The team was named Team Hell No and started a feud with The Shield, leading to a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match on December 16 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs , where The Shield
11280-406: The periodical was likely a storyline claim for Danielson's absence during this period. Danielson defeated James Gibson for the ROH World Championship at Glory by Honor IV on September 15, 2005. The rest of the year saw Danielson have successful title defenses even against wrestlers from other companies, such as Pro Wrestling Noah star Naomichi Marufuji at Final Battle on December 17. At
11400-443: The renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) despite not being a contracted performer for the company. He was quickly defeated by both Sean O'Haire and Little Guido in his two appearances. He went on to make four additional non-contracted appearances for WWE in 2003 on its secondary shows , Velocity and Heat , initially as enhancement talent before being allowed to compete in longer matches; he wrestled Jamie Noble at
11520-566: The ringside area. On June 11, Danielson was fired from WWE for being too violent during the segment, strangling ring announcer Justin Roberts with his own neck tie. Danielson noted that WWE apologized to him for his release, explaining that they "had sponsors they had to deal with". His release was put in a storyline, where the rest of the NXT rookies kicked him out of the group for showing remorse for his actions and declared that Bryan would never return to
11640-530: The rival company, who had signed an open contract for any CZW wrestler willing to challenge for the ROH World Championship. Former champion Samoa Joe also challenged Danielson at Fight of the Century on August 5, but their match ended in a 60-minute draw . While having the ROH World Championship, ROH faced the issue of having another title with seemingly equal value, the ROH Pure Championship . Danielson and
11760-416: The show. he was eliminated from the show along with Michael Tarver . On the May 31 episode of Raw, Bryan was granted a match against The Miz by guest host Ashton Kutcher , which he won and threw Miz into Cole at ringside after the match. On the June 7 episode of Raw , the faction known as The Nexus (NXT rookies from season one) invaded the WWE ring, attacking John Cena and causing destruction around
11880-511: The title American Dragon . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Dragon&oldid=1080221724 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Bryan Danielson Bryan Lloyd Danielson (born May 22, 1981)
12000-585: The title after AJ distracted Kane. On the June 25 episode of Raw SuperShow , Bryan defeated Punk and Kane in a non-title three-way elimination match to earn another shot at the WWE Championship. At Money in the Bank on July 15, Bryan failed to capture the WWE Championship again from Punk in a no disqualification match with AJ as special guest referee . The following night on Raw SuperShow , AJ accepted Bryan's marriage proposal. On Raw 1000 , Bryan's storyline wedding ended in failure when AJ left Bryan at
12120-476: The title and Kingston's championship win are not recognized as WWE continued to recognize McIntyre as champion during that period. At Over the Limit , Kingston defeated McIntyre to win his second official Intercontinental Championship. On May 12, 2020, the Intercontinental Championship was declared vacant after champion Sami Zayn elected to refrain from competing during the COVID-19 pandemic . A tournament to crown
12240-609: The title in a steel cage match. Also in November, Bryan started being involved in a romantic storyline with AJ Lee. Bryan cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on December 18 at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs against Big Show, who had just defeated Henry and subsequently received a DDT onto a steel chair, which allowed Bryan to secure a pinfall victory and become the World Heavyweight Champion. As World Heavyweight Champion, Bryan turned heel , In January 2012, Bryan successfully defended his title three times:
12360-411: The title to Kenta. Following his loss, Danielson challenged McGuinness for the ROH World Championship at the next ROH pay-per-view Rising Above on November 22, in a losing effort. Ring of Honor made its national television debut with the program Ring of Honor Wrestling and Danielson made his television debut in the main event of its third episode on February 28, 2009 by defeating Austin Aries. In
12480-544: The title two weeks later by defeating The Miz and John Morrison in a triple threat submissions count anywhere match at Hell in a Cell on October 3. On October 24, he went on to challenge then Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler to a champion vs. champion match at Bragging Rights as a special attraction SmackDown vs. Raw match, defeating Ziggler in a highly acclaimed match. On November 21, Bryan went on to successfully defend his title against Ted DiBiase at Survivor Series . Bryan returned to NXT' s season four as
12600-486: The title was unified with the WCW United States Championship at Survivor Series , causing the United States Championship to become inactive. Then-United States Champion Edge defeated then-Intercontinental Champion Test . In 2002, after the first brand split had begun and the WWF was renamed WWE, Raw general manager Eric Bischoff began unifying his brand's singles championships. On July 22, 2002,
12720-446: The title. The youngest champion was Jeff Hardy , who won the championship for the first time at the age of 23, while the oldest champion was Ric Flair , who won the championship at the age of 56. There have been 10 vacancies throughout the title's history. Only five men have held the title for a continuous reign of one year (365 days) or more: Pedro Morales, Don Muraco , Randy Savage , The Honky Tonk Man , and Gunther. Bron Breakker
