‘WWE: Daniel Bryan – Just Say Yes! Yes! Yes!’ Blu-ray Review
Follow the journey of WWE Superstar DANIEL BRYAN as he prepares for his WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP match in the main event of WRESTLEMANIA 30. In this never-before-seen director’s cut, WWE cameras sit down with DANIEL BRYAN and follow his every move as he looks back on his WWE career and his bumpy road to WRESTLEMANIA. This collection also highlights the journey of the leader of the “Yes!” Movement with the most important moments and matches in DANIEL BRYAN’S career. With all this action and more, this set will make the WWE Universe point their fingers up, raise their hands, and shout “YES! YES! YES!”
Daniel Bryan has had a crazy couple of years. His career as one of the best and most highly-praised workers in pro-wrestling is well publicised, and it all lead to his run in WWE, from his entry in NXT to his run as a mid-carder, to his super-popularity which lead to him going to WrestleMania 30 to take on Triple H in one match, and Randy Orton and Batista in another, eventually (SPOILER) winning the WWE World Heavyweight Title and putting himself on the map of history as he stood in New Orleans chanting with the fans, Yes, Yes, Yes.
WWE: Daniel Bryan – Just Say Yes! Yes! Yes! features a documentary on Bryan, talking about his life and career leading to WrestleMania 30, with a selection of matches. It’s a release bound to sell well, and the best WWE-produced Bryan set yet. The documentary portion is excellent and features Bryan and many others speaking about Bryan’s career in Ring of Honour, his work on the indies and in Japan, and his eventual signing with WWE. Names like Seth Rollins, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, The Miz, William Regal and his wife Brie Bella, talk about Bryan the man, and the wrestler, and it’s great to have some insight into these things. Daniel talks openly about his work before WWE and in WWE, including his NXT run in which he was verbally buried each week by a heel Michael Cole. Bryan says it was frustrating, and the following year or two were the toughest of his career. His match with Sheamus that lasted 12 seconds at WrestleMania 29 turned things around and would eventually help transform Daniel Bryan into the biggest babyface that WWE has had in years.
We see clips of Bryan’s modest lifestyle out of the ring, his planning of his marriage to Brie and his training for matches. We also hear his thoughts on working with various guys, and his memories of various points of his career. It’s cool to see clips of his early days, and how he has progressed as an all-rounder to become one of the biggest stars WWE has seen in over a decade. The match-list is very good too, featuring matches with Chris Jericho, The Miz, CM Punk, Randy Orton, Cesaro, Jack Swagger, John Cena and more. The matches are mostly excellent, with the off one being a little less interesting due to a less-interesting foe. It is a shame that WWE couldn’t work out a way to release a full-on retrospective featuring matches from his pre-WWE career though. I don’t know how easy that would have been to accomplish, but I do think it would have made for a much more complete and exciting set. Maybe we will get it one day, if not… this is a perfect accompaniment to the already-released ROH Bryan Danielson DVD sets.
One of the best in-ring performers of his time, and perhaps of all time, Daniel Bryan deserves these sorts of releases. A full-on collection of his best matches from the very beginning of his career onwards would probably be one of the best wrestling-compilations ever put to disc, but who knows if that will ever happen. This does the trick, and is a well-produced, insightful and entertaining jaunt down the road to Bryan’s WrestleMania, featuring some solid matches along the way.
Do we want more Bryan sets in the future? Erm…. YES! YES! YES!
WWE: Daniel Bryan – Just Say Yes! Yes! Yes! is released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 15th, courtesy of FremantleMedia.
