It has been a couple weeks since Daniel Bryan shocked the world and announced his retirement. The WWE Universe was left with the question, who could be the next Daniel Bryan? As hard as it may be to replace arguably one of the best of all time, there are several good candidates out there, but one is clearly head and shoulders above the rest.
The guy I am talking about isn’t your typical name that appears when you type into Google, “next Daniel Bryan”. Those names that appear are usually AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, etc. Even though those guys are damn good, this guy is on the same level as them.
To the those people that only watch WWE, get familiar with the Zack Sabre Jr. Recently he had won the 2015 Wrestling Observer Best Technical Wrestler AKA the Bryan Danielson Award. When you win an award that Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle all have won, you are damn good at what you do. Sabre Jr will without a doubt continue to win because he is only getting better.
I first noticed the guy at PWGs BOLA in 2014. Unfortunately, I missed out on a ton of his earlier matches but better late than never. The British 28 year old has already been wrestling for 11 years. Growing up, he idolized guys like Chris Jericho, Bret Hart but especially Justin Thunder Liger. They were unbelievable at their craft and Sabre wanted to be just like them. At the mere age of 14, he began his training with the likes of Andre Baker, Matt Ball, Jon Ryan and the more popular Chris Hero.
When looking for UK’s next shining star, look no further. Sabre has wrestled all over Europe. Ever since Prince Devitt (Finn Balor) left the European Wrestling scene, someone needed to take over the mantle that he left. Zack Sabre Jr took the ball and ran it with it.
Due to his hard work and determination, more opportunities came and in doing so he showed everyone just how great he is. Being a great technical wrestler and a good striker, he is viewed as one of the up and coming Junior Heavyweights.
Sabre Jr’s offense includes various technical wrestling holds and pinning combinations, along with hard hitting strikes, which stems from his love of Puroresu. He frequently comes up with new moves or submissions we’ve never seen before. Sabre’s unique ways to get in and out of submission holds and reverses pinning combinations is something that I have never seen before.
Sabre is very methodical and goes after every part of the body on his opponents, and he’s a great innovator as well! Just those little things that he is capable of doing are what make him impressive to me! Most of the time I don’t even know how he does it! The “Wow” factor that Bryan possessed can be seen in Zabres eyes.
Much like Bryan, Zabre is usually the smaller guys in every match that he goes into. Sabre embraces the underdog role just like Bryan. Many people have heard the phrase, “It’s not the size of the dog in fight, and it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” Hey, this can guy can fight and go with the best!
Checkout this match against Prince Devitt (Finn Bálor) and I guarantee that this guy impresses you.
It has become clear that WWE is trying to snatch up a lot of talents from the Independent’s. Thank you Triple H!
WWE has a history of ignoring other wrestling promotions but that isn’t the case today. Since WWE began expanding their search for talents, it has opened the door for guys like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Now if we go back 10 years ago, Sabre might not even be on WWE’s radar.
Recently Sabre met with Triple H at an EVOLVE event. This got the Internet stirring about a working relationship between the two companies. A couple months prior to “The Game” showing up though, an interesting article that was up on WWE.com highlighted some of the EVOLVE guys that WWE thinks could be good assets in NXT.
Guys like Tracy Williams, Timothy Thatcher and Zack Sabre Jr were those on the list.
WWE mentioning specific wrestlers means there is a pretty good chance that the WWE Universe will see them. Just last month an article about AJ Styles appeared on WWE.com and look what happened. AJ “frickin” Styles is in the WWE!
As most have you have heard, WWE has announced a Global Cruiserweight Series coming to the network. The Global Cruiserweight Series is set up to showcase new talent and Sabre Jr. just might be the man to steal the show. The great thing about this show is that is more of a wrestling based show. Zabre won’t be put in the difficult scenario of trying to win the audience over with his promo ability.
One of the negatives that many people had on Bryan was that he was just a wrestler. There isn’t an ounce of charisma in this guy’s body. As time went on, he was given more and more responsibilities on the mic.
He proved everyone wrong and there is no reason why ZSJ can’t do the same. Now, I haven’t heard the guy speak a lot so he might be better than I expect, but it is still a hurdle that can be difficult. Put this guy in NXT for a year or two and because of his desire and love of wrestling, he will make it all work.
Another cool scenario would be if Bryan searched all around the world to find someone who is just as technically proficient (if not more) as he is. Bryan could talk about how he never got to have the career in WWE that he truly wanted, so he’s taking someone he thinks is fantastic under his wing to accomplish what he wasn’t ‘allowed’ to.
Zabre could have the mouthpiece that he may be lacking and eventually this could lead to a heel turn on Bryan. Who knows, maybe in 3 or 4 years Bryan could be allowed to have one final WWE send off match against his protégé.
This guy is very fun and entertaining to watch in the ring and I can’t wait to watch more Zack Sabre Jr. matches in the future! Following the WWE motto, Sabre is and will be for the next 10 years what is best for business.
Do you think Zack Sabre Jr could be the next Daniel Bryan? Feel free to let me know in the comments.