12840-541: The world title; so the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship was vacated for the first time soon after. Mr. Perfect then won a tournament to crown a new Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion. On October 17, 1999, Chyna became the only woman to hold the Intercontinental Championship by defeating Jeff Jarrett at No Mercy . Following the World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF) purchase of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001,
12960-420: Was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Champion after previous champion Triple H vacated the title due to injury. A tournament was announced to crown a new #1 contender for William Regal 's WWE Intercontinental Championship. CM Punk won the tournament by defeating Rey Mysterio in the tournament final at Armageddon. The WWE Intercontinental Championship Tournament was a tournament to crown
13080-447: Was aired on September 21. This allowed him, now as a fan favorite , to challenge Morishima for the title at Manhattan Mayhem II on August 25 in a losing effort in which he also suffered a legitimate detached retina . Following surgery, he fought Morishima again in a match at Man Up on September 15, but the referee stopped the match since Danielson was unable to respond to him. In a rematch at Rising Above on December 29, Morishima
13200-594: Was assigned to Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW), where he gained exposure and was trained by WWF competitor William Regal , whom he credited as being instrumental in the development of his career. During this time, he adopted his moniker of the "American Dragon". WWF severed its ties with MCW in 2001, but not before Danielson won the MCW Light Heavyweight Championship and the MCW Tag Team Championship with Spanky. After 18 months with
13320-551: Was challenged by Kenta , a guest competitor from NOAH, due to the two companies' talent exchange agreement —Danielson again retained his championship. At Final Battle on December 23, Danielson's fifteen-month title reign finally ended after he lost to Homicide at his 39th defense and he subsequently took time off from wrestling in order to heal his shoulder. On May 11, 2007, Danielson returned to ROH at Reborn Again and defeated Shane Hagadorn and Adam Pearce in separate matches. On May 12, ROH filmed its first pay-per-view , Respect
13440-483: Was disqualified. Morishima returned to the company at Final Battle on December 27, 2008, in a match billed as a " Fight Without Honor " in which both men were allowed weapons and which Danielson won. Danielson commented in March 2012 on how he felt validated at Final Battle 2008, because he and Morishima managed to get 2,500 people to see the show in New York City. As part of ROH's agreement with Pro Wrestling Noah,
13560-414: Was finally declared the victor. One of the more notable rivalries he had in the early years in the company was with Homicide , as the two fought numerous matches with a variety of stipulations, culminating in a steel cage match on May 13, 2005, at The Final Showdown, where Danielson was victorious. Despite winning the company's inaugural Survival of the Fittest tournament in 2004, Bryan did not win
13680-551: Was moved to the Raw brand, making the title exclusive to Raw. Two years later during the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up , Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor moved to SmackDown, making the title exclusive back to SmackDown. Later that year, the NXT brand, WWE's developmental territory , became WWE's third major brand when it was moved to the USA Network in September, thus making the NXT North American Championship
13800-423: Was not the weak link of Team Hell No and as a result became even more aggressive, but his overzealous behavior led to Team Hell No losing their rematch against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns on the May 27 episode of Raw . During this storyline, Bryan was praised as the best performer in WWE and having an unmatched connection with crowds by critics, peers and veterans of the professional wrestling industry. On
13920-489: Was one of the two final members of Team WWE and managed to eliminate two members of The Nexus, but was eliminated by Wade Barrett after The Miz, whose place he took in Team WWE, attacked him. Despite this, Team WWE won the match. As part of the Raw roster , Bryan feuded with The Miz, defeating him at Night of Champions to win the United States Championship , his first championship in WWE. Bryan then successfully defended
14040-417: Was pregnant with him for over 10 months. He has an older sister named Billie Sue. His father's job moved the family to Vernal, Utah , then to Albany, Oregon , before they returned to Aberdeen. His parents divorced over his father's alcoholism when Danielson was a child, though they remained on good terms. During his childhood, Danielson was shown a professional wrestling magazine by a friend, and has been
14160-548: Was required to vacate the title after he defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VI . The WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Champion after previous champion Ahmed Johnson forfeited the title. He suffered ( kayfabe ) injuries to both kidneys when he was attacked by the debuting Faarooq after winning an 11-man battle royal. The tournament to determine
14280-475: Was the first man eliminated from the match, courtesy of Henry. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29 , Team Hell No defeated Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston for another successful title defense. Team Hell No rekindled their rivalry with The Shield the following night on Raw after saving The Undertaker from an ambush by them. On the April 22 episode of Raw , Team Hell No and The Undertaker were defeated by The Shield in
14400-444: Was victorious after pinning Bryan. On January 27, 2013, at the Royal Rumble , Team Hell No retained the WWE Tag Team Championship against Team Rhodes Scholars. On the February 4 episode of Raw , Bryan was inserted into the World Heavyweight Championship number one contender Elimination Chamber match when he defeated Rey Mysterio , after which the returning Mark Henry attacked both men. On February 17 at Elimination Chamber , Bryan
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