The long path of Daniel Bryan: One final independent match

Daniel Bryan left WWE for about two months shortly after joining the company, fired for being "excessive" during a PG television segment. He was mostly used as a scapegoat for the censors, which became clear when he was quickly re-hired and yanked away from the Nexus angle that cost him his job.

But during those two months away, he had a ton of great independent wrestling matches for companies everywhere and he made a ton of money doing it. Dragon Gate USA, the then-sister company of EVOLVE, was one such company. His first match of that summer was an absolutely spectacular encounter between Bryan and Dragon Gate's amazing Japanese superstar Shingo. But his last match was a brutal but beautiful encounter with one Jon Moxley, who only a few months later would regularly do battle with Bryan when he joined The Shield as Dean Ambrose. This was a much edgier time for Ambrose, which hopefully will be made clear quickly from his explicit language and the weird relationship he had with his valet in the company.

Check out the epic mayhem below.