I wonder if Lesnar knew Bryan even had that in him until he started stomping on the side of his face

WWE has no clue how to book a babyface.

See:

Reigns, Roman

Zayn, Sami

Strowman, Braun

Hugger, Bayley

And now Bryan, Daniel

How do you constantly fuck this up? HOW?

I don't find it at all credible that this is just WWE repeatedly "screwing up" rather than by design. Part of the "WWE The Brand is the draw now" era necessitates cutting the legs underneath anyone getting over enough to potentially be a big individual star, and they don't want that happening lest wrestlers start getting leverage over the company.

Is anybody surprised the moment supposed Flair & NWA fanboy Triple H gets any booking power, or at the very least, is around the dinner table talking to Vince every night, faces become even bigger jokes and heels get long title reigns? Doesn't he realize that's why the NWA lost? 

I'm only half kidding about this argument by the way. 

I'm giggling at the idea that HHH and Stephanie live with Vince and Linda.

This might be a "strike me down and I'll become more powerful than you can imagine" moment for Bryan. He's so good as a heel, and WWE can't properly book a babyface for shit, that this run might end up even bigger than the first one.

I'd just love to see Bryan work heel for a series against Rey, babyface reactions or not. And for it to end up with a hair/beard vs mask match.

17 minutes ago, FMKK said:

I'd just love to see Bryan work heel for a series against Rey, babyface reactions or not. And for it to end up with a hair/beard vs mask match.

....and if Bryan loses a mysterious masked Dragon shows up to take his place.   (I'll also accept him bringing back the Obi-Wan wizard robes)

55 minutes ago, sek69 said:

This might be a "strike me down and I'll become more powerful than you can imagine" moment for Bryan. He's so good as a heel, and WWE can't properly book a babyface for shit, that this run might end up even bigger than the first one.

I had this thought before Survivor Series too.

Its a ridiculous irony.

When the fans clamored for him to be the top face, they attempted to cut his legs out after SummerSlam 2013 until they just went with it at WrestleMania 30. He gets injured, blah blah blah.

He comes back and they put Reigns over him in the build to WrestleMania 31 and then is gone again. That run was so minor its easy to forget and, in hindsight, they made the right call with Reigns getting the nod as Bryan would be out again soon after.

He comes back years later and, thanks to time and the usual change-over of fans, he's over again but not that over. You could point to booking or whatever, but the truth is, he wasn't at that 2013/2014 level. Not a knock against him. His SummerSlam match might be MOTY. I love the guy. But facts is facts. Very few guys ever get to the level Bryan was at 5 years ago and its no slight against him to say he didn't reach that peak of popularity again in 2018.

And, somewhere, somebody in the WWE offices was probably relieved by that. The Daniel Bryan thing had cooled down. No more hijacked shows. No more Twitter campaigns. The boat was not being rocked by fans demanding one thing and only one thing and booing anything else offered like they did in 2014.

 

Thinking the saga was over and in a bit of a bind, they decide, "Hey, let's just turn him heel. It will generate interest, it will give us a fresh match for Survivor Series,  who cares?"

Only they forgot something. Daniel Bryan got mega-over as a heel. Daniel Bryan is ridiculously captivating. So, if the plan was to treat Daniel Bryan like any other upper midcarder - like, say, Owens or Nakamura or even Orton at this point - and just move him up and down the card, they might run into a problem. Because whether they continue to book Bryan as a heel (and I don't see how they can't) or they somehow spin him back into a babyface role (which I don't see happening soon), the audience is going to find him again and they're gonna love him.

Part of me almost hopes they have AJ Styles squash him with a Brogue Kick at WrestleMania this year. 

On 11/20/2018 at 6:25 PM, DMJ said:

Part of me almost hopes they have AJ Styles squash him with a Brogue Kick at WrestleMania this year. 

Instead of a kiss, its a good luck “Yes” jump and finger point from Brie.

Which would be funny because that is how the chicken-shit “Honky Tonk Bryan” heel act got over.  The initial “YES” antics.

D-Bry having a legit Bryan Danielson in ROH/Indys title run in WWE as a heel is mindblowing.

 

Where the hell is Charles to makes sense out of all this?

 

ps: seriously though, where has Loss been? Is he ok?

Yeah this heel run has been nothing but a grand slam.  It's pretty unbelievable how he's been able to reinvent himself since November.  At this point he's a made man

Ever since the turn, Daniel Bryan has shot up my GOAT rankings and when his career does finally end, I wouldn't be shocked to see him standing at the top.

