Nick shqip per dashuri

I know that’s heavy, but I’m not using that word lightly.
Viewers keep giving her a pass in a ‘we know she’s crazy, but she’s fun to watch’ kind of way, but her involvement with these accusations against Nick was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She needs to go. Not because she’s too much drama, but because she is actually dangerous imo. There are many posts breaking down the gossip girls situation, so here I’ll focus on Shanice.
When I see Shanice’s behavior on the show, all I can think is: DARVO
DARVO (an acronym for "deny, attack, and reverse victim & offender") is a reaction that perpetrators of wrongdoing may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. Some researchers indicate that it is a common manipulation strategy of psychological abusers. (per Wikipedia)
Let’s go back to her ex’s stalking/harassment allegations. I didn’t think it could be that bad, then I looked it up and I was shocked. There was so much unhinged behavior, but her allegedly sending nudes to his job and sleeping outside his home was on another level. She hangs on to a technicality, but just because there wasn’t enough admissible evidence to prosecute does not mean that it wasn’t wildly unacceptable behavior. It also does not mean she was found innocent. Look at #SummerHouseMV on Twitter. There have been multiple people involved in the production of Insecure that have come out and publicly said they witnessed her crazy behavior go on for months and that Shanice sent them and anyone she could find from that production her ex’s nudes. She put his livelyhood at risk for her enjoyment. (For full details, go look it up. There could be a whole post breaking down those allegations alone) Now she’s on a TV show talking about how terrible he is, how he’s traumatized her and ruined her life, etc.
Preston says she “should have a right to move on from her past.” I’m all for second chances. That requires taking accountability and showing growth. The most accountability we saw her take is in S1 saying “we all f up, it’s done.” Now in S2 she says none of it happened. She really thinks she can manipulate a whole TV audience?? I don’t think she can grow until she works to become self aware and stops surrounding herself with yes men who validate her harmful behavior (like her own mother).
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, she might have been afraid of the legal repercussions of taking accountability on TV, but if it were just that she could have dropped it there. How did she turn it around and vilify Alex for having legitimate questions when he found out about some wild allegations against someone he was now living with? She guilted him into apologizing for “traumatizing” her as she once again refused to even acknowledge Alex’s right to have questions/concerns. He actually handled it kindly, because he didn’t even give the details of her unhinged behavior, he just said he had concerns. In return, she got half the house to ice him out.
This show, and some of the cast, are now complicit in her abusive behavior. It has now come out that the main reason for the house’s animosity towards Jasmine and Alex is that Shanice demanded that no one speak about the allegations on camera. She and her crew are now icing them out as retribution. Idk if this is a reach, but could her involvement in the gossip girls situation also be retaliation since Nick was the one that brought her mess to light in S1? She was constantly sexualizing Nick at freaknik 2 days before, yet he’s the one that is inappropriate? I am not a male apologist. I am also not okay with anyone weaponizing harmful allegations. We all know that any type of allegations about sexual misconduct or inappropriateness can be ruining for anyone this day and age. Please go Google Nick. Right now, the first results that show up are all about this ‘Nick is handsy with women’ situation. What do you think that can do to a person and their career? Only for them to turn around and say it was never that serious. It is irresponsible to give this woman a national platform to continue to do this.
So now she has done this at least three times on camera to her ex, Alex, now Nick. She is constantly inappropriate with men and then turns around and makes herself the victim.
The fact that she says she’s traumatized by legal issues over allegedly harassing an ex, including sharing nudes, and then proceeds to brag about drunkenly sending a roster of men unsolicited nudes does not show growth imo. Continuously getting naked in front of people who have told her multiple times to stop because it makes them uncomfortable does not either. If she were an unattractive man instead of a beautiful woman people would be calling it SH. Honestly, if I were in that house I would sleep with one eye open.
I’m definitely side eye-ing Preston, Jordan, and Summer (Jamaica Crew) for co-signing this BS, because that has enabled her behavior to get to this point. Especially Preston. He is constantly talking about being a DEI consultant and how that is part of who he is. How on earth is he happy to go on TV and stand firmly behind enabling this abusive behavior?

Hello everyone I’m looking for some advice as a 21 year old contractor in a sticky situation. My name is Nick and I’m currently doing a job for my next door neighbour Hoyun. I am building a gazebo outside that is tied into his roof. As per my quote we agreed on $7500 for framing, roofing and interior finishing. During the process of building he has been asking me for extras including a mosquito net on the top gable as well as a curtain to block some more sun and some L brackets along the posts to give it an aesthetic look. I explained to him that they were extras. And he was fine with it. I have Finished the job as per the quote. Up to date I have been paid 6500$ and I am 1000$ short of final payment. He is refusing to pay me because he wants the extras done as well before payment is made. I’ve forked out so much money on this job already and I will be breaking even after incorrectly quoting for plywood and shingles. The cost of the extras is roughly an extra 900$ on top of final cost. I dont have money to pay for the materials to do the extras and he doesn’t want to pay my final draw of 1000$ what do it do? Do i tell him I’m going to walk and loose 1000$ I’m lost and not to sure what to do. The fact that he is my neighbour makes the situation so much harder to deal with. Any advice for me?

Hello everyone I’m looking for some advice as a 21 year old contractor in a sticky situation. My name is Nick and I’m currently doing a job for my next door neighbour Hoyun. I am building a gazebo outside that is tied into his roof. As per my quote we agreed on $7500 for framing, roofing and interior finishing. During the process of building he has been asking me for extras including a mosquito net on the top gable as well as a curtain to block some more sun and some L brackets along the posts to give it an aesthetic look. I explained to him that they were extras. And he was fine with it. I have Finished the job as per the quote. Up to date I have been paid 6500$ and I am 1000$ short of final payment. He is refusing to pay me because he wants the extras done as well before payment is made. I’ve forked out so much money on this job already and I will be breaking even after incorrectly quoting for plywood and shingles. The cost of the extras is roughly an extra 900$ on top of final cost. I dont have money to pay for the materials to do the extras and he doesn’t want to pay my final draw of 1000$ what do it do? Do i tell him I’m going to walk and loose 1000$ I’m lost and not to sure what to do. The fact that he is my neighbour makes the situation so much harder to deal with. Any advice for me?

Hello everyone I’m looking for some advice as a 21 year old contractor in a sticky situation. My name is Nick and I’m currently doing a job for my next door neighbour Hoyun. I am building a gazebo outside that is tied into his roof. As per my quote we agreed on $7500 for framing, roofing and interior finishing. During the process of building he has been asking me for extras including a mosquito net on the top gable as well as a curtain to block some more sun and some L brackets along the posts to give it an aesthetic look. I explained to him that they were extras. And he was fine with it. I have Finished the job as per the quote. Up to date I have been paid 6500$ and I am 1000$ short of final payment. He is refusing to pay me because he wants the extras done as well before payment is made. I’ve forked out so much money on this job already and I will be breaking even after incorrectly quoting for plywood and shingles. The cost of the extras is roughly an extra 900$ on top of final cost. I dont have money to pay for the materials to do the extras and he doesn’t want to pay my final draw of 1000$ what do it do? Do i tell him I’m going to walk and loose 1000$ I’m lost and not to sure what to do. The fact that he is my neighbour makes the situation so much harder to deal with. Any advice for me?

Hello everyone I’m looking for some advice as a 21 year old contractor in a sticky situation. My name is Nick and I’m currently doing a job for my next door neighbour Hoyun. I am building a gazebo outside that is tied into his roof. As per my quote we agreed on $7500 for framing, roofing and interior finishing. During the process of building he has been asking me for extras including a mosquito net on the top gable as well as a curtain to block some more sun and some L brackets along the posts to give it an aesthetic look. I explained to him that they were extras. And he was fine with it. I have Finished the job as per the quote. Up to date I have been paid 6500$ and I am 1000$ short of final payment. He is refusing to pay me because he wants the extras done as well before payment is made. I’ve forked out so much money on this job already and I will be breaking even after incorrectly quoting for plywood and shingles. The cost of the extras is roughly an extra 900$ on top of final cost. I dont have money to pay for the materials to do the extras and he doesn’t want to pay my final draw of 1000$ what do it do? Do i tell him I’m going to walk and loose 1000$ I’m lost and not to sure what to do. The fact that he is my neighbour makes the situation so much harder to deal with. Any advice for me?

The mixed-use property located at 709 Hallett St, 710 Hallett St & 727-737 Hallett Street in Bridgeport, CT, was sold for $3,400,000. The total square footage of the property is 36,936, resulting in a price per square foot of $92.

Summary of transaction details:

• Property Type: Mixed-use
• Transaction Amount: $3,400,000
• Asset Type: Mixed-use
• Seller: Amit Lakhotia
• Broker: Nick Selca - Lakeshore Realty

For further off-market opportunities in the Connecticut market, interested individuals can contact Nick Selca at 203.449.9347 or email Nick@LSRealtyteam.com.
Learn More: Amit Lakhotia Sells Mixed-Use Properties In Bridgeport, CT For $3.4M

I recently ran the 2024 Eugene Marathon and I'm analyzing my heart rate data to understand and refine my training for future races. The marathon went very well, and I felt strong until Mile 22. I had planned an aggressive negative split strategy, aiming to decrease my pace by 10 seconds per mile every mile starting from Mile 20. However, I couldn't increase the pace as I had hoped. Although I aimed for a 3:12:00 finish, I ended up at 3:17:00 (which is still a huge PR for me). Typically, when I've struggled in past races, my heart rate has approached its maximum (~183 bpm), forcing me to slow down. But in this race, my heart rate seemed manageable; I just couldn't push myself in the final miles as I had planned. I noticed a faint cramp in my hamstrings and my legs getting a little heavy. I was also mentally a little tired (I am guessing all this is expected towards the end of a marathon). This makes me wonder if the issue was not so much aerobic fitness but rather specific endurance and/or neuromuscular fitness. Adding to the complexity, my travel to Eugene was less than ideal—I landed at 11:00 PM the night before the race and managed only 2.5 hours of sleep (which could have contributed to early fatigue).
Regarding heart rate, I've read that [1][2][3] the heart rate should be around 70-85%, with the cardiac drift kicking in through the initial miles to the final mile during a marathon. My maximum is 190 bpm, and I climbed to 173 bpm from the 1.5 mile onward and I stayed above that for the entire race, which is about 91% of my maximum. I also came across Nick Harris-Fry’s [4] Strava, showing a beautifully gradual increase in heart rate throughout his marathon. Is this indicative of a well-conditioned athlete's heart rate pattern (Nick's) vs a mere mortal (me)? I wonder if there is anything that I can glean from this observation at all about the way my heart behaves.
I’m using a Polar HRM paired with a Garmin Epix Gen 2, which I believe to be quite accurate. I started running from April 2020 and for this training block I was averaging around 45 mpw, with the peak week at 55. At the peak week I did 2x6mile marathon pace + 1x3mile marathon to threshold with marathon pace set at 7:22 min/mile and threshold at 6:55 min/mile (marathon pace predicted finish of 3:12:00). It was a tough workout but I thought it was a good indicator of marathon fitness. However, during the race I just couldn't push at the end.
I’m sharing images of my heart rate trends during the race along with Nick Fry’s for comparison: https://imgur.com/a/McPmWXU. I’m curious to hear thoughts on this and whether others have observed similar heart rate behaviors, or performance characteristics during their races.
[1] Google auto answer
Marathon runners should aim to run at 65–80% of their maximum heart rate (MHR). Some recommend three heart rate zones for marathon stages:
70–74%: For stages 1–10 miles
75–79%: For stages 11–19 miles
80–85%: For stages 20–26 miles
[2] https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20812526/ask-the-coaches-heart-rate-goals-for-marathons/
[3] https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1185107
[4] https://www.strava.com/activities/11231100419

Hi - I have another intriguing, but probably moot question again - moot since I filed my StAG 15 application back in December 2022 (it’s of course still pending, but at this point changing my filing status wouldn’t make any sense).
So here goes …my Oma married a British national (my Opa, who though born a German citizen in 1885, had naturalized as a Brit in 1905 and returned to Germany ‘permanently’ after the First World War) in December 1920). As an result of her marriage, my Oma automatically lost her German citizenship and automatically, without applying for British citizenship, became a Brit (thereby, years later, after the Novemberpogrom, enabled them to escape from Nazi Germany to England just in the nick of time). My mom, in turn, was born in Germany as a British national through descent in January 1923.
My moot questions are:

1. Does the sex discrimination restitution law apply to pre-1949 marriages? (If so, my mom would be considered to have been a dual German-British citizen at birth)

And here’s the hopefully fun question, if the answer to my first question is yes:

1. My mom naturalized as a United States citizen (‘USC’) voluntarily in 1954, but never renounced her hypothetical German citizenship, since she at that time was only a British citizen. I was born in 1957 - so… despite naturalizing as a USC in 1954, would my mom have still been considered a German citizen when I was born based on the new sex discrimination restitution law?

