Daniel Bryan - The Ultimate IWC Babyface

[TWJC: The Beginning]

K, so Daniel Bryan is being booked for you (the typical IWC fan out there) to LOOOVE him. This has been obvious to me for a while and now it's so clear that I feel I have to share it.

Daniel Bryan is the ultimate IWC babyface. He's Mr. Indy, he's about 90% physical in ring/character work and maybe 10% mic work.

He gets brought into the WWE and his mentor is Miz. This pisses the IWC off because the Miz (to the IWC) is someone in wrestling for the fame, didn't work hard for it, can't wrestle, and sucks. This is (to the IWC) a disgrace to DB and the IWC feels sympathy for him.

Next, Daniel Bryan gets "fired" for something that wasn't his fault. Whether or not it had anything to do with Linda's campaign is irrelevant. He was fired and then rehired pretty quickly. The facts are that he could have easily sued for wrongful firing but didn't. Wrongfully firing someone, especially a net darling, generates sympathy from the IWC.

Daniel Bryan comes back but soon has a losing streak. This again, pisses of the IWC because they see him as "the guy with in ring talent who is better than half the roster and shouldn't job to these losers". Again, sympathy from the IWC.

Daniel Bryan does the IWC's favorite thing and TURNS HEEL. IWC loves this.

Daniel Bryan has a lengthy title reign and has a series of matches against CM Punk. IWC is happy.

Daniel Bryan loses in 18 seconds to Sheamus at Wrestlemania, IWC is up in arms and feels sympathy.

On Raw a mostly smarky crowd gives DB chants all night long.



Conclusions? You have been worked. The WWE knows exactly what makes your blood boil, what you like, and how to make you respond. It is every bit as easy to work IWC-type fans as it is to work anyone else.


So, agree/disagree. Are you smarter than the WWE and all of this is an actual coincidence? Or does the WWE know what they're doing?

 

[rge2010]

I don't really get your point? In short, WWE are making fans angry and happy. Isn't that what they are mean't to do? Touch the boundaries of emotion?! You have highlighted points and stated the obvious to suit your agenda - thats fine but I don't understand why this needs pointing out?

Isn't CM Punk another Internet darling? Even more so than Bryan. They have appeased the fans and pissed off the fans with him aswell.

Controversary gets people talking and creates cash. Its a pretty much textbook what WWE are doing.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I don't really get your point? In short, WWE are making fans angry and happy. Isn't that what they are mean't to do? Touch the boundaries of emotion?! You have highlighted points and stated the obvious to suit your agenda - thats fine but I don't understand why this needs pointing out?

Isn't CM Punk another Internet darling? Even more so than Bryan. They have appeased the fans and pissed off the fans with him aswell.

Controversary gets people talking and creates cash. Its a pretty much textbook what WWE are doing.

Punk has more appeal though. Punk has been booked similarly, DB is just a better example of the WWE working the "smart marks".

My point is that the IWC-type fan is just as easily worked as anyone else. A lot of people on here don't think that's true. A lot of people on here think WWE "dropped the ball with Daniel Bryan". They said that when he was "fired", when Miz mentored him, when he had a losing streak, and now after his Mania loss.

My point is that NONE of those were the WWE "dropping the ball" but actually very calculated moves that were designed to work the supposed "smart marks" and they have worked.

 

[dakikko049]

So what you're trying to say is that WWE are purposely trying to piss off the fans because they believe that their opinion matters more than the fans' opinions and the fans don't matter at all? I don't know, thats pretty stupid if you ask me. And if you're right it's not a case of the WWE one upping the fans it's a case of WWE completely losing touch. Do you think Vince heard the reaction Daniel Bryan got on Raw, the deafening boos that Sheamus got and the uproar on the internet and said with a sadistic laugh, "Yessss, this is exactly how I want them to react! They believe their opinion matters when at the end of the day it doesn't and I am infinitely smarter and greater in every way than them."

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

So what you're trying to say is that WWE are purposely trying to piss off the fans because they believe that their opinion matters more than the fans' opinions and the fans don't matter at all? I don't know, thats pretty stupid if you ask me. And if you're right it's not a case of the WWE one upping the fans it's a case of WWE completely losing touch. Do you think Vince heard the reaction Daniel Bryan got on Raw, the deafening boos that Sheamus got and the uproar on the internet and said with a sadistic laugh, "Yessss, this is exactly how I want them to react! They believe their opinion matters when at the end of the day it doesn't and I am infinitely smarter and greater in every way than them."