What's interesting is that they've found enough strong faces to keep the crowd from turning Bryan back so far (it of course helps that D Bry has been excellent as a true heel as well, not playing cool at all). Not sure how long they can keep that up, but it's been sort of fascinating to see the booking actually work for once.

On 3/12/2019 at 4:02 PM, Migs said:

What's interesting is that they've found enough strong faces to keep the crowd from turning Bryan back so far (it of course helps that D Bry has been excellent as a true heel as well, not playing cool at all). Not sure how long they can keep that up, but it's been sort of fascinating to see the booking actually work for once.

You're perceiving this all wrong, brutha.

Daniel Bryan is such a tremendous heel - uncool, unlikable, and obnoxious - that he shines up the babyfaces before they're ever even called upon to do anything. All they have to do is basically show up, be seen, and oppose the eco-vegan. That's it.

The babyfaces aren't being booked particularly stronger now or anything. This is mostly the work of Bryan, and yes. It's an incredible run.

Not sure if anyone will get any milage out of this, but the other day I realized The New Daniel Bryan is basically Straight Edge Savior CM Punk without the religious overtones. 

9 minutes ago, peachchaos said:

Not sure if anyone will get any milage out of this, but the other day I realized The New Daniel Bryan is basically Straight Edge Savior CM Punk without the religious overtones. 

I remember someone here making the joke after he did the first full heel promo that we'll end up with Brie shaving her head next. 

3 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

You're perceiving this all wrong, brutha.

Daniel Bryan is such a tremendous heel - uncool, unlikable, and obnoxious - that he shines up the babyfaces before they're ever even called upon to do anything. All they have to do is basically show up, be seen, and oppose the eco-vegan. That's it.

The babyfaces aren't being booked particularly stronger now or anything. This is mostly the work of Bryan, and yes. It's an incredible run.

Bryan has been great as a heel, mainly because he has a lot creative freedom but I think them adding multiple fresh names to  work with in the title picture at once, Ali , Owens and now Kofi. WWE books alot of their headline matches into the ground, look at AJs title run, going into WM last year AJ vs Nakamura was a dream match but by the time the next PPV people were through. Same with AJ and Joe, Even Miz vs Bryan. Bryan has 3 guys he can headline PPVs with right now and even if he drops the title, he's still fresh. If they dont book him in back to back rematches with screwy finishes he's good.

So, my family is always around while my friends an I watch the PPV's. I know they're not Pay Per Views anymore but I'm old and not changing that. 

I had to try to explain to my Boulder, Colorado Family how great and ironic the Daniel Bryan heel character is after they looked over at the show and saw the sign that said "Evil Vegan." 

It didn't go well, but they do love the hemp belt.

Bryan making a late year run to win best on interviews is pretty awesome.  Especially for a guy 5 years ago who didn't exactly have a rep as a good talker in a lot of circles

2 hours ago, Strummer said:

Bryan making a late year run to win best on interviews is pretty awesome.  Especially for a guy 5 years ago who didn't exactly have a rep as a good talker in a lot of circles 

It's actually so vindicating to see that so many of the independent guys who had a big stigma on them in the 00s for not being charismatic enough to make it to the big leagues became some of the best talkers in the industry. Daniel Bryan, of course, has put in two? three? legitimately top level promos in his career since turning heel. One could even make the argument that ever since being GM, he's been doing the best promos he's ever done. Not too diverge too far from the thread topic, but Joe is another guy who came in from the "no charisma" indies to become one of the great talkers in WWE.

6 hours ago, SmartMark15 said:

Not too diverge too far from the thread topic, but Joe is another guy who came in from the "no charisma" indies to become one of the great talkers in WWE.

Joe was always a great talker though. When he wasn't fed awful shit in TNA, he was already excellent on the mic.

Yeah, really, the best three promos of the last ten years in WWE probably are Daniels, Joe and Punk, really.

13 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

So, my family is always around while my friends an I watch the PPV's. I know they're not Pay Per Views anymore but I'm old and not changing that. 

I had to try to explain to my Boulder, Colorado Family how great and ironic the Daniel Bryan heel character is after they looked over at the show and saw the sign that said "Evil Vegan." 

It didn't go well, but they do love the hemp belt.

It's the "holier than thou" attitude and shoving his philosophy down the viewers throats that's supposed to get the heat, not the actual content of his beliefs. It makes it even better that his beliefs are pretty much harmless on their own. But yeah, if he didn't prop his ego on his ideals he'd be a babyface here in uber progressive Madison, WI.