Again, my questions are all theoretical at this point as I have an open and shut (presumably!) StAG 15 case and, though I didn’t apply under Artikel 116, based on a previous response Staplehill kindly (and quickly and succinctly!) provided to another of my moot questions, I’m also likely eligible per Artikel 116, as my Ur-Oma, who unfortunately could not flee with my mom and her parents because she was not, like them, a British citizen, but was, as a German Jew, deported from her home in Hessen and murdered in Theresienstadt in the fall of 1942.
As before, thank you all - and especially Staplehill - for your dedication to this subreddit, and for your straight, to the point, and timely responses!

First off, thanks to whoever made this reddit community.
What head shaver do you use? How often do you clean it or replace it? I am willing to pay a pretty penny for a long term head shaving or trimming product that doesnt nick me and such.
Do you wet or dry shave?
Any advice before I go full bald in June or July of this year?
How often do you shave per week?

Since they were talking about what's next I think instead of a "true Nuzlocke" since catching and naming pokemon with the chat is part of the experience I think Nick shouldn't be able to change the party unless he releases the Pokémon he is removing from the party, in addition to having to release them if they faint. I think only being able to catch one per route is a bit too limiting but being forced to stick to the party you have unless they die would be a good compromise.

Book report guy back, with the Bryan Danielson book from 2014 and it has some fun backstage stories from his time in WWE!
Solid wrestling book, though not super memorable in my opinion. Some solid detail and dirt like you expect, but honestly it felt like he was holding back.
As always, it's in chronological order as best as I could do that. Hope y'all enjoy!
Bryan is a weird dude, while describing his adolescence, he casually says that he has a lot of weird hypothesis on various subjects, and we should ask Nigel McGuinness about Bryan's theory on how a penis grows. He doesn't expand on this more. He just says that and moves back to talking about his childhood.
Bryan rants a bit about how modern medicine has stunted human evolution because kids who would have died off got to live and reproduce and pass their "defects" onto the next generation. He says that he is one of those defects, sick all his childhood and sick a lot as an adult. He says that his wife Brie is also a "defect" but says she can share the details in her own book if she ever writes one.
When Bryan was 16 years old, he contacted Dean Melanko's wrestling school and was told it would cost him $2,500, but he needed a $500 deposit to secure his spot. Bryan was scared that there were hundreds of people on the waiting list and worked extra shifts at McDonald's in order to get the cash together asap. He put $500 deposit down for a wrestling school he couldn't go to for 2 more years.
Three months before Bryan graduated high school, the Melanko Wrestling School contacted to inform Bryan that the school was shutting down permanently. When Bryan asked for his $500 back, he was told that they no longer had it and that he was SOL.
While watching Monday Night RAW, an ad flashed advertising a 900 number (an old pay-per-minute phone concept that was always a money drain on the caller), and it advertised Shawn Michaels opening up a wrestling school. After an expensive phone call, Bryan was told to pay $20 more for a package to be mailed to him with more info. He did, and when he got the package, it detailed how Michaels wrestling school would cost $3,900 dollars, and it had another 900 number to call if you're interested. Bryan was demoralized and almost didn't call. When he did, though, he was speaking to Shawm Michaels mom, who was helping Shawn run it. Bryan's mom ended up doing all the talking, and the two mothers helped Bryan get set up with a place in San Antonio where the school was. They agreed to let Bryan pay monthly to help him with the finances.
Bryan's first day of wrestling school went exactly like everyone else's first day of wrestling school, with 90% of the students gassed and vomiting. Bryan said out of the 10 guys there, only he and Lance Cade didn't end up vomiting.
Bryan remembers how much Shawn Michaels prioritized his training to Lance Cade. One of the first days, Lance did a basic jump and got so much air that Michaels loudly proclaimed, "I smell money!"
Even though it was Shawn's school, the primary instructor was Rudy Boy Gonzales, a pretty insignificant wrestler from the 80s and 90s. Bryan puts over Rudy as a passionate trainer who motivated him to try harder. Bryan said Rudy would show Bryan anything Bryan saw on a tape and wanted to try.
Bryan says that he and "The" Brian Kendrick became friends immediately as they were both around the same size in the training and had the same level of passion for wrestling.
I always heard that Shawn Michaels wasn't very present for this school, but Bryan tells a different tale, putting Shawn over as someone who was always around and always showing them how to be better.
Bryan does remember some days that Shawn would come in with his sunglasses on, sit at the back of the class, and then dip out early. Bryan didn't realize then that Shawn was in deep with a bad painkiller addiction, and so some days he wasn't as present. Since Bryan grew up with his dad's addiction issues, Bryan says seeing Shawn actually kick the addiction fully put Shawn on a pedestal in Bryan's eyes.
After a couple of months, Shawn was telling the students to start thinking of ring names, and when Bryan couldn't come up with one, he asked Shawn about using his real name. Shawn thought about it for a second before adding "The American Dragon" to it. When Bryan asked why that name, Shawn said it's because Bryan wrestled like a Japanese guy. Bryan took that as a massive compliment.
Bryan didn't tell Shawn, but Bryan initially hated "The American Dragon" name.
Bryan had trouble being expressive and emoting in the ring, so Shawn had him wrestle under a mask.
On October 4th, 1999, Bryan wrestled his first ever match for Shawn Michaels' small promotion, Texas Wrestling Alliance. His opponent was Brian Kendrick (then known as Spanky), and Bryan says as rotton as it was, everyone in the back was super excited for their performance, including Shawn.
Bryan confirms that Kendrick called himself "Spanky" as a masturbation reference.
Shawn arranged for Bryan and Lance Cade to head over to Japan and wrestle for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, a bit of a "mudshow" wrestling promotion. Shawn got Bryan and Lance a spot on their card by agreeing to referee a match for the company.
Bryan remembers seeing one guy shove a bottle rocket up his opponents butt and light it off at that FMW show. So yeah, some pretty outlaw stuff.
Bryan describes attempting a moonsalt to the outside of the ring during this Japan tour, but he slipped and cracked his head on the cement. Bryan says, "When I came to, I didn't even know where I was" before describing how he stumbled his way through the match. He notes how concussions have always been a problem for him.
Lance Cade was invited back to FMW later for a 2nd tour, but they didn't ask for Bryan back. That's when Bryan realized that at his size, he needs to get much, much better.
In February 2000, HBK got Bryan, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and another student named Shooter Shultz, a dark match on an episode of Smackdown. He says they planned for a 15-minute tag match before being told last minute that it's been cut down to 6 minutes. Bryan says HBK went and yelled at some people about "his guys" until he got it bumped up to 10 minutes.
Bryan says he got his first documented concussion that match, because they weren't used to a literal ramp, and Bryan cracked his skull on it, doing a pointless dive. He says the WWE doctor backstage told him to just make sure he doesn't fall asleep.
Bryan says when they got backstage after their match, HBK was excited and pumping them up, telling everyone backstage that they should sign all 4 guys immediately. This was on Tuesday, and by Thursday, when WWE still hadn't contacted them, Shawn called them up and threatened to take the 4 to WCW where Kevin Nash would make sure they were signed. Bryan says WWE quickly offered all 4 guys developmental contracts for $500 per week. Bryan says HBK was a great guy to have in your corner.
Shortly after getting the developmental contract, Bryan and Kendrick wrestled a main event ladder match for Shawn's TWA promotion. At the time, Bryan believed that in order to stand out, he would need to wrestle a more daredevil style, so he did some dumb stuff in this match. He did some ridiculous spot that ended with Bryan separating his shoulder. After the match, he took a table bump that legitimately knocked him unconscious for a full minute.
A week or 2 later, the teams had a rematch in a steel cage where all 4 agreed to blade for the first time. Why is he doing this dumb shit right after being offered a WWE contract?
Bryan says those ladder and cage matches made him realize he needed to change his style up and become more mat based. He wouldn't have had a long career if he kept getting hurt. At this point, Bryan has only been wrestling for 6 or 8 months and already suffered maybe 3 concussions. At least 2 for sure.
Bryan Danielson, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and Shooter Shultz all moved to Memphis, where WWE's development primarily opperated out of at the time. William Regal was also a developmental system at the time, trying to show he had kicked his addiction issues.
Memphis Championship Wrestling was the territory they wrestled for, and Bryan remembers wrestling in all sorts of crazy locations like a WalMart parking lot once.
Although Shawn eventually took the mask off Bryan in TWA, the guys at MCW immediately put the mask back on Bryan.
The only time Bryan thought he might get called up to the main roster was in January 2001, when he heard rumors that WWE wanted to start up a cruiserweight division and use Danielson and Kendrick That didn't happen, though, and Bryan never heard another rumor or wiff of him being called up.
In June 2001, someone from WWE talent relations came down to evaluate talent. Brian was let go and told that despite his talent, they just had no plans for him.
In October 2001, Bryan was offered a spot in California based All Pro Wrestling's annual King Of The Indies tournament. Danielson would beat Kendrick in the first round, and after the show, Nick Bockwinkle, who was there watching, loudly told promoter Roland Alexander, "If you don't put that guy over." Bockwinkle said while pointing directly at Bryan, "You're crazy!"
APW head trainer Donovan Morgan was scheduled to beat Bryan in the second round and go on to win the tournament, but promoter Roland made the call to have Bryan win instead.
Bryan says this that while this really pissed Donovan off, what really upset the guy was when Roland offered Danielson and Kendrick trainer positions alongside Donovan.
Kendrick turned the offer down, but Bryan took it and moved to California in January 2002, where he became the head trainer. Though Bryan says he was a lousy trainer and no good at motivating anyone.
On February 2002, Bryan sat down with Gabe Sapolsky, who, after being inspired by the Super 8 tournament Bryan won, wanted Bryan part of his new promotion, Ring of Honor.
Bryan remembers both William Regal and John Laurinaitis said they would try to get Bryan an in to Japan, but both came up short, and both eventually stopped returning Bryan's calls.
In March 2002, Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and Brian Kendrick got a tryout with New Japan in Santa Monica. Antonio Inoki was actually there to oversee, but he literally had his back turned to the ring while Danielson and Kendrick wrestled. Inoki never bothered to turn around and watch them, instead watching someone stretch, Bryan says. Bryan later heard that New Japan never intended to hire anyone. They just wanted their dojo to look full for press.
After the "tryout," Bryan says that Inoki fell and had to be helped up by a bunch of people. Only the three of them didn't get up to help, with Kendrick saying loudly, "serves the motherfucker right."
Bryan kept making trips to the Santa Monica dojo every couple of weeks until Shinya "Togi" Makabe told him that if Bryan really wanted to be taken seriously, he had to be at the dojo every single day. Bryan took the advice seriously, quit his training job and moved to Santa Monica.
Bryan says he was offered to come tour with New Japan after only training at the dojo full time a few weeks. It was on this tour where Bryan first wrestled in the Tokyo Dome.
In May 2003, Bryan wrestled another Tokyo Dome show, where Bryan, Rocky Romero and TJ Perkins were all pulled aside in the hotel after the show, by Justin Cully. Cully literally slapped each man across the face, saying the slaps are from Inoki, who was disappointed in their proformances that night. Apparently Inoki expected them to wrestle more of a shoot style fight and was very upset.
In March 2004, Bryan won his first title with New Japan, the IWGP Junior Tag titles with Christopher Daniels, and Bryan would spend the majority of the year with New Japan where he wrestled 8 different tours.
Bryan pitched a 3 hour long match to Gabe Sapolsky for a ROH show and is disappointed they didn't go the full 3 hours.
Going into 2005, Bryan expected to wrestle his whole career in New Japan, but was startled when New Japan didn't get his visa renewed for the January tour like they always do. He was told it was a mistake and he would be back for March tour, but again he was told last minute they didn't have a visa for him. In May they contacted him last minute inviting him for a tour, but at a ridiculous pay cut down to $500 per week. Bryan turned the offer down and never went back to that Santa Monica dojo or work for New Japan again. He later heard that he was used as a pawn in a power struggle with the Dojo and New Japan.
In mid-2005 Bryan got an email from CM-Punk about a rumor suggesting that both WWE and TNA were interested in Bryan, Punk and Samoa Joe. Joe would quickly sign with TNA after this and Punk took a developmental deal with WWE. Bryan never heard from either company, and a few months later Gabe Sapolsky told Bryan he wanted to build ROH around Bryan but wanted a promise that Bryan wouldn't just leave to WWE or TNA. Great timing Gabe, because Bryan immediately said yes.
After winning the ROH World title in September 2005, Bryan says his title reign was falling flat until he started being cocky and cutting those "best in the world" promos. Bryan even shades Jericho and Punk a little by saying at the time no one else was saying it and that's why it worked so well for him.
Bryan puts over his matches with Nigel McGuinness in summer of 2006, but points out one in particular he regrets. Nigel had the idea for Bryan to pull Nigel's face into the steel ring post 3 times to get real blood. After 3 attempts and no blood, Nigel yelled, "One more time!" They got blood on the 4th time, and gave Nigel a severe concussion.
Five minutes into an hour long match with Colt Cabana in August 2006, Bryan landed bad on the outside of the ring, where he separated that same right shoulder as before and tore two tendons.
Three weeks later, Bryan defended his ROH title against KENTA of all people, who legitimately targeted his hurt shoulder all match. Then Bryan went to tour Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah where he and KENTA had a rematch.
Bryan would finally drop the ROH title in December 2006 and then take nearly 4 months off. This is the first time he took off since he started wrestling in 1999.
After doing a tour of Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah in April 2007, Bryan was excited to come back to ROH and signed a 2 year contract.
In June 2007, Bryan and Nigel wrestled an extremely physical match that featured a spot where the two traded headbutts. The match didn't air until September that year and in the mean time, the Chris Benoit double murdesuicide happened and the talk of concussions and safety concerns changed completely. The match was not recieved well and Gabe later told Bryan that they shouldn't have aired it at all.
ROH struggled after the Benoit incident and most everyone had to adapt and tone down their styles. Bryan wasn't one of those people, and actually refused to tone down his style. Later in 2007 he would rupture his ear drum exchanging open palm strikes with KENTA and he would suffer a detached retina in a match with Takeshi Morishima. To this day, he has trouble hearing from his left ear and has trouble with vision.
Bryan remembers being super late for a show and not even being able to meet his opponent beforehand. To Bryan's suprise, his opponent, who despite being green, was great to work with and the two had good chemistry. That was a young Jon Moxley.
In Summer of 2008, Shawn Michaels was fueding with Chris Jericho and they incorporated Lamce Cade on Jericho's side, since Shawn trained Lance. Shawn actually reached out to Bryan about also joining the WWE and being involved in the story.
Bryan met with Vince McMahon and remembers how taken back Vince seemed when they first met, and thinks it was because of Bryan's size and how plain he looked. Bryan also didn't sell himself well in the meeting, saying he is "just okay." Head of talent relations John Laurinaitis told Bryan that they would call him, but he never did.
When Bryan returned from a Japan tour in October 2008, he was shocked to find Gabe Sapolsky had been fired by ROH and replaced by Adam Pearce. Bryan details that while Gabe liked to book long shows with everyone on the card trying their hardest to steal the show, Pearce booked shorter shows and had the lower card guys preform well, but not to try everything under the sun to outshine the main event. You can see why Jim Cornette and Adam Pearce get along so well.
Bryan notes how he was fueding with Claudio Castignoli when Gabe was fired, but Pearce immediately ended that program to which Bryan says he and Claudio were disappointed.
After another failed attempt to get into WWE I'm early 2009, Bryan refocused his energies by moving to Las Vegas where he started training in kick boxing and other forms of mixed martial arts.
Bryan trained religiously for months under a former MMA fighter Neil Melanson. Neil is the one who taught Bryan the LaBell Lock.
When Bryan's ROH contract expired in May 2009, he called John Laurinaitis and left a message, but never heard back.
Bryan says in mid-2009, he was talking to Gabe Sapolsky about starting up a new promotion that would become Evolve. Bryan says that Paul Heyman was even involved with these talks.
Brian Kendrick called Danielson up to pitch Danielson coming to WWE as Kendrick's tag partner. Danielson even went and filmed a bunch of promos with Kendrick and fel optimistic. Unfortunately, Kendrick was fired just a few weeks later before any of those vignets aired and that opportunity was gone as well.
Bryan had given up ever going to WWE when John Laurinaitis called him in September 2009 offering him a main roster contract. Bryan was so excited he didn't have to go to developmental, that he would be right on the main roster immediately. Or so he thought, I guess they didn't bother telling Brilyan about NXT at that time, even though it sounds like he was signed with that in mind.
Nigel was also signed at the same time (probably also meant for NXT) but before either man could start, they had to pass WWE medical tests. They asked them both about past injuries, and Bryan just lied, saying he never had anything wrong and was fine. Didn't mention his shoulder being separated twice, or the detached retina, or any concussion. Nigel on the other hand, was very honest about his injuries, including a torn bicep that he didn't get worked on, he just rehabbed it. Nigel figured he was a lock and didn't see the need to lie.
WWE was concerned about Bryan's elevated liver enzymes, and wanted Nigel to get surgery on his bicep before they would sign him. Both guys were wrestling a farewell tour with ROH and both genuinely concerned they wouldn't actually be leaving. In their last match for ROH, Bryan accidentally gave Nigel a concussion, because apparently these guys only know how to wrestle at one speed!
