“Fight for your dreams, and your dreams will fight for you.”

   These were the words were said by Daniel Bryan last week on Smackdown, when he made his shocking announcement about his return to the ring. Bryan had been retired since February 2016 due to multiple concussions and a brain lesion and had been injured on and off since April 2014.

   Throughout the retirement period, Bryan had talked to several doctors and made attempts to get cleared by the WWE, to no avail. That was until last week.

   Bryan is sure to wrestle at Wrestlemania 34, where he’ll probably team up with Shane McMahon to take on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. But the true excitement lies in what potential dream matches Bryan can have after Wrestlemania.

   WWE has one of their deepest rosters filled with wrestlers that would match Bryan’s style tremendously. With that said, here’s a list of the top five dream matches for Daniel Bryan after Wrestlemania

5. The Miz

   While we have seen this match a few times (it was essentially Bryan’s first real feud in WWE), a new twist was put on the rivalry back in the 2016 brand split when Miz got in Bryan’s face and cut a strongly worded promo on him.

   The two had several heated exchanges on Talking Smack, and Miz even started using Bryan’s moves, such as the “yes” kicks and the corner running dropkick. He still uses them currently to spite Bryan.

   There’d have to be some brand switcharoos to make this work, but this is a feud I think we’ll see some closure to, and the two would put on a solid match together.

4. Braun Strowman

   This one’s kind of a long shot, but Bryan has always fared well against larger opponents. He plays the scrappy underdog so well that this would be an intriguing match to see.

   Storyline wise I don’t know how we’d get there, but it’d be worth it to see Bryan nail Strowman with a barrage of kicks and stomps and impact moves to give him the advantage.

   Strowman has been pretty capable in the ring with the right opponent, and Bryan would be able to construct a pretty decent match.

3. Shinsuke Nakamura

   A Nakamura-Bryan match is something we’ve wanted to see for a while, but it never seemed like the stars would align and both would be in the same company at the same time.

   Nakamura debuted in April 2016, two months after Bryan retired. He went on to have a stellar career in NXT, winning the NXT championship twice. However, Bryan was left stewing. In many interviews, he would say that the match with Nakamura was his dream match. Can you imagine the hard-hitting shots, stiff kicks and death-defying drama that match would bring?

   Well, now we might not have to.

2. AJ Styles

   This is another case where these two have wrestled each other before, but it was in ROH in 2006 and I haven’t had a chance to see it. Add in the fact that both hadn’t reached their prime in terms of character development and you can see why this is a dream match worth seeing.

   Both Styles and Bryan are known for being incredibly good storytellers in the ring. Styles debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble and established himself as a huge name shortly thereafter. He was drafted to Bryan’s brand Smackdown and has held several championships there.

   You don’t even really need a storyline for this match to happen, if you just let the two of them go out and wrestle, they’ll probably provide a match of the year candidate.

1. Kurt Angle

   This is the big one, a match that has never happened before. The closest we got to it was in the mid-2000s when Paul Heyman was offered the job of head booker for TNA Wrestling. He planned to get rid of all performers over 40, bring in a bunch of ROH and indie talent, and make a yearlong build to a Kurt Angle-Daniel Bryan match.

   Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and Angle stayed in TNA for a long time before returning to the WWE in 2017. While he’s wrestled a couple of times, it feels like he’s lost a step, but if anyone can help him get it back and carry him through a match, Bryan could.

   It would be a technical wrestling fan’s dream, with plenty of chain wrestling leading up to the big moves. I’ve played this match many times in the WWE games, and it’s a match I’d still go nuts for in 2018. This one when it happens would be a hell of a match, hopefully, the WWE brass thinks so too.

   No matter who Bryan faces in his return to ring action, it’s sure to be exciting and will fill a hole in my heart that appeared after February 2016. So I’ll be chanting YES with everyone else when Bryan steps back inside the squared circle.

Keep it here for something special coming up, since Wrestlemania is right around the corner.

Henry Wolski
Executive Editor