No, I'm saying that Daniel Bryan is MORE OVER because of the loss. The normal fan doesn't really give a shit, it's only the IWC. The IWC isn't vocal if they're happy.

Look at Cena. He's an other example of how the WWE works the "smart" fans.

Think about this, would Daniel Bryan be as over as he was on Monday if he hadn't lost so quickly? Doing this is no different than back in the day when the horsemen beat down Dusty. It's drawing sympathy.

lol at you thinking your'e infinitely smarter and greater. Either blatant troll or blatant stupidity and arrogance.

Also, Sheamus didnt' get "deafening boos" let's not exaggerate here.

If losing touch means getting a guy more over, then sure, "losing touch". 1.9 million buys, 80,000 fans, and Daniel Bryan being more over than he's ever been in his life doesn't sound like losing touch though.

The "smart" marks are a relatively small portion of the audience that can be worked. They can be angered, just like I was angry at Hulk Hogan for turning on WCW and siding with Hall and Nash. I still watched to support the good guys. This is no different. It's building sympathy for a guy and guess what, it worked.

 

[Nada]

You are giving WWE astronomical credit here, they have no clue what they are generally doing. Their plan was to build Bryan as a chicken **** heel and Hunter's boy, Sheamus to beat him and become a bigger star

The fans said "Hell no!" to that and totally **** on Sheamus the day after, its the reason he won the RR, its the reason he won in 18 seconds, to look great and dominating, except the fans were having none of that, and instead cheered the other guy.

Like Meltzer said, the fans stole Raw and WM in general, they didnt care one bit was Cena was saying. They took a giant **** on their RR winner and new World Heavyweight Champion.

Its a classic example of WWE missing the boat and the fans saying "to hell with your champions!"

 

[dakikko049]

No, I'm saying that Daniel Bryan is MORE OVER because of the loss. The normal fan doesn't really give a shit, it's only the IWC. The IWC isn't vocal if they're happy.

Look at Cena. He's an other example of how the WWE works the "smart" fans.

Think about this, would Daniel Bryan be as over as he was on Monday if he hadn't lost so quickly? Doing this is no different than back in the day when the horsemen beat down Dusty. It's drawing sympathy.

lol at you thinking your'e infinitely smarter and greater. Either blatant troll or blatant stupidity and arrogance.

Also, Sheamus didnt' get "deafening boos" let's not exaggerate here.

If losing touch means getting a guy more over, then sure, "losing touch". 1.9 million buys, 80,000 fans, and Daniel Bryan being more over than he's ever been in his life doesn't sound like losing touch though.

The "smart" marks are a relatively small portion of the audience that can be worked. They can be angered, just like I was angry at Hulk Hogan for turning on WCW and siding with Hall and Nash. I still watched to support the good guys. This is no different. It's building sympathy for a guy and guess what, it worked.

OK firstly, the whole infinitely smarter and greater thing was my impression of Vince lol

Secondly after reading that I think I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick of the point you were making, sorry. But I still don't believe they would purposely try to get under the skin of the fans just so a heel Bryan would get more over, and a face (and potential face of the company apparently) would get booed. Surely they would try to get him over in a way that makes everybody hate DB and love Sheamus.

 

[gurvinder372]

Daniel Bryan loosing within 20 seconds is definitely one of the most shocking things I have seen in a long time on WWE. As of the fellow poster have said it already, it started the show with a bang, and really set the tone.

To be honest, I didn't really cared much for this match earlier. Sure, it was hilarious to watch DB asking AJ to shut up whenever she tried to speak in his promos, but I wasn't really into Sheamus vs DB feud leading up to WrestleMania. At most, I was expecting a match in which both will tell a good story, Sheamus will win and next day posters on this forum will brag about how "DB vs Sheamus almost stole the show".

Even though DB is a despicable character, a heel, I want to know how will he get his due. There is a Rock/Cena angle, Brock debut, Lord Tensai debut, and Punk/Jericho angle going on RAW, but people are still talking about DB, which is quite an achievement on writer's part.

 

[Nick Black]

Ah, TWJC. Yet again, on another post, I completely agree with you. (I need to spread more rep so I can give you more haha.)

