Before They Were Stars: Daniel Bryan Wrestles Under a Mask in 2000

Daniel Bryan may be one of the top stars in World Wrestling Entertainment right now, but it took him a long time to get to this point. He started off his career by being trained at Shawn Michaels’ Texas Wrestling Academy and wrestling for its sister promotion, the Texas Wrestling Alliance. In this priceless footage from 2000, you can see Bryan wrestling one of his earliest matches for TWA under his well-known moniker, “American Dragon”, only he’s wearing a ridiculous mask and coming out to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”. His opponent here is Brian Kendrick, back when he was still known as “Spanky” and this may be the only time you ever hear a wrestler using Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” as his entrance music.