“I’m the American Dragon and I’m from America”

If you are reading this you have probably heard Bryan Danielson being announced or referred to as The American Dragon. His name also used to just be American Dragon and he had a dragon mask.

The year 2000 is an interesting time for Bryan Danielson, as it’s his first full year as a pro wrestler and he spent most of that year wrestling under a mask.

Why American Dragon and why is he wearing a mask‽ My personal theory is that his first trainers, Shawn Michaels and/or Rudy Boy Gonzalez, were watching tv, seeing the show Dragon Tales and thought “yes, yes, yes American Dragon, that’s a great name for a pro wrestler”. Realistically though, both saw him in training and his wrestling reminded them of Tatsumi Fujinami (who is also a dragon) and Ultimo Dragon. American Dragon’s mask seems inspired by Ultimo Dragon too.

In another way, that mask represented his early journey of being supported by Shawn Michaels wrestling school and WWE developmental territories. In one year he moved to Texas for TWA (Texas Wrestling Association) to Memphis for MCW (Memphis Championship Wrestling) and wrestled for PPW (Power Pro Wrestling). found a wrestling school, moved to Texas and moved to Memphis.

American Dragon feels very much like Bryan Danielson at a caterpillar/rookie stage. There’s distinct things that feel like unique Bryan Danielson quirks that can be recognized still there even 24+ years later/probably certainly over 2000+ matches in the future. Some of his promos, moves, movements, technical aggression, his sense of honor, and more feels like it is traceable back to 2000 him.

One of the other American Dragon traits that I think really stood out during this time, and throughout his career is teamwork. He found some of his first success teaming with Spanky (Brian Kendrick) in American Force 2000 and Kliq 2000 (stable with Lance Cade, Shooter Schultz, and Spanky too). His tryouts at FMW and on SmackDown were both tag team matches. Despite never having a regular tag team partner on the indies, he was a co-finalist of many team tournaments (Tango & Cash Invitational, DDT4 2009, and King of Trios 2009).

One of Bryan Danielson’s biggest strengths as a pro wrestler and other roles within pro-wrestling is his seemingly easy charm. He’s also great at projecting his charm and he often has the ability to magnify the charm in the people surrounding him and the people he talks about with earnestness and enthusiasm.

In the middle of 2000, he got signed to the WWE and went to Memphis Championship Wrestling (one of WWE’s developmental territories at the time). American Dragon appears and enthusiastically says, “I am the American Dragon and I am from America!”. We are invited to follow him as he is enthusiastically going around the park in his gear wearing a champion. He tries to get people excited for a wrestling show at the amusement park, while he is sharing his internal monologues about his surroundings and serving as a tour guide.
He is also doing what I imagine Barney the purple dinosaur impersonating 1980s WWE Jim Duggan would sound like (two great icons in their respective fields). It’s all parts awesome, silly, and sweet.
It’s amazing!
Fabulous Rocker does a sneak attack on American Dragon breaking Libertyland space and Libertyland time sending him from wherever he was to a wrestling ring also in Libertyland. Dragon ends up in a match where he defeats Fabulous Rocker with a Regal Plex. 
One of the significant things in Bryan’s move to wrestling and friendship wise in Memphis was meeting William Regal. He ends up adopting some of William Regal’s moves and characteristics with a unique Bryan Danielson charm. Later in his career, he even uses the color maroon as a nod to William Regal’s gear.

The match that stood out the most to me showing what Dragon would later do more of is the Derrick King on Power Pro Wrestling.

This airs on December 23rd and Dave Brown introduces us to us to American Dragon vs. Derrick King. this is the earliest technical aggressive American Dragon match I could find. Dragon plays an invading jerk (this is part of the MCW invasion on Power Pro tv). Derrick King is going into this match with a tapped leg. Dragon spends a lot of his offense targeting the with good precision. He even does a subtle version of his signature swivel with opponent legs wrapped up taunting the Power Pro Wrestling enthusiast before aggressively getting more of his opponents limbs into a painful submission move. On Derrick’s comebacks, Dragon greatly and animatedly shows the pain Derrick King is giving him in return, too. He also ekes out a win with some help from his teammates in Kliq 2000.

2000 is American Dragon’s last year as a primarily masked wrestler. He lost the mask at least twice in the upcoming year. Once to tag team rivals, Jeromy Sage and Ruben Cruz in a hair vs. mask tag title match. Based on the limited footage and information I could find it seemed like he lost second time was from a feud with Lance Cade in Power Pro Wrestling in early 2001 in a faction vs. faction feud.

From that point in 2001 onward he wrestles unmasked in all of his matches and leaves the mask behind (except rare occasions). In 2001, he and others were let go from WWE. He is out of his cocoon. I think besides Ring Of Honor tv shows he did not appear on United States based wrestling television consistently again until 2010. By that time this dragon has flown all over the world getting more experience and finding more self identity.

He keeps the American Dragon name for a while switching between that and Bryan Danielson. He eventually just kept American Dragon as just a nickname with occasional dragon designs on his gear.

Throughout the 2000s, a masked American Dragon reappears in Europe (the place not the band) in FWA, Joint Promotions, and more. In 2021, on an episode of AEW Dark a masked wrestler with a dragon scale textured body appeared named Infinto, who may be or maybe not been Bryan Danielson.

I feel like the American Dragon mask represented his time as an early television wrestler in his caterpillar stages (not negative, caterpillars rock). He was a caterpillar in a new place starting a pro wrestler journey. He showed signs of being something special in his early wrestling and had the support of having Shawn Michaels as a supporter and the structure of tv wrestling.

I feel like the masked American Dragon’s is not just interesting and fun to think about part is career but, was an important part of career this time helped him build confidence, connections that would help him grow. This part of his career built character traits that can still be felt today.

The mask comes off. He has and continues to inspire and help others in their caterpillar stages. Like a butterfly and American Dragon’s spread their wings.

Special thanks to Rachel for helping me with this article.

Some moments with masked American Dragon in and after 2000

Go check out the rest of Wet Hot American Dragon here.