Daniel Bryan came out on the losing side of a feud with Randy Orton and WWE then chose to instead focus on having him feud with John Cena in an "epic" match which would then unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships to create the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
However, WWE made the mistake of holding the announcement in Seattle, the home of Daniel Bryan right when he was at his most popular and the WWE Universe were desperate to see him succeed. As a result, the crowd hijacked the segment and chanted for Bryan throughout, something which has stuck with the popular Superstar but perhaps not for the reason you might have initially thought.
"I think my favorite moment actually happened in KeyArena and it was even me wrestling. They were doing a championship ceremony with Randy Orton and John Cena where they were unifying the titles. It was supposed to be all about Randy Orton and John Cena but the Seattle crowd just chanted ‘Daniel Bryan’ through the whole thing. That’s super cool, but that’s not the reason why I love it most because that was the last time my dad got to see me wrestle before he died.
"So it was really cool because after that, it was the last segment on the show and afterward my dad ran up to the barricade and I got to give him a big hug and he was with his boss, right? So not only did he get to see it, but his boss got to see it and his boss’ wife was like, ‘This is Daniel Bryan’s dad!’ My dad’s why like me so he’s like, ‘Ah stop it’ and people were walking up to him like, ‘Can we get your autograph?’ and he signed it: ‘Buddy Danielson, Daniel Bryan’s dad.’
"So he told me about it and how special it was but when I really knew it was special to him was when he told it to my sister and my sister was like, ‘Dad just talked about it for forty-five minutes about how — because he had never gotten to see me get that kind of reaction before — and I think as a father and me as a father now it’s like that holds a special place in my heart.”"
That's a very touching story and one which you can fully understand why Bryan favours. He actually talked about his father being there the night he was forced to retire and his comeback story is one he would have no doubt been proud of, especially as no one ever expected it could happen.