Nigel couldn't afford the bicep surgery and his own doctor was telling him he is fine, so Nigel went to TNA instead. Nigel would only wrestle for another year before his body would break down too far on him and he would retire.
Bryan signed his WWE contract on October 2nd, 2009, nearly 10 years to the day of his debut match. William Regal actually told Bryan, "Your wrestling career came before this and is over now. Anything else that happens now is a bonus."
William Regal came up with the name "Daniel Bryan" for Bryan to use in WWE. Brian tried arguing to Laurinaitis to use his real name and citing John Cena as an example, Laurinaitis simply told Bryan, "We don't do that anymore."
In early 2010, Bryan and seven other guys were told one day about the NXT concept and how they would be used. Bryan found out who his NXT "pro" would be just like everyone else, when WWE posted it on their website. Bryan initially legit wanted Regal as his "pro" but soon realized being paired with Miz gives him a story immediately.
Bryan describes his time in NXT as the most unusual of his career. The "rookies" all legitimately didn't know what was going to happen on any show and everything they did was 100% unscripted and improvised.
The first night in NXT, all the "rookies" were told 15 minutes before the show, that their "pro" would cut a promo on them and they needed to react accordingly. Bryan had no idea that his pro, the Miz was going to tell him to head to the ring and cut a promo on himself, literally telling him on live TV to make the fans care about him. Bryan had no idea what to say, no real direction he was given to go in, and no tome to plan or rehearse. Miz also told him to come up with a catchphrase, and Bryan said he always hated catch phrases.
In the ring, Bryan cut a generic promo where he said he lost his train of thought and was super greatful when The Miz came out to finish the promo off. Bryan didn't know that would happen and Bryan definitely didn't know Miz was going to slap him at the end. Bryan says that later, The Miz confided to Bryan that he was worried Bryan would try to fight him over the slap.
Bryan credits Chris Jericho for getting him over in his first WWE match, and says that neither he, nor Miz knew that Miz was to beat up Brian after the match. Apparently, Miz was informed during the Jericho/Bryan match that he was to attack Bryan after the finish. Wild how much "flying by the seat of their pants" that WWE did with early NXT.
After the show, Jericho told Bryan that Vince was impressed, though he noted how Vince said, "Ugh, but he doesn't even eat meat!"
Bryan describes promo class with Vince as kinda insane to be honest. One time Bryan accidentally spilled a water bottle, and Vince asked everyone how that made them feel about Bryan. Stuff like that.
Bryan says the NXT rookies weren't allowed to use the regular dressing room and had to use some tarped off part of the backstage area.
Bryan notes how most of the NXT season, the NXT rookies never really knew what was going to happen. The 2nd week Bryan lost to Wade Barret and wasn't told that Chris Jericho would be attacking him after the match.
Bryan says his initial storyline with The Miz wasn't a losing streak idea, but something where each loss had meaning and was being built with purpose. Miz was very hands on with each show and helped to put over Bryan and the storyline, but when Miz missed 2 weeks in a row, the producers left in charge basically just turned it into a losing streak storyline, which Bryan says, "never works."
One time on a plane, Ezekiel Jackson asked "which rookie has an isle seat?" Bryan raised his had and Ezekiel said, "Not anymore." Bryan stood his ground and refused, offering his seat to anyone but Ezekiel. Ezekiel got pissed but William Regal came over and chastised Jackson, saying Bryan is like a son to him and how Bryan has more talent in his pinky ginger than Jackson has in his whole body.
Bryan says the NXT "Pros Polls" were legitimate voting done by the pros. That's why Bryan ended up in first place, despite losing every match.
A week after Wrestlemania in 2010, NXT's direction and purpose shifted away from being serious to silly, and Bryan says they were suddenly doing dumb game show competitions and putting over how demoralizing it was.
Bryan says Skip Shepfield (Ryback) was the only rookie taking the competitions seriously and trying to win each game. Sounds on brand for the big guy.
Bryan says he was trying to be humble when asked who should be eliminated and he said himself. He figured since he lost to everyone he didn't have a right to say any of them. Backstage Miz told him he made a mistake and shouldn't have put that perception out there.
A week later they liked the rookies up on TV (an hour before it goes live) and informed Bryan and fellow rookie Michael Tarver that they are both eliminated, without telling them beforehand. Bryan felt this validated all the warnings guys like Colt Cabana and other gave him about WWE.
Right after Matt Striker interviewed him backstage and when asked an insulting question, Bryan snapped and started talking down about "Daniel Bryan" and started to put over "Bryan Danielson!" Bryan says he could hear Vince screaming into Striker's ear piece and apparently Vince threw his headset when Bryan said his real name.
They made Bryan retape the interview without saying that, but still aired his original interview.
Bryan was surprisingly called back to NXT the following week to start a rivalry with Micheal Cole, who had been verbally obliterating Bryan on commentary since Bryan debuted. Bryan seems to be greatful for that program since it kept him on tv and made him confident that he would keep his job.
The RAW after NXT season 1 ended, all the rookies were pulled into Vince's office and told about Nexus and the attack in the main event. They were told not to tell anyone or else they will be fired. Bryan says he even lied to William Regal, when asked why he was dressed to wrestle.
They were supposed to attack John Cena and Rey Mysterio in the main event, because WWE let the fans vote on Cena's opponent and they assumed Rey would get it. Surprisingly it was CM Punk, and Bryan isn't sure how much Punk was told about the angle.
Bryan legit choked Justin Roberts during the melee, leaving red marks on his skin with his tie. Bryan said he doesn't trust non-wrestlers to sell good so he did it for real, with Justin going purple on Tv. Later during the brawl, Bryan was grabbing a cable to choke someone else when a cameraman told him "no choking!" Bryan does note that he thinks Justin Roberts found it pretty cool to be involved. And later Heath Slater grabbed the dismantled ring ropes to choke Cena, but Cena told him as well, "No choking."
Cena told Bryan before the angle, "It's not the hit you do that's important, it's what you do before the hit that matters." This is why Bryan spit in Cena's face before kicking him in the head.
Backstage, Bryan was reprimanded twice, for choking and spitting. Two days later Vince McMahon personally called Bryan to tell him he was let go and apologized to Bryan for it. Bryan, arrogant as all hell, responded with, "Don't apologize, I'll make more money this year on the independents than I would have working for you."
Bryan called John Laurinaitis to clear up details and Laurinaitis was shocked to hear Bryan was fired. Apparently Vince didn't tell anyone, just called Laurinaitis up and asked for Bryan's number. The comment Bryan made about money seemed to get to Vince since Laurinaitis called Bryan back and asked about it. Laurinaitis actually told Bryan that he can start working independent dates immediately if he wasn't on TV.
After working several shows and making good money off merchandise for several weeks, Bryan was shocked when John Laurinaitis called him in August and asked him to come back for a big angle leading into SummerSlam. Bryan sheepishly asked for a raise and made sure he could make all his already planned independent bookings.
Bryan says Nexas should have won at SummerSlam, noting how they went from dangerous to jobbers in one night.
Bryan remembers a taped RAW after SummerSlam where he did an angle with The Miz. When he got backstage Vince was so mad at how it came off that he made Bryan and others go back out there and do it again. It was the first time Bryan ever had to redo something like that and he said he felt humiliated.
Bryan didnt seem to see much value in being US Champion outside of how it would keep him on tv and maybe monthly ppv matches.
At Hell in a Cell 2010 ppv, Bryan had a good match with Miz and John Morrison, but was scolded after that match for a spot where Bryan threw Miz's stoog Alex Riley off the stage where he landed on cameraman. They showed the two guys the footage and accused them of doing it on purpose to get themselves over. Bryan started regretting coming back and really hating his time in WWE.
Bryan was paired with the Bella Twins in a storyline he hated, that was based on the Twins confusing the word "vegan" for "virgin" and competing to sleep with Bryan. Despite how bad that storyline was, Bryan and Brie would develop a relationship and would start dating in February 2011.
Sheamus was given a choice of Wrestlemania opponents that year between Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan, and Sheamus chose Bryan. Bryan was greatful but concerned Sheamus chose wrong and their match would be cut but Sheamus wasn't worried at all. A week before Mania they were informed their match was on the pre-show at a meeting with literally every other wrestler. Bryan says Sheamus buried his face in his hands and remembers how Rey Mysterio got on the card in a match with Cody Rhodes. Bryan says Sheamus picked the wrong guy.
Bryan got some details in his book messed up where he talks about Miz winning the WWE title off Cena at Wrestlemania 27 and he talks about how Miz was WWE Champion going into Over The Limit ppv 2011, but Miz lost the title by then. It's notable because he says he pitched hard for a "Rocky style" storyline where he would challenge Miz for the WWE title at the Over The Limit ppv.
Bryan says the 2011 Smackdown Money in the Bank winner wasn't decided until the day of the show but it was always between Wade Barret, Cody Rhodes and Bryan. He says despite winning the briefcase, his tv time tricked down and eventually he was spending weeks off tv, until he was randomly inserted into the World title program between Mark Henry and Big Show in late 2011.
Bryan was being left at home and off shows, even watching Survivor Series 2011 from home and was suprised when WWE had him come to the December TLC ppv show, last minute. The day of the show he was told he was cashing in and winning the title and the only direction Vince McMahon gave him was to act like he won the superbowl, so that's where Bryan's over the top celebration came from. He didn't even tell his girlfriend Brie Bella about the plan and says she was shocked when he came backstage afterwards.
The only direction Vince gave Bryan as champion is to celebrate every appearance like he won the lottery, saying, "there is no too over the top here."
Bryan said he adapted his "Yes" chants from MMA fighter Diego Sanchez who was celebrating in a similar way at the time.
Bryan's favorite moment from that first world title run was the closing sequence in the 2012 Elimination Chamber match with him and Santino Marella.
Bryan originally expected he and Sheamus to get 15 minutes or so at Wrestlemania for their match, but was shocked when Chris Jericho told him he heard it would be 8 minutes, including the pre & post match stuff. A week later Arn Anderson confirmed to Bryan that he would lose a 1-move match, dropping the world title to Sheamus at Wrestlemania that year. Bryan and Sheamus were both pissed, to say the least.
Sheamus expressed concern that the short match would turn fans against him as a new champion. Smart man.
Bryan says a bunch of guys came up to him after his Mania loss and were pissed at what they did to Bryan out there. Great Khali even came up and told Bryan that it was bullshit in his broken English.
Originally Sheamus was planned to move into a fued with Alberto Del-rio right after Mania, but the crazy crowd support for Bryan forced them to extend they story another month. Bryan says his Extreme Rules ppv match with Sheamus in 2012 is one of his favorites. Mine too!
Bryan acknowledged the weird booking of Punk as champion in 2012, noting how heels would face John Cena, lose, then be sent to face Punk with no momentum. Interesting take on the situation.
Bryan mentions how when he and Punk fueded in 2012, they never got main event spots outside of non-televised events. One time at a house show, Bryan and Punk veered too far into comedy and after the match John Cena chastised Bryan by pointing out that they didn't wrestle a "main event style" match. Apparently the next house show, Cena was moved into the main event spot with Punk/Bryan being before the intermission. An enraged Punk went and yelled at people until he got his main event spot back. This time, no comedy spots were done and they stayed the main event for the circuit.
Bryan had brand new, edgier gear made up prior to Money in the Bank 2012 and didn't tell anyone backstage. He wore shorts over his trunk and hid the jacket until he had to go out. When he got to the ring, the ref told him to lose the jacket, because I guess Vince was in gorilla position freaking out over how Bryan looked. Dean Melanko was the producer for the match, and Bryan felt bad when Vince blamed him for allowing Bryan to wear it.
Bryan was originally planned to wrestle Charlie Sheen at SummerSlam 2012 in a celebrity match, but Charlie "bailed" as Bryan put it.
Bryan was trying to be "Mr Small Package" by winning matches with Small Package and then boasting about how he has an "inescapable small package!" It didn't get over.
Bryan thought his anger management vignets with Kane and Dr Shelby were going to be terrible.
The only reason they stopped using Dr Shelby is because he had limited days off from his regular teaching job.
Bryan and Kane really wanted their team name to be "Team Friendship" and they even had shirt ideas but Vince let the fans vote and he always kept those votes legit, so their team name was "Team Hell No" which Bryan brings up a good point about. He said as a team primarily appealing to kids, a name with "Hell" in it would be hard to sell merchandise to those kids.
The plan was to break up their team so they could have a good heated fued together, but they were so popular that they kept teaming for 9 months.
Bryan says his first good Wrestlemania experience was in 2013 when he teamed with Kane.
One night after Mania in 2013, when Bryan tagged with Kane and Undertaker to face The Shield, Vince McMahon told Bryan that he would pay him several thousand dollars if he could get Undertaker to hug Bryan in the ring. After the show Bryan got on the mic and tried his hardest to get the hug but couldn't quite do it.
Bryan says that both he and Kane agree that teaming together was some of the most fun in either man's career.
Bryan was scheduled to win the biggest match of his career up to that point, he would be beating Randy Orton clean on RAW. Bryan would botch a dive that left both arms nunb and him unable to stand. He got feeling back in one arm but eventually the doctor called the match off. Backstage Bryan started screaming at Triple H for calling the match and called him a hypocrite for doing so, citing his own injuries in matches. At one point Orton tried to calm Bryan down, but Bryan snapped at him and Orton started yelling too. Brie got Bryan away to calm down, but when Vince came to talk to Bryan, the shouting started again. Much later, William Regal advised Bryan to apologize to both Vince and Triple H, to which Bryan took his advice. The next week, Bryan would get his win over Orton and he says that that drama over everything made that win matter more.
An MRI showed that one of Bryan's disks was pushing into his nerves and eventually he would need surgery. With his momentum starting to rise, Bryan opted to put surgery off.
John Cena pitched facing Daniel Bryan at Money in the Bank 2013 ppv. When Vince asked why, Cena said because it's the biggest match they could do at that time. Vince ended up agreeing, but deciding that it belongs at SummerSlam that year instead!
As proud as Bryan is of the build to and match with Cena at SummerSlam, he acknowledges that the ppv didn't do good numbers, nor did the house show business the following 2 months when Bryan was the main protagonist. He thinks a lot the the Authority promos on him stemmed from some truth.
Bryan isn't satisfied with the quality of matches he was putting out in the latter half of 2013 amd he specifically calls out the series of bad finishes he had with Randy Orton in ppv main events. From the fast counting crooked ref, to that terrible one with Big Show knocking everyone out, and then to Shawn Michaels betraying Bryan at Hell in a Cell ppv.
Bryan initially thought he was getting a Wrestlemania match with Shawn Michaels after that Hell in a Cell finish, but after talking with HBK, it was clear that was never in the cards.
Bryan feels he failed as a main eventer in the 2nd half of 2013, regardless of match quality. He didn't move business and that's all that matters.
The Slammy's were fan votes and Vince didn't think Bryan would win and almost laughed when Bryan asked him what he should say if he does win. Vince said, "whatever you want." I wish I could have seen Vince's face when Bryan won later that night.
When Bryan started fueding with Wyatt Family in late-2013, Bryan was pitching for him to be "brainwashed" and join the group. He suspects that his rising popularity in early 2014 is what convinced WWE to have Bryan turn on Bray and leave the group. At the time, Bryan was hoping to stay with the group and be involved in the planned Cena/Wyatt Wrestlemania program since Bryan had no plans for Mania at that time.
Bryan says he was disappointed when Vince told him he would be facing Sheamus again at Wrestlemania 2014. No disrespect to Sheamus, but Bryan felt he belonged in a higher spot.
Bryan felt bad for the way Rey Mysterio was boo'd at the 2014 Royal Rumble.
When Punk quit WWE after Rumble that year, Bryan remembers how plans didn't change too much for a few weeks, and he assumes Vince expected Punk to come back and for Batista to win the crowds over, and neither happened.
Triple H was being vocal about wanting to face Bryan at Mania that year, but Bryan was trying to not get his hopes up since he had seen Triple H try and fail to get his ideas on screen.
Bryan and Brie only agreed to let Total Divas shoot their wedding, because Total Divas agreed to pay for the whole wedding! Hard to say no to that!
Bryan is very satisfied with his matches at Wrestlemania 30 and says he was so focused between matches that he missed Undertaker losing to Lesnar. He heard the ring bell and looked up at the monitor in shock. He says they cameras should have filmed the guys and girls in the back because their reactions were wild, apparently.
Five days after Wrestlemania 30, Bryan and Brie got married, but 2 days after their honeymoon ended, Bryan's dad unexpectedly passed away at the age of 57. Bryan was devastated and described how he was crying still as he was writing about it.
The book ends on a complete downer, very unlike most other wrestling books. Bryan says that as long as he wrestled when asked if everything he was missing or sacrificing was worth it, Bryan always said yes. He assumed he would have more time when he was done and could catch up on what he missed, but his dad is gone and Bryan openly admits that it wasn't worth it. If he could, Bryan would change a lot of his decisions if it meant more time with his dad.
He says he is still wrestling though because he literally doesn't know what else to do or what comes after. This is especially depressing 10 years later, when Bryan is still wrestling despite having started a family of his own. I hope he doesn't regret any time missed with his daughter.
He ends the book by describing the last time he saw his dad, on Christmas in 2013, where his dad dressed up as Santa. Fuck. I'm sad now.

