Hey Dwide, while I do put Daniel Bryan as a terrific wrestler and the best overall talent in the current WWE product there are differences from now compared to 95. Bryan has not been a fixture with the belt yet. Bret had been with the WWF forever at the time and had been around the title scene for quite awhile. His presence/charisma and especially talent were on a much higher level than most of his peers. He felt like the champion and almost anyone else (no disrespect meant to any of Bret's peers - there was other talent there too) just felt like WWF trying to go one way but with Bret being the true champion. You knew Bret was going to rise to the top and be champ despite the WWF's booking. I know others and lots of fans shared the same sentiments at the time.

 

It is possible for Daniel Bryan to reach this too if he gets a run with the belt, becomes like the champion and obvious best overall performer than goes out of the title scene for a while playing around with wrestlers X and Y while the WWE tries booking a new star with the belt. If it than feels like it's Bryan is the champion and will be the champion again while the WWE tries this and that than the situations will be somewhat similar.

Hey Dwide, while I do put Daniel Bryan as a terrific wrestler and the best overall talent in the current WWE product there are differences from now compared to 95. Bryan has not been a fixture with the belt yet. Bret had been with the WWF forever at the time and had been around the title scene for quite awhile. His presence/charisma and especially talent were on a much higher level than most of his peers. He felt like the champion and almost anyone else (no disrespect meant to any of Bret's peers - there was other talent there too) just felt like WWF trying to go one way but with Bret being the true champion. You knew Bret was going to rise to the top and be champ despite the WWF's booking. I know others and lots of fans shared the same sentiments at the time.

 

It is possible for Daniel Bryan to reach this too if he gets a run with the belt, becomes like the champion and obvious best overall performer than goes out of the title scene for a while playing around with wrestlers X and Y while the WWE tries booking a new star with the belt. If it than feels like it's Bryan is the champion and will be the champion again while the WWE tries this and that than the situations will be somewhat similar.

Fair enough, I do see the difference now.

 

All the same, I stand by the fact that if Bret was the actual champion he wouldn't have been fighting Hakushi (and the original discussion was about Hakushi's push). You can consider him an uncrowned champion, but the guys he's fighting aren't championship level contenders by proxy.