On December 9, 2013, WWE held a Championship Ascension Ceremony featuring WWE champions of the past. The segment was designed to put over the upcoming unification bout between John Cena and Randy Orton.
The Seattle crowd used it to put over Daniel Bryan.
In a new interview with Brandon Collymore, Bryan said the ceremony was his favorite moment of all-time, but the reason why may surprise you. And bring you to tears.
“My favorite moment actually happened in Key Arena. It wasn't even me wrestling. It was this championship ceremony between John Cena Randy Orton for unifying the titles -- the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE championship. It's supposed to be all about Randy Orton John Cena with the Seattle crowd hijacked the segment. The chant of ‘Daniel Bryan’ throughout the whole thing that was super cool, but that's not the reason I love it most.
“It was the last time my dad got to see me wrestle before he died. It was really cool because that was the last segment the show afterwards my Dad ran out to the barricade and I got to give him a big hug and he was with his boss. His boss is like, ‘This is Daniel Bryan’s Dad, this is Daniel Bryan's Dad.’ People were coming up to him ‘Oh can we get your autograph?’ So he's like, ‘Buddy Danielson, Daniel Bryan's Dad’
“He told me about it and how special he thought it was. When I really knew how special it was to him was when he told my sister and my sister was like, ‘Dad just talked about it for 45 minutes.’ He never got to see me get that kind of reaction before.”
You can watch/listen to the full interview with Bryan below.