Solid wrestling book, though not super memorable in my opinion. Some solid detail and dirt like you expect, but honestly it felt like he was holding back.
As always, it's in chronological order as best as I could do that. Hope y'all enjoy!
Bryan is a weird dude, while describing his adolescence, he casually says that he has a lot of weird hypothesis on various subjects, and we should ask Nigel McGuinness about Bryan's theory on how a penis grows. He doesn't expand on this more. He just says that and moves back to talking about his childhood.
Bryan rants a bit about how modern medicine has stunted human evolution because kids who would have died off got to live and reproduce and pass their "defects" onto the next generation. He says that he is one of those defects, sick all his childhood and sick a lot as an adult. He says that his wife Brie is also a "defect" but says she can share the details in her own book if she ever writes one.
When Bryan was 16 years old, he contacted Dean Melanko's wrestling school and was told it would cost him $2,500, but he needed a $500 deposit to secure his spot. Bryan was scared that there were hundreds of people on the waiting list and worked extra shifts at McDonald's in order to get the cash together asap. He put $500 deposit down for a wrestling school he couldn't go to for 2 more years.
Three months before Bryan graduated high school, the Melanko Wrestling School contacted to inform Bryan that the school was shutting down permanently. When Bryan asked for his $500 back, he was told that they no longer had it and that he was SOL.
While watching Monday Night RAW, an ad flashed advertising a 900 number (an old pay-per-minute phone concept that was always a money drain on the caller), and it advertised Shawn Michaels opening up a wrestling school. After an expensive phone call, Bryan was told to pay $20 more for a package to be mailed to him with more info. He did, and when he got the package, it detailed how Michaels wrestling school would cost $3,900 dollars, and it had another 900 number to call if you're interested. Bryan was demoralized and almost didn't call. When he did, though, he was speaking to Shawm Michaels mom, who was helping Shawn run it. Bryan's mom ended up doing all the talking, and the two mothers helped Bryan get set up with a place in San Antonio where the school was. They agreed to let Bryan pay monthly to help him with the finances.
Bryan's first day of wrestling school went exactly like everyone else's first day of wrestling school, with 90% of the students gassed and vomiting. Bryan said out of the 10 guys there, only he and Lance Cade didn't end up vomiting.
Bryan remembers how much Shawn Michaels prioritized his training to Lance Cade. One of the first days, Lance did a basic jump and got so much air that Michaels loudly proclaimed, "I smell money!"
Even though it was Shawn's school, the primary instructor was Rudy Boy Gonzales, a pretty insignificant wrestler from the 80s and 90s. Bryan puts over Rudy as a passionate trainer who motivated him to try harder. Bryan said Rudy would show Bryan anything Bryan saw on a tape and wanted to try.
Bryan says that he and "The" Brian Kendrick became friends immediately as they were both around the same size in the training and had the same level of passion for wrestling.
I always heard that Shawn Michaels wasn't very present for this school, but Bryan tells a different tale, putting Shawn over as someone who was always around and always showing them how to be better.
Bryan does remember some days that Shawn would come in with his sunglasses on, sit at the back of the class, and then dip out early. Bryan didn't realize then that Shawn was in deep with a bad painkiller addiction, and so some days he wasn't as present. Since Bryan grew up with his dad's addiction issues, Bryan says seeing Shawn actually kick the addiction fully put Shawn on a pedestal in Bryan's eyes.
After a couple of months, Shawn was telling the students to start thinking of ring names, and when Bryan couldn't come up with one, he asked Shawn about using his real name. Shawn thought about it for a second before adding "The American Dragon" to it. When Bryan asked why that name, Shawn said it's because Bryan wrestled like a Japanese guy. Bryan took that as a massive compliment.
Bryan didn't tell Shawn, but Bryan initially hated "The American Dragon" name.
Bryan had trouble being expressive and emoting in the ring, so Shawn had him wrestle under a mask.
On October 4th, 1999, Bryan wrestled his first ever match for Shawn Michaels' small promotion, Texas Wrestling Alliance. His opponent was Brian Kendrick (then known as Spanky), and Bryan says as rotton as it was, everyone in the back was super excited for their performance, including Shawn.
Bryan confirms that Kendrick called himself "Spanky" as a masturbation reference.
Shawn arranged for Bryan and Lance Cade to head over to Japan and wrestle for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, a bit of a "mudshow" wrestling promotion. Shawn got Bryan and Lance a spot on their card by agreeing to referee a match for the company.
Bryan remembers seeing one guy shove a bottle rocket up his opponents butt and light it off at that FMW show. So yeah, some pretty outlaw stuff.
Bryan describes attempting a moonsalt to the outside of the ring during this Japan tour, but he slipped and cracked his head on the cement. Bryan says, "When I came to, I didn't even know where I was" before describing how he stumbled his way through the match. He notes how concussions have always been a problem for him.
Lance Cade was invited back to FMW later for a 2nd tour, but they didn't ask for Bryan back. That's when Bryan realized that at his size, he needs to get much, much better.
In February 2000, HBK got Bryan, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and another student named Shooter Shultz, a dark match on an episode of Smackdown. He says they planned for a 15-minute tag match before being told last minute that it's been cut down to 6 minutes. Bryan says HBK went and yelled at some people about "his guys" until he got it bumped up to 10 minutes.
Bryan says he got his first documented concussion that match, because they weren't used to a literal ramp, and Bryan cracked his skull on it, doing a pointless dive. He says the WWE doctor backstage told him to just make sure he doesn't fall asleep.
Bryan says when they got backstage after their match, HBK was excited and pumping them up, telling everyone backstage that they should sign all 4 guys immediately. This was on Tuesday, and by Thursday, when WWE still hadn't contacted them, Shawn called them up and threatened to take the 4 to WCW where Kevin Nash would make sure they were signed. Bryan says WWE quickly offered all 4 guys developmental contracts for $500 per week. Bryan says HBK was a great guy to have in your corner.
Shortly after getting the developmental contract, Bryan and Kendrick wrestled a main event ladder match for Shawn's TWA promotion. At the time, Bryan believed that in order to stand out, he would need to wrestle a more daredevil style, so he did some dumb stuff in this match. He did some ridiculous spot that ended with Bryan separating his shoulder. After the match, he took a table bump that legitimately knocked him unconscious for a full minute.
A week or 2 later, the teams had a rematch in a steel cage where all 4 agreed to blade for the first time. Why is he doing this dumb shit right after being offered a WWE contract?
Bryan says those ladder and cage matches made him realize he needed to change his style up and become more mat based. He wouldn't have had a long career if he kept getting hurt. At this point, Bryan has only been wrestling for 6 or 8 months and already suffered maybe 3 concussions. At least 2 for sure.
Bryan Danielson, Lance Cade, Brian Kendrick, and Shooter Shultz all moved to Memphis, where WWE's development primarily opperated out of at the time. William Regal was also a developmental system at the time, trying to show he had kicked his addiction issues.
Memphis Championship Wrestling was the territory they wrestled for, and Bryan remembers wrestling in all sorts of crazy locations like a WalMart parking lot once.
Although Shawn eventually took the mask off Bryan in TWA, the guys at MCW immediately put the mask back on Bryan.
The only time Bryan thought he might get called up to the main roster was in January 2001, when he heard rumors that WWE wanted to start up a cruiserweight division and use Danielson and Kendrick That didn't happen, though, and Bryan never heard another rumor or wiff of him being called up.
In June 2001, someone from WWE talent relations came down to evaluate talent. Brian was let go and told that despite his talent, they just had no plans for him.
In October 2001, Bryan was offered a spot in California based All Pro Wrestling's annual King Of The Indies tournament. Danielson would beat Kendrick in the first round, and after the show, Nick Bockwinkle, who was there watching, loudly told promoter Roland Alexander, "If you don't put that guy over." Bockwinkle said while pointing directly at Bryan, "You're crazy!"
APW head trainer Donovan Morgan was scheduled to beat Bryan in the second round and go on to win the tournament, but promoter Roland made the call to have Bryan win instead.
Bryan says this that while this really pissed Donovan off, what really upset the guy was when Roland offered Danielson and Kendrick trainer positions alongside Donovan.
Kendrick turned the offer down, but Bryan took it and moved to California in January 2002, where he became the head trainer. Though Bryan says he was a lousy trainer and no good at motivating anyone.
On February 2002, Bryan sat down with Gabe Sapolsky, who, after being inspired by the Super 8 tournament Bryan won, wanted Bryan part of his new promotion, Ring of Honor.
Bryan remembers both William Regal and John Laurinaitis said they would try to get Bryan an in to Japan, but both came up short, and both eventually stopped returning Bryan's calls.
In March 2002, Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and Brian Kendrick got a tryout with New Japan in Santa Monica. Antonio Inoki was actually there to oversee, but he literally had his back turned to the ring while Danielson and Kendrick wrestled. Inoki never bothered to turn around and watch them, instead watching someone stretch, Bryan says. Bryan later heard that New Japan never intended to hire anyone. They just wanted their dojo to look full for press.
After the "tryout," Bryan says that Inoki fell and had to be helped up by a bunch of people. Only the three of them didn't get up to help, with Kendrick saying loudly, "serves the motherfucker right."
Bryan kept making trips to the Santa Monica dojo every couple of weeks until Shinya "Togi" Makabe told him that if Bryan really wanted to be taken seriously, he had to be at the dojo every single day. Bryan took the advice seriously, quit his training job and moved to Santa Monica.
Bryan says he was offered to come tour with New Japan after only training at the dojo full time a few weeks. It was on this tour where Bryan first wrestled in the Tokyo Dome.
In May 2003, Bryan wrestled another Tokyo Dome show, where Bryan, Rocky Romero and TJ Perkins were all pulled aside in the hotel after the show, by Justin Cully. Cully literally slapped each man across the face, saying the slaps are from Inoki, who was disappointed in their proformances that night. Apparently Inoki expected them to wrestle more of a shoot style fight and was very upset.
In March 2004, Bryan won his first title with New Japan, the IWGP Junior Tag titles with Christopher Daniels, and Bryan would spend the majority of the year with New Japan where he wrestled 8 different tours.
Bryan pitched a 3 hour long match to Gabe Sapolsky for a ROH show and is disappointed they didn't go the full 3 hours.
Going into 2005, Bryan expected to wrestle his whole career in New Japan, but was startled when New Japan didn't get his visa renewed for the January tour like they always do. He was told it was a mistake and he would be back for March tour, but again he was told last minute they didn't have a visa for him. In May they contacted him last minute inviting him for a tour, but at a ridiculous pay cut down to $500 per week. Bryan turned the offer down and never went back to that Santa Monica dojo or work for New Japan again. He later heard that he was used as a pawn in a power struggle with the Dojo and New Japan.
In mid-2005 Bryan got an email from CM-Punk about a rumor suggesting that both WWE and TNA were interested in Bryan, Punk and Samoa Joe. Joe would quickly sign with TNA after this and Punk took a developmental deal with WWE. Bryan never heard from either company, and a few months later Gabe Sapolsky told Bryan he wanted to build ROH around Bryan but wanted a promise that Bryan wouldn't just leave to WWE or TNA. Great timing Gabe, because Bryan immediately said yes.
After winning the ROH World title in September 2005, Bryan says his title reign was falling flat until he started being cocky and cutting those "best in the world" promos. Bryan even shades Jericho and Punk a little by saying at the time no one else was saying it and that's why it worked so well for him.
Bryan puts over his matches with Nigel McGuinness in summer of 2006, but points out one in particular he regrets. Nigel had the idea for Bryan to pull Nigel's face into the steel ring post 3 times to get real blood. After 3 attempts and no blood, Nigel yelled, "One more time!" They got blood on the 4th time, and gave Nigel a severe concussion.
Five minutes into an hour long match with Colt Cabana in August 2006, Bryan landed bad on the outside of the ring, where he separated that same right shoulder as before and tore two tendons.
Three weeks later, Bryan defended his ROH title against KENTA of all people, who legitimately targeted his hurt shoulder all match. Then Bryan went to tour Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah where he and KENTA had a rematch.
Bryan would finally drop the ROH title in December 2006 and then take nearly 4 months off. This is the first time he took off since he started wrestling in 1999.
After doing a tour of Japan with Pro Wrestling Noah in April 2007, Bryan was excited to come back to ROH and signed a 2 year contract.
In June 2007, Bryan and Nigel wrestled an extremely physical match that featured a spot where the two traded headbutts. The match didn't air until September that year and in the mean time, the Chris Benoit double murdesuicide happened and the talk of concussions and safety concerns changed completely. The match was not recieved well and Gabe later told Bryan that they shouldn't have aired it at all.
ROH struggled after the Benoit incident and most everyone had to adapt and tone down their styles. Bryan wasn't one of those people, and actually refused to tone down his style. Later in 2007 he would rupture his ear drum exchanging open palm strikes with KENTA and he would suffer a detached retina in a match with Takeshi Morishima. To this day, he has trouble hearing from his left ear and has trouble with vision.
Bryan remembers being super late for a show and not even being able to meet his opponent beforehand. To Bryan's suprise, his opponent, who despite being green, was great to work with and the two had good chemistry. That was a young Jon Moxley.
In Summer of 2008, Shawn Michaels was fueding with Chris Jericho and they incorporated Lamce Cade on Jericho's side, since Shawn trained Lance. Shawn actually reached out to Bryan about also joining the WWE and being involved in the story.
Bryan met with Vince McMahon and remembers how taken back Vince seemed when they first met, and thinks it was because of Bryan's size and how plain he looked. Bryan also didn't sell himself well in the meeting, saying he is "just okay." Head of talent relations John Laurinaitis told Bryan that they would call him, but he never did.
When Bryan returned from a Japan tour in October 2008, he was shocked to find Gabe Sapolsky had been fired by ROH and replaced by Adam Pearce. Bryan details that while Gabe liked to book long shows with everyone on the card trying their hardest to steal the show, Pearce booked shorter shows and had the lower card guys preform well, but not to try everything under the sun to outshine the main event. You can see why Jim Cornette and Adam Pearce get along so well.
Bryan notes how he was fueding with Claudio Castignoli when Gabe was fired, but Pearce immediately ended that program to which Bryan says he and Claudio were disappointed.
After another failed attempt to get into WWE I'm early 2009, Bryan refocused his energies by moving to Las Vegas where he started training in kick boxing and other forms of mixed martial arts.
Bryan trained religiously for months under a former MMA fighter Neil Melanson. Neil is the one who taught Bryan the LaBell Lock.
When Bryan's ROH contract expired in May 2009, he called John Laurinaitis and left a message, but never heard back.
Bryan says in mid-2009, he was talking to Gabe Sapolsky about starting up a new promotion that would become Evolve. Bryan says that Paul Heyman was even involved with these talks.
Brian Kendrick called Danielson up to pitch Danielson coming to WWE as Kendrick's tag partner. Danielson even went and filmed a bunch of promos with Kendrick and fel optimistic. Unfortunately, Kendrick was fired just a few weeks later before any of those vignets aired and that opportunity was gone as well.
Bryan had given up ever going to WWE when John Laurinaitis called him in September 2009 offering him a main roster contract. Bryan was so excited he didn't have to go to developmental, that he would be right on the main roster immediately. Or so he thought, I guess they didn't bother telling Brilyan about NXT at that time, even though it sounds like he was signed with that in mind.
Nigel was also signed at the same time (probably also meant for NXT) but before either man could start, they had to pass WWE medical tests. They asked them both about past injuries, and Bryan just lied, saying he never had anything wrong and was fine. Didn't mention his shoulder being separated twice, or the detached retina, or any concussion. Nigel on the other hand, was very honest about his injuries, including a torn bicep that he didn't get worked on, he just rehabbed it. Nigel figured he was a lock and didn't see the need to lie.
WWE was concerned about Bryan's elevated liver enzymes, and wanted Nigel to get surgery on his bicep before they would sign him. Both guys were wrestling a farewell tour with ROH and both genuinely concerned they wouldn't actually be leaving. In their last match for ROH, Bryan accidentally gave Nigel a concussion, because apparently these guys only know how to wrestle at one speed!
Nigel couldn't afford the bicep surgery and his own doctor was telling him he is fine, so Nigel went to TNA instead. Nigel would only wrestle for another year before his body would break down too far on him and he would retire.
Bryan signed his WWE contract on October 2nd, 2009, nearly 10 years to the day of his debut match. William Regal actually told Bryan, "Your wrestling career came before this and is over now. Anything else that happens now is a bonus."
William Regal came up with the name "Daniel Bryan" for Bryan to use in WWE. Brian tried arguing to Laurinaitis to use his real name and citing John Cena as an example, Laurinaitis simply told Bryan, "We don't do that anymore."
