Daniel Bryan had a lot of new ideas when he returned to the ring earlier this year, but felt trapped by people expecting him to be who he was before.

One of the biggest and best moments of the wrestling year in 2018 was the return to the ring of Daniel Bryan. As more and more time passed, most of us felt like we might never see the WWE Champion compete ever again. Then, almost out of nowhere, WWE revealed that they had finally cleared him to wrestle again. It has been one hell of a ride since then.

Even though we have enjoyed almost everything we've gotten from Bryan since he returned, the very best of him has come in the past two months. With a swift low blow to AJ Styles, Bryan became a heel and WWE Champion in one fell swoop. Five days later, he put on a match of the year candidate with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. Since then, he has gone from the hero we loved to the heel we love to hate.

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Bryan explained during a recent episode of WWE's The Day Of that showing a new side of him was always his intention when he learned of his medical clearance. However, in the build to his comeback match at WrestleMania 34, he felt trapped into doing what he was famous for prior to his retirement. "'They want to see all the dropkicks in the corner and the dives through the ropes' and all this kinda stuff, and it felt like a trap," he explained.

However, Bryan went on to say that in order to become The New Daniel Bryan, the old version obviously had to exist. He explained that the old Bryan was just happy to be back, that he wasn't fighting for anything. He reached a point very quickly where that wasn't enough, and as soon as he changed his mindset he became WWE Champion.

You have to cast your mind back a number of years to when Bryan was last a heel in WWE. Back then, he was nowhere near the star that he is today. Right now, we are witnessing just how perfect a heel Bryan can be. He even boasts during the above video that in 2008 he believed himself to be the best wrestler in the world, and now that he is The New Daniel Bryan, he thinks he is quickly returning to that pinnacle once again.

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