Apparently it is now compulsory that everyone who writes about wrestling online must express their opinion at least once on the whole Daniel Bryan thing in the WWE at the moment. If not, then apparently terrible things could happen. Honestly.
Allegedly.
Okay – here’s mine. Daniel Bryan has been given a match against HHH. If he wins, then he is inserted into the main event, making it a triple threat. I think that’s fine.
What? More? Needy, aren’t you? Okay then. Fine.
It does seem that, looking at it from the outside, this was not the original plan. Punk was being set to go up against HHH, Bryan was going to get Kane or maybe Sheamus, and Orton-Batista was going to be YOUR main event.
But then Punk left. No-one knows why, but he just apparently decided out of the blue that he’d had enough and wanted to get the heck out of Dodge.
This left a booking hole, one which was filled by actually listening to fan sentiment (or at least, one segment of fan sentiment) and plugging Bryan into the HHH match. Fine, wonderful, actually listening to your fans is generally not a bad thing.
And then the Royal Rumble happened.
The new WWE so-called “movie star” (term used advisedly) won, Bryan was beaten in an earlier match, and to say fans weren’t happy is something of an understatement. But they’re fans. I mean, it’s not like they did anything except chant some mindless slogans and engage in spleen venting on numerous online forums (or fora, if you’re being pedantic about this).
But some-one somewhere hit the ol’ panic button and suddenly we had the “occupy Raw” situation which provided a stunning visual and gave the impression that the fans had actually influenced the product. So much better than, say, having Hulk Hogan act all heroic and whatnot and making the match, and not as anticlimactic. It was meant as a feel-good moment.
So, how this will all pan out depends, but for the moment I’m more than happy to take a “wait and see” approach. As much as I don’t watch WWE, one of my mates is getting Wrestlemania XXX, and so I will be joining him and will watch events unfold. So yes, even I shall wait and see.
What I don’t get is why fans are so against this. Sure, numerous reasons abound, but none of them really make any sense.
And neither do their senses of foreboding.
“HHH buries people!” is a common cry.
So… he has set this up just to beat Bryan, bury him, and to swerve or screw with the fans, who he is suddenly pandering to with his booking decisions? What? That makes less sense than the Great Gazoo.
Another complaint is that Daniel Bryan is “too small” to be the face of the company.
(check before posting)
Odd, considering Eddie Guerrero is still much-loved as a wrestler and former world champion, and yet he’s the same height. Hmmm… Look, while size and musculature are the sorts of things are the sorts of things that used to set wrestlers apart, footballers and baseballers have reached the same ridiculous extremes.
And then there is UFC. Ever watch those in the lighter weight categories fight? Daniel Bryan is bigger. Want to face a UFC middleweight? UFC has taught us that bigger isn’t necessary better, and that small definitely isn’t weak.
And finally, it is said that the fans are too fickle and don’t know what they want.
Yeah, okay, you’d almost have to give them this one. The problem is that there are two sorts of fans – hardcore, lifelong fans who watch the product no matter what and buy the occasional DVDs and PPVs, and the newer (possibly more casual) fans who accept a lot of what the WWE has force-fed them and buy the merch. Lots and lots of merch.
“No.”
The WWE knows that the majority of hardcore fans will stay with them, while the casual fans probably won’t, so they cater to the casual fans more in order to extract as much money as possible from them before losing them.
Daniel Bryan has been a wonder because both sets of fans seem to like him. Hardcore fans like him because of his skill in the ring; casual fans like him because he has this cool “Yes!” thing going.
And then there are those who hate him because… well, they just need to be contrary, I think. I’ve never understood it myself.
Okay, there you go, my Daniel Bryan column. Comments, etc can be left below, and if you truly disagree and want to fight me over it (as I’ve noticed more and more often in various online communities)… get a life.
(Have you checked out my writing blog yet? Why not? Hmmm? Warning – it is about, you know, writing.)