In early 2010, Bryan and seven other guys were told one day about the NXT concept and how they would be used. Bryan found out who his NXT "pro" would be just like everyone else, when WWE posted it on their website. Bryan initially legit wanted Regal as his "pro" but soon realized being paired with Miz gives him a story immediately.
Bryan describes his time in NXT as the most unusual of his career. The "rookies" all legitimately didn't know what was going to happen on any show and everything they did was 100% unscripted and improvised.
The first night in NXT, all the "rookies" were told 15 minutes before the show, that their "pro" would cut a promo on them and they needed to react accordingly. Bryan had no idea that his pro, the Miz was going to tell him to head to the ring and cut a promo on himself, literally telling him on live TV to make the fans care about him. Bryan had no idea what to say, no real direction he was given to go in, and no tome to plan or rehearse. Miz also told him to come up with a catchphrase, and Bryan said he always hated catch phrases.
In the ring, Bryan cut a generic promo where he said he lost his train of thought and was super greatful when The Miz came out to finish the promo off. Bryan didn't know that would happen and Bryan definitely didn't know Miz was going to slap him at the end. Bryan says that later, The Miz confided to Bryan that he was worried Bryan would try to fight him over the slap.
Bryan credits Chris Jericho for getting him over in his first WWE match, and says that neither he, nor Miz knew that Miz was to beat up Brian after the match. Apparently, Miz was informed during the Jericho/Bryan match that he was to attack Bryan after the finish. Wild how much "flying by the seat of their pants" that WWE did with early NXT.
After the show, Jericho told Bryan that Vince was impressed, though he noted how Vince said, "Ugh, but he doesn't even eat meat!"
Bryan describes promo class with Vince as kinda insane to be honest. One time Bryan accidentally spilled a water bottle, and Vince asked everyone how that made them feel about Bryan. Stuff like that.
Bryan says the NXT rookies weren't allowed to use the regular dressing room and had to use some tarped off part of the backstage area.
Bryan notes how most of the NXT season, the NXT rookies never really knew what was going to happen. The 2nd week Bryan lost to Wade Barret and wasn't told that Chris Jericho would be attacking him after the match.
Bryan says his initial storyline with The Miz wasn't a losing streak idea, but something where each loss had meaning and was being built with purpose. Miz was very hands on with each show and helped to put over Bryan and the storyline, but when Miz missed 2 weeks in a row, the producers left in charge basically just turned it into a losing streak storyline, which Bryan says, "never works."
One time on a plane, Ezekiel Jackson asked "which rookie has an isle seat?" Bryan raised his had and Ezekiel said, "Not anymore." Bryan stood his ground and refused, offering his seat to anyone but Ezekiel. Ezekiel got pissed but William Regal came over and chastised Jackson, saying Bryan is like a son to him and how Bryan has more talent in his pinky ginger than Jackson has in his whole body.
Bryan says the NXT "Pros Polls" were legitimate voting done by the pros. That's why Bryan ended up in first place, despite losing every match.
A week after Wrestlemania in 2010, NXT's direction and purpose shifted away from being serious to silly, and Bryan says they were suddenly doing dumb game show competitions and putting over how demoralizing it was.
Bryan says Skip Shepfield (Ryback) was the only rookie taking the competitions seriously and trying to win each game. Sounds on brand for the big guy.
Bryan says he was trying to be humble when asked who should be eliminated and he said himself. He figured since he lost to everyone he didn't have a right to say any of them. Backstage Miz told him he made a mistake and shouldn't have put that perception out there.
A week later they liked the rookies up on TV (an hour before it goes live) and informed Bryan and fellow rookie Michael Tarver that they are both eliminated, without telling them beforehand. Bryan felt this validated all the warnings guys like Colt Cabana and other gave him about WWE.
Right after Matt Striker interviewed him backstage and when asked an insulting question, Bryan snapped and started talking down about "Daniel Bryan" and started to put over "Bryan Danielson!" Bryan says he could hear Vince screaming into Striker's ear piece and apparently Vince threw his headset when Bryan said his real name.
They made Bryan retape the interview without saying that, but still aired his original interview.
Bryan was surprisingly called back to NXT the following week to start a rivalry with Micheal Cole, who had been verbally obliterating Bryan on commentary since Bryan debuted. Bryan seems to be greatful for that program since it kept him on tv and made him confident that he would keep his job.
The RAW after NXT season 1 ended, all the rookies were pulled into Vince's office and told about Nexus and the attack in the main event. They were told not to tell anyone or else they will be fired. Bryan says he even lied to William Regal, when asked why he was dressed to wrestle.
They were supposed to attack John Cena and Rey Mysterio in the main event, because WWE let the fans vote on Cena's opponent and they assumed Rey would get it. Surprisingly it was CM Punk, and Bryan isn't sure how much Punk was told about the angle.
Bryan legit choked Justin Roberts during the melee, leaving red marks on his skin with his tie. Bryan said he doesn't trust non-wrestlers to sell good so he did it for real, with Justin going purple on Tv. Later during the brawl, Bryan was grabbing a cable to choke someone else when a cameraman told him "no choking!" Bryan does note that he thinks Justin Roberts found it pretty cool to be involved. And later Heath Slater grabbed the dismantled ring ropes to choke Cena, but Cena told him as well, "No choking."
Cena told Bryan before the angle, "It's not the hit you do that's important, it's what you do before the hit that matters." This is why Bryan spit in Cena's face before kicking him in the head.
Backstage, Bryan was reprimanded twice, for choking and spitting. Two days later Vince McMahon personally called Bryan to tell him he was let go and apologized to Bryan for it. Bryan, arrogant as all hell, responded with, "Don't apologize, I'll make more money this year on the independents than I would have working for you."
Bryan called John Laurinaitis to clear up details and Laurinaitis was shocked to hear Bryan was fired. Apparently Vince didn't tell anyone, just called Laurinaitis up and asked for Bryan's number. The comment Bryan made about money seemed to get to Vince since Laurinaitis called Bryan back and asked about it. Laurinaitis actually told Bryan that he can start working independent dates immediately if he wasn't on TV.
After working several shows and making good money off merchandise for several weeks, Bryan was shocked when John Laurinaitis called him in August and asked him to come back for a big angle leading into SummerSlam. Bryan sheepishly asked for a raise and made sure he could make all his already planned independent bookings.
Bryan says Nexas should have won at SummerSlam, noting how they went from dangerous to jobbers in one night.
Bryan remembers a taped RAW after SummerSlam where he did an angle with The Miz. When he got backstage Vince was so mad at how it came off that he made Bryan and others go back out there and do it again. It was the first time Bryan ever had to redo something like that and he said he felt humiliated.
Bryan didnt seem to see much value in being US Champion outside of how it would keep him on tv and maybe monthly ppv matches.
At Hell in a Cell 2010 ppv, Bryan had a good match with Miz and John Morrison, but was scolded after that match for a spot where Bryan threw Miz's stoog Alex Riley off the stage where he landed on cameraman. They showed the two guys the footage and accused them of doing it on purpose to get themselves over. Bryan started regretting coming back and really hating his time in WWE.
Bryan was paired with the Bella Twins in a storyline he hated, that was based on the Twins confusing the word "vegan" for "virgin" and competing to sleep with Bryan. Despite how bad that storyline was, Bryan and Brie would develop a relationship and would start dating in February 2011.
Sheamus was given a choice of Wrestlemania opponents that year between Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan, and Sheamus chose Bryan. Bryan was greatful but concerned Sheamus chose wrong and their match would be cut but Sheamus wasn't worried at all. A week before Mania they were informed their match was on the pre-show at a meeting with literally every other wrestler. Bryan says Sheamus buried his face in his hands and remembers how Rey Mysterio got on the card in a match with Cody Rhodes. Bryan says Sheamus picked the wrong guy.
Bryan got some details in his book messed up where he talks about Miz winning the WWE title off Cena at Wrestlemania 27 and he talks about how Miz was WWE Champion going into Over The Limit ppv 2011, but Miz lost the title by then. It's notable because he says he pitched hard for a "Rocky style" storyline where he would challenge Miz for the WWE title at the Over The Limit ppv.
Bryan says the 2011 Smackdown Money in the Bank winner wasn't decided until the day of the show but it was always between Wade Barret, Cody Rhodes and Bryan. He says despite winning the briefcase, his tv time tricked down and eventually he was spending weeks off tv, until he was randomly inserted into the World title program between Mark Henry and Big Show in late 2011.
Bryan was being left at home and off shows, even watching Survivor Series 2011 from home and was suprised when WWE had him come to the December TLC ppv show, last minute. The day of the show he was told he was cashing in and winning the title and the only direction Vince McMahon gave him was to act like he won the superbowl, so that's where Bryan's over the top celebration came from. He didn't even tell his girlfriend Brie Bella about the plan and says she was shocked when he came backstage afterwards.
The only direction Vince gave Bryan as champion is to celebrate every appearance like he won the lottery, saying, "there is no too over the top here."
Bryan said he adapted his "Yes" chants from MMA fighter Diego Sanchez who was celebrating in a similar way at the time.
Bryan's favorite moment from that first world title run was the closing sequence in the 2012 Elimination Chamber match with him and Santino Marella.
Bryan originally expected he and Sheamus to get 15 minutes or so at Wrestlemania for their match, but was shocked when Chris Jericho told him he heard it would be 8 minutes, including the pre & post match stuff. A week later Arn Anderson confirmed to Bryan that he would lose a 1-move match, dropping the world title to Sheamus at Wrestlemania that year. Bryan and Sheamus were both pissed, to say the least.
Sheamus expressed concern that the short match would turn fans against him as a new champion. Smart man.
Bryan says a bunch of guys came up to him after his Mania loss and were pissed at what they did to Bryan out there. Great Khali even came up and told Bryan that it was bullshit in his broken English.
Originally Sheamus was planned to move into a fued with Alberto Del-rio right after Mania, but the crazy crowd support for Bryan forced them to extend they story another month. Bryan says his Extreme Rules ppv match with Sheamus in 2012 is one of his favorites. Mine too!
Bryan acknowledged the weird booking of Punk as champion in 2012, noting how heels would face John Cena, lose, then be sent to face Punk with no momentum. Interesting take on the situation.
Bryan mentions how when he and Punk fueded in 2012, they never got main event spots outside of non-televised events. One time at a house show, Bryan and Punk veered too far into comedy and after the match John Cena chastised Bryan by pointing out that they didn't wrestle a "main event style" match. Apparently the next house show, Cena was moved into the main event spot with Punk/Bryan being before the intermission. An enraged Punk went and yelled at people until he got his main event spot back. This time, no comedy spots were done and they stayed the main event for the circuit.
Bryan had brand new, edgier gear made up prior to Money in the Bank 2012 and didn't tell anyone backstage. He wore shorts over his trunk and hid the jacket until he had to go out. When he got to the ring, the ref told him to lose the jacket, because I guess Vince was in gorilla position freaking out over how Bryan looked. Dean Melanko was the producer for the match, and Bryan felt bad when Vince blamed him for allowing Bryan to wear it.
Bryan was originally planned to wrestle Charlie Sheen at SummerSlam 2012 in a celebrity match, but Charlie "bailed" as Bryan put it.
Bryan was trying to be "Mr Small Package" by winning matches with Small Package and then boasting about how he has an "inescapable small package!" It didn't get over.
Bryan thought his anger management vignets with Kane and Dr Shelby were going to be terrible.
The only reason they stopped using Dr Shelby is because he had limited days off from his regular teaching job.
Bryan and Kane really wanted their team name to be "Team Friendship" and they even had shirt ideas but Vince let the fans vote and he always kept those votes legit, so their team name was "Team Hell No" which Bryan brings up a good point about. He said as a team primarily appealing to kids, a name with "Hell" in it would be hard to sell merchandise to those kids.
The plan was to break up their team so they could have a good heated fued together, but they were so popular that they kept teaming for 9 months.
Bryan says his first good Wrestlemania experience was in 2013 when he teamed with Kane.
One night after Mania in 2013, when Bryan tagged with Kane and Undertaker to face The Shield, Vince McMahon told Bryan that he would pay him several thousand dollars if he could get Undertaker to hug Bryan in the ring. After the show Bryan got on the mic and tried his hardest to get the hug but couldn't quite do it.
Bryan says that both he and Kane agree that teaming together was some of the most fun in either man's career.
Bryan was scheduled to win the biggest match of his career up to that point, he would be beating Randy Orton clean on RAW. Bryan would botch a dive that left both arms nunb and him unable to stand. He got feeling back in one arm but eventually the doctor called the match off. Backstage Bryan started screaming at Triple H for calling the match and called him a hypocrite for doing so, citing his own injuries in matches. At one point Orton tried to calm Bryan down, but Bryan snapped at him and Orton started yelling too. Brie got Bryan away to calm down, but when Vince came to talk to Bryan, the shouting started again. Much later, William Regal advised Bryan to apologize to both Vince and Triple H, to which Bryan took his advice. The next week, Bryan would get his win over Orton and he says that that drama over everything made that win matter more.
An MRI showed that one of Bryan's disks was pushing into his nerves and eventually he would need surgery. With his momentum starting to rise, Bryan opted to put surgery off.
John Cena pitched facing Daniel Bryan at Money in the Bank 2013 ppv. When Vince asked why, Cena said because it's the biggest match they could do at that time. Vince ended up agreeing, but deciding that it belongs at SummerSlam that year instead!
As proud as Bryan is of the build to and match with Cena at SummerSlam, he acknowledges that the ppv didn't do good numbers, nor did the house show business the following 2 months when Bryan was the main protagonist. He thinks a lot the the Authority promos on him stemmed from some truth.
Bryan isn't satisfied with the quality of matches he was putting out in the latter half of 2013 amd he specifically calls out the series of bad finishes he had with Randy Orton in ppv main events. From the fast counting crooked ref, to that terrible one with Big Show knocking everyone out, and then to Shawn Michaels betraying Bryan at Hell in a Cell ppv.
Bryan initially thought he was getting a Wrestlemania match with Shawn Michaels after that Hell in a Cell finish, but after talking with HBK, it was clear that was never in the cards.
Bryan feels he failed as a main eventer in the 2nd half of 2013, regardless of match quality. He didn't move business and that's all that matters.
The Slammy's were fan votes and Vince didn't think Bryan would win and almost laughed when Bryan asked him what he should say if he does win. Vince said, "whatever you want." I wish I could have seen Vince's face when Bryan won later that night.
When Bryan started fueding with Wyatt Family in late-2013, Bryan was pitching for him to be "brainwashed" and join the group. He suspects that his rising popularity in early 2014 is what convinced WWE to have Bryan turn on Bray and leave the group. At the time, Bryan was hoping to stay with the group and be involved in the planned Cena/Wyatt Wrestlemania program since Bryan had no plans for Mania at that time.
Bryan says he was disappointed when Vince told him he would be facing Sheamus again at Wrestlemania 2014. No disrespect to Sheamus, but Bryan felt he belonged in a higher spot.
Bryan felt bad for the way Rey Mysterio was boo'd at the 2014 Royal Rumble.
When Punk quit WWE after Rumble that year, Bryan remembers how plans didn't change too much for a few weeks, and he assumes Vince expected Punk to come back and for Batista to win the crowds over, and neither happened.
Triple H was being vocal about wanting to face Bryan at Mania that year, but Bryan was trying to not get his hopes up since he had seen Triple H try and fail to get his ideas on screen.
Bryan and Brie only agreed to let Total Divas shoot their wedding, because Total Divas agreed to pay for the whole wedding! Hard to say no to that!
Bryan is very satisfied with his matches at Wrestlemania 30 and says he was so focused between matches that he missed Undertaker losing to Lesnar. He heard the ring bell and looked up at the monitor in shock. He says they cameras should have filmed the guys and girls in the back because their reactions were wild, apparently.
Five days after Wrestlemania 30, Bryan and Brie got married, but 2 days after their honeymoon ended, Bryan's dad unexpectedly passed away at the age of 57. Bryan was devastated and described how he was crying still as he was writing about it.
The book ends on a complete downer, very unlike most other wrestling books. Bryan says that as long as he wrestled when asked if everything he was missing or sacrificing was worth it, Bryan always said yes. He assumed he would have more time when he was done and could catch up on what he missed, but his dad is gone and Bryan openly admits that it wasn't worth it. If he could, Bryan would change a lot of his decisions if it meant more time with his dad.
He says he is still wrestling though because he literally doesn't know what else to do or what comes after. This is especially depressing 10 years later, when Bryan is still wrestling despite having started a family of his own. I hope he doesn't regret any time missed with his daughter.
He ends the book by describing the last time he saw his dad, on Christmas in 2013, where his dad dressed up as Santa. Fuck. I'm sad now.

