WNS Column: Daniel Bryan's Blessing In Disguise

 
I, like most of you, really like Daniel Bryan and I too felt that pit in
my stomach a few weeks back when he announced his neck surgery at what
seemed to be the worst possible time.  However, after a few weeks of
in-ring inactivity from Bryan along with the accompanying title vacating
possibilities, I think that Bryan’s untimely neck surgery has most
likely saved his career.  Not from a health standpoint, but from a
creative one.
 
For the past year WWE has been hit and miss but the one thing you could
always count on was that Bryan was going to put on solid matches and the
crowd was going to be behind him no matter what and I think we’re all in
agreement that right now is his time and he deserves the titles. It was
a struggle for him to get the titles, from both working hard in the ring
(which no doubt led to his current neck problems) and also from creative
being forced to embrace the overwhelming fan response that differed from
their story lines. He, and everyone in the ring with him, made sure that
Wrestlemania XXX was a great culmination of the previous year and an
exciting start to the next one.
 
Then a few weeks into his title reign came disaster.  Not a neck injury,
but an awful rehashed ‘demon’ Kane angle.
 
It was as if creative just decided to fire up the Xbox 360 and play WWE
‘12 again but with Bryan in Ryder’s place as Kane stalked him and ruined
his kayfabe life along with his real life hard fought push along with
his much deserved title.  Sound familiar?
 
Do I think that they intentionally buried Ryder? Yes, I do. He became
huge on the internet without their help, developed his own push, and
then they didn’t know how to handle it so they buried him.  Not because
they resented him, but because every storyline needs ups and downs.  
Ryder had a big upswing so he needed to crash hard as all great stories
should. But when he was at rock bottom, the momentum wasn’t there for
him to dig his way out and so he just stayed down.
 
And as if they had a blueprint for how to utilize the scrappy internet
darling, they plug Bryan into the same role and we all collectively sigh
as they have him and Brie running from Kane backstage with all the
accompanying horror movie cliches for an entire 3 hours of Raw, wasting
all of their talents and subsequently, our time.  I think we all felt
that it was only a matter of time before we saw Bryan in a full body
cast and wheelchair being shoved off a ramp on Main Event, ending what
could have been a really memorable championship run.  But then his neck
injury was brought to light and let’s be honest, they do need to have
those titles on the line regularly to keep the viewers interested and
they then had a legitimate cause to take the titles off of Bryan even if
they didn’t have plans to do it in the first place.
 
But they didn’t.  And they haven’t.  And they won’t.
 
Not for a while at least.  I think it’s obvious that the weekly back and
forth drama of Bryan vacating the titles is just posturing and buying
him time to heal.  Not just to heal up just enough to get back in the
ring, but to heal fully and properly.  His surgery was not an invasive
one by any means and it’s a safe bet that he could have been in the ring
the next week if his job depended on it.  The real reason he’s been
inactive in the ring is because he, like much of the roster, is tired
and needs a rest before he cements himself in the upcoming year as the
guy that people pay to see.  If they had plans to make someone else that
guy, they would be doing it right now but instead they’ve decided to put
the champ in somewhat of a holding pattern and take a slight detour off
of this ‘demon’ Kane angle, averting a possible creative disaster that
had the possibility of putting Bryan’s best days behind him.  But he
still has the titles, he looks rested and focused, and he’s still
selling shirts (which is always a good indicator of someone’s future).
 
And although Bryan’s title reign has been less-than-memorable since
Wrestlemania, I’m strongly inclined to believe that we can all expect
really great things in the future from him and the writers.  Now, I’m
not the kind of person to make bold predictions, but here comes one:
 
Bryan’s current run will last longer than CM Punk’s 434 days.
 
That will be no small feat but I think it can happen for a few reasons:
1. He’s good enough.
2. Men, women, and children love him.
3. It may bring Punk out of retirement for the Best vs. Beard title
match.
 
That last one may be a bit of unrealistic dream match booking but we're
allowed to dream, right?
 
-Derek
@TopRopeTuesday
https://TopRopeTuesday.com