Let me first say this. Before we get into the whole thing, I just want to say one thing real quick. I really did think it was going to be Punk. It had to be somebody after all. Cena could only go on for so long. Orton could only go on for so long, and we knew we were getting close. We had to be, right? I just thought it was going to be Punk. I wanted it to be. Make no mistake, Punk is my favorite wrestler on the roster right now. He has been for years, and he still is at the moment of this writing, with no end it site. I just really though he was going to be the one to make it. To break through that Main Event barrier that had been there for so long keeping the likes of the chose few (Triple H and the aforementioned Cena and Orton) away from the rest of the roster. Sure a few other wrestlers would get to visit from time to time, but no one else really got to live there like the chosen few did. But I was sure Punk would be the one to be the new permanent fixture in the top slot.
And you know what? Depending on how you want to look at it, you can make the argument that CM Punk was the #1 guy in the company. After all The man faced The Undertaker at WrestleMania, the only match on par with the WWE Championship. In the same year Punk faced both The Rock and Brock Lesnar, the two biggest returning wrestlers in the past few years and arguably the biggest draws at whatever show they might appear at. And the biggest argument of them all that Punk was the #1 Guy, is the fact that for an entire calendar year and beyond, CM Punk was the Champion. A feat that hasn’t happened in quite a while and unless the structure of the wrestling business changes dramatically could very possibly never happen again. Yes the argument is there, but the sour taste of John Cena vs. Johnny Ace main eventing a PPV while Punk’s title shot landed somewhere in the middle of the show that will always serve as a reminder to me that WWE still viewed Punk in a clear #2 slot to Cena’s #1.So it hadn’t happened yet, at lest not in my eyes, but I always thought it would be Punk to eventually claim that slot and the unquestionably #1 guy for the WWE. That is until this past Monday Night Raw.
Yes I had seen crowds go crazy for Daniel Bryan before. I think it’s more fact than opinion at this point to call the Bryan the most over guy in the WWE at the moment. But his biggest reaction came from a crowd in Seattle. That’s like Punk in Chicago. And a homecoming reaction does not a #1 guy make in the eyes of the company. But this Monday I watched something amazing happen as Bryan shed his Wyatt family costume and began to once again “Yes” along with the crowd. Bryan was in control. Bryan changed the pace of the “Yes” arms and the crowd followed to match. Bryan had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand. This was a rare moment where the crowd turned a great moment into a classic one. Crowds like this come along very rarely, and a superstar is lucky to get one of these moments. Moments like Stone Cold running in to help Mankind win the title, or CM Punk entering into Chicago at Money in the Bank in 2011, or Dolph Ziggler cashing in after Mania last year. And Daniel Bryan’s moment came a few weeks ago when the crowd took focus off of what should have been the buildup to the most important match in years, unifying the two most important titles in the company, and put that attention squarely on Bryan. Only now that may have been topped.
And so the question, as always, is what now? How with the WWE screw this up and why don’t they have the same faith in Bryan that we do, and don’t they seen the crowds? We probably won’t know until years later, when the right person writes a book, if the months after SummerSlam were actually an intentional de-push for Bryan after panicking over the buy rates that Bryan was achieving. But this week on Raw, that wasn’t just Bryan getting over despite WWE trying to burn him. That was WWE seeing what Bryan could do. Remember this was the first Raw since the announcement of the WWE network. For the first time in a while (maybe since the Rock’s original return) mainstream media was talking about the WWE. And I’m not just talking about entertainment media. The day after the announcement, The Wall Street Journal prominently featured a story about the WWE complete will a full color photo of Cena giving The Rock an Attitude Adjustment. WWE is in the public eye and that means that people were going to be watching this Monday that don’t normally watch the WWE product. And the WWE wanted them to see a crowd like that. And they knew that Daniel Bryan would get that reaction. I may still want it to be Punk in my grumpy, biased, inflexible heart, but it’s going to be Daniel Bryan.