https://archive.is/fq2kK
Voters will consider adopting a resolution to change the state flag and seal, and whether to approve the town’s Mohawk Trail Regional School District assessment, which is seeing a 19% increase, during Monday’s Annual Town Meeting.
Consideration of the 29-article warrant will begin at 7 p.m. at the Hawley Town Office. Article 28, a citizen’s petition that calls on Hawley to pass a resolution in favor of changing the state flag and seal, was attempted at last year’s Town Meeting and emerged as the sole article of 25 to be voted down.
The state seal depicts an Indigenous man holding a bow and arrow, and above the man is an arm brandishing a sword. A Latin inscription loosely translates to “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.” The resolution claims that the current seal has “long been a subject of concern by Indigenous leaders of Massachusetts, who have for centuries suffered from wars of conquest, the appropriation of their cultural symbols, loss of their ancestral lands and the encroachment of their lifeways.”
Last year, residents voted in opposition to a similar resolution after opponents argued that the symbol does not represent violence against Native Americans, but rather, stands as a depiction of both the settlers and the state’s Indigenous peoples. If the resolution passes this year, it will be sent to Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight co-chairs Sen. Nick Collins and Rep. Antonio Cabral, along with Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket, and Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield.
Selectboard Chair Hussain Hamdan said although he expects the resolution will spark discussion at Monday’s meeting, its passage, representing the town’s stance, would be a purely symbolic.
“This is an entirely symbolic resolution meant for the attention of our state legislators. This was brought by a petition of voters; it was not brought by the Selectboard, it was not brought by town government,” Hamdan said.
Residents will also vote on whether to approve a $614,292 fiscal year 2025 operating budget — an increase of roughly 3.6% from the $592,833 budget of FY24 — and a $606,958 school budget, which represents a roughly 2% increase from the FY24 school budget.
Although both the vocational school budget and the Hawlemont Regional School District budget see proposed decreases of 6.8% and 12.23%, respectively, Mohawk Trail Regional School District’s proposed $246,459 FY25 budget presents a 19% increase from the prior year’s $206,950 budget. According to Mohawk Trail School Committee Chair Martha Thurber, the majority of this increase was caused by a $28,997, or 31.65%, increase in Hawley’s minimum contribution, which is ultimately set by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Thurber clarified in a written statement sent to the Greenfield Recorder that the rest of the budget spike was caused by an increase in transportation costs.
“The part we do control ... is basically flat (down about 1%). The balance of the increase (about $10,000) is due to an increase in transportation costs,” Thurber wrote. “In the bidding for our new 5-year transportation contract, we had only one bidder and the cost is up 12% over FY24.”
Hamdan said the town does not yet know how much financial aid it will receive from the state and, consequently, cannot yet determine the FY25 proposed tax rate. However, he estimates the rate will increase by approximately 20 cents per $1,000 valuation, from $16.80 to $17.04, an increase he described as being “more modest” than anticipated.
“The state aid is a moving target. We do not have a final budget from the state yet, and until we do, we are not going to know exactly what the affect on the tax rate will be,” he said. “I would say that the town has done everything we can to provide a budget that is realistic. We are not spending on new things. It is not a luxury budget, it is not a Cadillac budget. It is a level-surfaces budget.”
Residents will also vote on other spending items, including the transfer of $10,000 to purchase a new rotary mower for the Department of Public Works (Article 15), the creation of a revolving account to hold the fees and fines associated with dogs and dog licenses (Article 22), and to appropriate $773 to upgrade telephone infrastructure and enhance 911 communication systems at Mohawk Trail Regional School (Article 6).

