WWE Star of the Week: Daniel Bryan

In 2011, we saw “The Summer of (CM) Punk.” 

In 2012, we’re in the process of seeing “The Rise of Daniel Bryan.”

Though many fans thought we’d never see Bryan as a main eventer in the WWE, he’s shattered that perception over the last several months with a world heavyweight title win and a fantastic heel turn. 

He now continues to impress by turning in some amazing performances week after week on both Friday Night Smackdown and Monday Night Raw. 

On this week’s Raw, it was more of the same from Bryan, who continued his incredible rise to the top of the WWE with yet another unforgettable performance. 

It’s not often that you watch an episode of Raw, reflect on it afterward and find one thing that really sticks out in your mind is a backstage segment.

However, that’s exactly what Bryan made me do this week. 

In a short skit, Bryan walked in on Kofi Kingston chatting it up with AJ and uttered a fantastic line: “Just because I don’t want her doesn’t mean it’s open season.” Awesome. 

Bryan then revealed to Kingston that he had changed the name of his LeBell Lock finisher to "The Yes Lock," before proceeding to scream “Yes!” over and over. 

What made this even greater was the fact that thousands of fans were doing Bryan’s pointing gesture and chanting “Yes!” along with him.

And this guy’s a heel? Sure doesn’t seem like it. 

Bryan is ridiculously over right now, and in a rare occurrence, an extremely talented guy is now exactly where he belongs: At the top of the card. 

While Bryan showed us why he belongs there with that backstage segment on Raw, he did it again in the ring during his match against Kofi. 

While it wasn’t a must-see bout or anything like that, Kofi vs. Bryan was a pretty damn good match from two of the best in-ring workers in the WWE. It was a very entertaining one at that. 

All you have to do is watch one of Bryan’s matches, and you can see that he’s absolutely in the zone at the moment. As I suggested before, he’s becoming the CM Punk of 2012. 

While there are fears that Bryan will fall considerably down the card if he does not regain the world heavyweight title, his talent and his recent hot streak should prevent that from happening.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-to-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.