Hello, Reddit.
In the end of this post you can see 150+ pictures in Google Drive cloud.
I ask the moderators to forgive me, perhaps the tag is incorrect, please correct it if necessary.
I want to share with you a brief retelling of the life of a refugee from Russia.
Overall, I could have written everything with my terrible English, sometimes resorting to the help of a translator for individual words, but overall I would have conveyed to you anything that was on my mind, but I didn't want to strain you, readers. :-) So I used the help of the GPT chat. I carefully reread everything and made sure of the accuracy of my thoughts.
I'm not new here. For many years, I've read this funny, and sometimes sad, site without registering. Then I registered, but almost never logged in. I watched funny pictures, read heart-wrenching stories, and things that previously seemed to me could never happen to a normal person. Several times I wanted to share a detailed story of working at sea, but something always got in the way, laziness or work. But it so happened that now there really is something to tell about, because it happened...
About 2 years ago, it happened on February 24, 2022, more precisely at that moment I was at sea and just after 10 months of hard work in fishing, we were returning to the port of Vladivostok. A little about work at sea. We set sail on July 8, after two grueling months of repairs and painting in the port and living on a schedule like in a factory. Our voyage was called the "North Kuril Expedition," too cool for ordinary merciless fishing and freezing of fish. I worked as a first-time sailor, luckily became friends with the boatswain, which saved me from a lot of unpleasant work, I often worked on small and neat painting, stenciled maritime symbols, IMO signs, signs of general maritime safety and markings, also studied mooring operations, and when we set sail, I, as one of the 3 sailors, was assigned to the bridge for steering duty for 8 hours a day - I managed a 100-meter trawler and reported changes in course, it lasted for more than a week. Arriving at the fishing grounds, duties were assigned, the sailors were divided into two shifts (ours and the enemies, as we were called for the other shift), and hellish work with a schedule of 6 hours on, 6 hours off began, sleeping was possible twice a day for 3-3.5 hours each, 2 shifts per day, 4 meals and fish...fish...fish...fish...fish...
A week later, the first-timers started to break down physically and mentally. The captain tried to dissuade them from quitting, but they had already "made up their minds." I was on the frozen product beat, extracting and moving 14-17 tons of fish every 6 hours in 13 kg bricks, and I realized that I couldn't endure this for long. After talking to the production foreman, I was transferred to the "scales," and a stronger guy took over my job. Two weeks later, they removed an incompetent guy from the position of a locksmith-mechanic and offered me this position. I had experience in locksmithing and some in mechanics with electricity, so I agreed, and life on the ship changed drastically for me. The work schedule became 12 hours on, 12 hours off. More time to sleep, more time to read e-books, tried to learn Korean, did crafts in our workshop during free time at the factory, but also sometimes joined the other sailors in fishing. I was content, and the months flew by quickly. The voyage was supposed to last 11 months, as the ship had to undergo mandatory scheduled maintenance once a year, but in the 8th month, discord arose within the crew, or more precisely, within the senior command, the captain and the chief engineer began to argue over the captain's demands to maintain the ship's operation at the highest level. By the way, the trawler was 31 years old, and the condition of the engines was dire, the frames were rotten, and overall it was scary during storms, it creaked and groaned.
In early February, our main engine failed, and we tried to continue fishing on the auxiliary one. Later, the auxiliary generator failed, and we had to urgently call a refrigerated vessel to unload all the frozen products, as there was not enough power to support the freezer in the hold. The captain considered this sabotage and often called each member of the engine team for a talk. As a result, the company ordered us to head back to port, one morning I woke up to my neighbor's shouts: "MAX, we're going back, everything's broken, we're going home," and as soon as I thought about seeing land again and returning to my city, tears of joy appeared.
The return turned out to be dreadful. Passing through the Kuril Islands to Hokkaido, we got caught in two storms and slowed down significantly. Near Japan, we spent 3 days keeping the dying auxiliary engine running. Continuing on, right between Vladivostok and Japan, the last engine failed, and we drifted in a mild storm. For five days, we tossed in different swells, and no ships passed by us. We drifted towards Japan for 100 kilometers, but luck awaited us there. One of our company's transports, overloaded but still, took us under tow, and we proceeded at 7 knots to the nearest port. I don't remember how many days it took, but we only reached the port on March 3rd, and there was no joy in returning for understandable reasons. We had satellite TV, and we eagerly watched the news during lunch every day since there were no other entertainments or WIFI there. We learned about the "special military operation," and most of the sane guys were outraged by what was happening in the country, also seeing how the dollar exchange rate was changing and how we were losing the money we earned through blood and sweat.
Returning home, I ate and drank everything I had missed at sea, but I couldn't find peace. For a month, I drank with friends, alone. I hated the course Russia had taken and didn't want to stay there anymore. I wanted to fly to Korea, just wanted to get away from all this dirt and hopelessness. Earlier, in 2019, I had already been to Korea by ferry and tried the so-called samushil-arbaiten, I knew how to find a job and understood some Korean.
My native land is the Russian Far East, Primorsky Krai, cold and harsh. My mother and stepfather moved to the west of Russia to Kuban two years before I went to sea. And now it was time for me to visit them. I arrived, stayed for a while, rented a separate apartment, met a lot of girls through m****ff and Int****als apps. Gradually, I revived, got myself together, stopped drinking. Having prepared the entry permit for Korea, having received the Sputnik-V vaccine, in June or July I bought a ticket with a layover in Armenia and Qatar. And then I felt other deteriorations in the state of my country, the flight on the planned dates from my airport was canceled due to closed airspace. Everything fell apart. Lost part of the money for non-refundable plane tickets. I spent another couple of months contemplating, which turned out to be beneficial. I decided that in case of failure in Korea, I needed to have an alternative plan and started to be interested in CIS countries, especially Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Everything seemed calm, but as we all know, it happened...
On September 21st, mobilization was announced, and very expensive tickets were hastily purchased. I left my homeland within a few days, and from then on, my life turned into a non-stop journey through low-cost accommodations, never staying anywhere for more than 2 weeks or a month. In Uzbekistan, everything wasn't as friendly and hospitable as YouTube depicts. Every other vendor at the bazaar was trying to deceive you. Local landlords profited from refugees as much as they could, demanding money for their dilapidated accommodations. The money earned through blood, sweat, and tears vanished very quickly. I traveled a bit around the country, visiting the most interesting cities like Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, and renewed my entry permit for Korea, as I needed to replenish my wallet somehow. This time everything worked out, I flew and worked without any violations of the stay period, that is, for 2 months, and successfully flew out without any fines.
Returning to Uzbekistan, I met a nice girl, my future wife. We spent wonderful time together, and by the 4th month of our relationship, we had a modest wedding and were planning our honeymoon again in Korea, but together this time. She is a citizen of Uzbekistan but ethnically Korean. While we were getting visas, we traveled together around the country. As it turned out, she had never left her hometown of Tashkent. In July 2023, we flew to Seoul, planned to visit every tourist spot. We walked a lot, ate to our heart's content, and gradually moved southward, to Suwon, Gwangju, and finally Busan. It was a month of relaxation and interesting places; my wife saw the sea for the first time, as we approached Incheon, she looked out the window and was shocked by the sight, water to the horizon and thick, dense clouds. That month passed like a dream, and we were getting ready to work as planned. She had a work visa by birthright, and I was ready to work illegally as usual with a tourist visa. I had experience finding work through three methods: one-day office jobs, Telegram channels with contacts of agents (Russian-speaking), and offices for permanent employment "sogeso" (Korean agencies). I contacted sogeso. We were offered a job at a chicken farm with acceptable conditions, not heavy labor, and good pay. We worked for one week, and it seemed like the boss liked us, but on Monday, the boss himself brought immigration police. I was arrested and taken to the Foreigners Holding Center, where I stayed for 17 days with representatives from Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Vietnam, and many other nationalities who passed through our detention cell. Meanwhile, my wife handed over my belongings to the guards, bought a ticket, and flew home. With the deportation manager within 2 weeks, I managed to convince not to deport me to Russia. There were no English-speaking managers in the entire Foreigners Holding Center in Hwasong, a shame, and every time I had to use Korean on my phone. It was very difficult, and it was clear that the manager didn't care whether we sat behind bars or flew home. Tickets were bought, and on August 17th, I returned to my new home to my wife on a direct flight from Incheon to Tashkent. After some rest, we started looking for work. My wife, being an accountant by profession, easily found a medium-paying job. It turned out to be much harder for me. I couldn't work officially, or rather, I could, but the permit cost about 3-4 months' salary. Therefore, I looked for a place where they would hire me without any paperwork. Documents for various jobs remained at home.
"In any case, I didn't have high-skilled professions. I was self-employed: worked on construction sites in Russia, did apartment renovations, and had one voyage at sea. With such data, I was lucky to get a job as a shift master at a small production facility, but the remoteness from home and low salary did their thing; I couldn't find motivation to stay there and quit after 2 months. Then winter came, and I only found the next job in February. By then, I was in deep contemplation and apathy.
I got a job as an assembler of small programmable machines: pneumatics, electronics, mechanics. The work was interesting, the team was pleasant, and it wasn't far from home. But the dark thoughts about returning home for a normal job never left me and weighed heavily. I wanted to be at sea; there, in informational isolation, it was actually calm and somewhat stable. And now I lost this job too. Now I've been at home for 3 weeks; I don't drink alcohol. I don't have depression or I don't know what it is. I just feel physically bad, with digestive and sleep problems. I no longer try to find work in this country; I won't be able to. The last thing I would like to try, and in case of failure, return home, is streaming.
For the past week, I've been studying guides, watching videos, and setting up OBS. I planned a stream on May 11 at 7:00 p.m. local time in Tashkent (10 a.m. New York time) on the Trovo platform. I don't know how it works with links here, so I won't risk post the link to my profile. My nickname on this platform is Silmarion-NickName. If you have the opportunity, visit me for support or invite someone else; I would be very grateful. I'll be happy to answer questions when I wake up. It's late night now. Good night.

Everything I read says that we have three possible options on the table that we know about right now.

1. NAI buyout 2B - Control tranfer to the Ellisons and then a Skydance Merger 5B - possible massive share dilution. Lawsuits to follow and share price cratering. Maybe this results in an A/B share structure moving to a single stock entity with new voting maybe the Ellisons would do a tender offer too attempt to appease the B shareholders. In the end we would not be in a better place as shareholders. The Ellison group would then have all the power and all the control over our companies assets and we would have paid billions of shareholder equity for the privilege.
   
2. Sony/Apollo at 26B all cash buyout includes the 12B debt they intend to carve up Paramount Global and sell it for parts to the highest bidders. If Sony only wants the Studio and the IP. That leaves Apollo with the linear cable assets of CBS the affiliates and the cable channels. Paramount + and Pluto? Real Estate? Apollo previously offered $12B for the studio alone. So they clearly have many billions in future profits from future sales or folding them into existing Apollo assets. if they are only valuing CBS and the remaining assets at $2B once the debt is paid off then we would be leaving a whole lot of chicken on the bone for them to profit from later on. It's even more money if they chose not to pay back the long term debt until later on they could use the future proceeds to pay it down later down the road.
   

We would get bought out at $20+ B shares depending on the final purchase price. A shares probably get $30 + but all probably get the same amount as Shari and NAI. Cleaner that way less risk of lawsuits by the remaining A's. The political regulatory overhang would probably cost us a few dollars in Arbitrage risk baked into the shares but that might be offset by the short covering rally that would probably ensue post deal news.

1. Paramount doesn't do any of these deals and we restructure the company,. With the Sony/Appolo blueprint already clearly laid out why does't Paramount or Shari just start shopping around all the pieces that are not core to preserving the mountain and massively improving shareholder value. New CEO and streamlining the company. Pay Down Debt/ Buyback shares. This alone would drive out the shorts and cause a massive short covering rally. Who knows how high the shares could go if the company were streamlined and restructured. Lets make it into a FCF monster and reinvest in the business through a combination of buybacks and debt reduction.

I'm going to now pretend to be the role of chairman of the board of Paramount Global. Firstly, I would breakup the company and sell it for parts and then start a massive buyback program and debt repayments. Or Paramount could sell a non core assets and the board could decide to buy out Shari and NAI with a tender offer or a favorable stock conversion along with the remaining A shareholders for a specific price lets call it $30 a share or some stock conversion rate 1.5 shares of A with the New Co. Shari would get her $2B payout and she would keep her 5% of B shares for future upside. We would need a new CEO and possibly some new board members. Once the company was trading as a single share without the super voting shares. All the shareholders would then get a vote.
Then I would invite the Ellisons to come in and buy a large stake in Paramount 10 - 20% with a legit tender offer to B shareholders of $20 a share. No Skydance merger BS or made up 5B valuation. You want to be a player in Paramount then put up your own money and buy your way in. And let the shareholders decide to sell you their shares at a fair price if they choose to do so. Later on if we have the cash or buyback shares we as a company can vote to merge or buy Skydance at a legit valuation 2B or so in cash/stock. I would then offer David Ellison the CEO job of the new Paramount. Then he can implement all the AI/Oracle stuff as well as continue his impressive streak of movie and television successes.
If Paramount fire sales herself of BET, Showtime, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central putting an average selling price of $2B per channel she'd be able to raise $8B that alone could pay off a big chunk of the $12B long term debt on the books.And leave us with a sizeable multi billion dollar buyback program. That would pressure the shorts out of the stock and the valuation would probably take skyrocket.
That would then leave us with Paramount Studios and the real estate and the IP, CBS its IP and its Affiliates around the country. The hardest asset apparently to sell seems to be CBS. Most of the big players are excluded for various reasons. The best fit is WBD but they probably can't afford it right now. If they could posibly sell CBS and Nickelodian to WBD we could probably get in the range of 15B. That would be low balling the value of CBS $10B and Nickelodian $5B or some combination of the valuations to reach $15B. The biggest question is it better to hold onto CBS/Nick at this time? What could we do with $15B?
That would give us even more to spend on a massive Buyback program. Then we could sale/leaseback the real estate holdings. The Studio lot/corporate headquerters that should bring another 5B at least. Or if they want to keep the valuable land in Hollywood and just sell the corporate building in NYC that should raise at least 1B.
Then you have Paramount + and everyone always leaves out Pluto Tv. Lets do a deal with Peacock/WBD/Disney one or all of them and license all the remaining IP directly to them for a licensing fee and transfer the 70+m subs to the new bundled entity. This would save $1 billion a year in costs and that would offset some of the revenue loss from the linear tv assets. Then lets sell the CBS affiliates to our old friend Byron Allen or Nexstar or some combo to get under regulatory thresholds. Then lets shop around Pluto and see what we can get in the market place its very popular we should get some biddiers.
Sony has made billions from being the so called arms dealer of content. Lets replicate the same model and open up the library to anyone who wants to pay. We could do licensing deals with Netflix/Amazon/Apple/WBD and do nothing but collect royalties.
Then that would leave the Paramount Studio and all its IP as the trophy asset!!!

Boston Cop, wife to Jackie., “friend” of John, has been removed from the courtroom for bumping into and pushing Karen Read on his way back from the bathroom. Per Nick Rocco on FB and Microdots on X. Absolutely disgusting, it is very VERY clear the other side is upset/angry the truth is coming out.

I come from a finance background and have always tracked my personal finances, loving the process of it and tracking everything! I am also always looking for ways to improve my budgeting/investments and anything related to them. While in the investments area I finally came to an efficient strategy (invest in total market funds and forget it), when it comes to budgeting I felt like I had room for improvement to further optimize the way we spend our money and to make sure that, if we spend it, we are allocating to categories that make us happy and align with our life/financial plan… which is how I found out about YNAB!
After a couple of days of playing around with the software (creating over 10 different budgets), watching hours and hours of tutorials from Nick True and YNAB… I think it finally clicked!
There are some things that my brain is getting used to after a decade of thinking about finances the way I did and that I was hoping someone could help me confirm the way I’m thinking about it… I have both checking and savings in my budget section, which is the money available to assign. When it comes to saving for true expenses or long term goals, let’s say I put $1,000 per month (hypothetical) towards travel savings… that balance is going to build up month over month correct? Sorry if it’s a dumb question but the biggest struggle for me is separating the bank balances from the available amounts for savings/true expenses (anything that will have an outflow in a future period but not during the current). Thanks in advance!
TL;DR - new to YNAB and want to make sure I’m thinking about this correctly:
Categories where we are saving for a future outflow (yearly annual fee or next years travel), should build up our bank balances until the outflow takes place correct?

I’m looking for an ice cream with LESS THAN 3g sugar per serving. Nick’s is good but it’s hard to find in my stores and it’s overpriced to a laughable amount. I’m a little shocked that it’s kind of hard to find zero sugar added ice cream these days. Yes, I’ve seen the keto ones but they are usually calorie bombs and that’s a no for me when in a deficit. So what do you recommend!!