I think you're completely right. Most IWC people, such as myself, believe that WWE creative doesn't care about us or even think about us. But situations like this just add to the fact that they do, they just push our buttons when they feel like throwing us a bone or two. I really didn't think about it until you just made the point. Now if they would only just bring Colt Cabana in...

Creative has been on a tear recently, and this just makes it more and more prominent. The 18 second match pulled sympathy from us, and put heat on Sheamus for being a "cheap-ass". Brian is now the babyface he should have been, but he keeps his heel persona. Sheamus is now a heel, but he keeps his face persona. Hopefully this will all be corrected in the coming weeks.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

K, so Daniel Bryan is being booked for you (the typical IWC fan out there) to LOOOVE him. This has been obvious to me for a while and now it's so clear that I feel I have to share it.

Daniel Bryan is the ultimate IWC babyface. He's Mr. Indy, he's about 90% physical in ring/character work and maybe 10% mic work.

He gets brought into the WWE and his mentor is Miz. This pisses the IWC off because the Miz (to the IWC) is someone in wrestling for the fame, didn't work hard for it, can't wrestle, and sucks. This is (to the IWC) a disgrace to DB and the IWC feels sympathy for him.

Next, Daniel Bryan gets "fired" for something that wasn't his fault. Whether or not it had anything to do with Linda's campaign is irrelevant. He was fired and then rehired pretty quickly. The facts are that he could have easily sued for wrongful firing but didn't. Wrongfully firing someone, especially a net darling, generates sympathy from the IWC.

Daniel Bryan comes back but soon has a losing streak. This again, pisses of the IWC because they see him as "the guy with in ring talent who is better than half the roster and shouldn't job to these losers". Again, sympathy from the IWC.

Daniel Bryan does the IWC's favorite thing and TURNS HEEL. IWC loves this.

Daniel Bryan has a lengthy title reign and has a series of matches against CM Punk. IWC is happy.

Daniel Bryan loses in 18 seconds to Sheamus at Wrestlemania, IWC is up in arms and feels sympathy.

On Raw a mostly smarky crowd gives DB chants all night long.



Conclusions? You have been worked. The WWE knows exactly what makes your blood boil, what you like, and how to make you respond. It is every bit as easy to work IWC-type fans as it is to work anyone else.


So, agree/disagree. Are you smarter than the WWE and all of this is an actual coincidence? Or does the WWE know what they're doing?

I think there's a great deal of truth to this statement. We all know that there are TONS of internet fans that feel they have some special level of clairty as to what makes for good wrestling that others simply do not have. If you look at Daniel Bryan's history and the history of some other internet favorites, like CM Punk for instance, then hindsight does seem to show that the WWE has been playing the IWC the way the late Earl Scruggs played the banjo.

Most of Bryan's key moments in the WWE, whether viewed as good or bad by the IWC, has nonethless had internet fans buzzing like a massive swarm of wasps. The weekend & following week Daniel Bryan was "fired" still ranks as one of the most discussed topics I've ever run across in the 3 years I've been posting on WZ. His defeat of Miz to become United States Champion got tons of positive feedback. His match with Sheamus last year being demoted to a dark match was met with tons of comments & buzz. Coming out of nowhere to win MITB last summer, cashing it in later than year, becoming the WHC for just over 4 months, his feuds with Big Show & Mark Henry, his slow & successful heel turn, his loss to Sheamus in 18 seconds at WM, etc. has all resulted in tons of feedback. Daniel Bryan has been one of the most discussed wrestlers of 2012 so far. He's gotten hugely over as a heel, his "Yes Yes Yes!!" chant is quickly becoming the new "What?" and it's being rumored that he's going to be in a WHC match against Sheamus at the Over The Limit ppv, which is the one after Extreme Rules.

Like everyone, I don't always like some of what WWE does. Some feuds don't interest me, some storylines fall flat and some wrestlers are pushed that I might feel don't have it. However, all in all, that doesn't mean that I somehow know what's better for WWE in the long run than actual people who've been working within the industry, many of whom for longer than I've been alive.

Was it all carefully planned and constructed to turn out the way it has? I don't think that's possible, but I do think that experience in how fans react & wrestling works did allow WWE to go down a road that had a good chance of leading to where they wanted to go with Bryan.

 

[boywithbluehanger]

You are giving WWE astronomical credit here, they have no clue what they are generally doing. Their plan was to build Bryan as a chicken **** heel and Hunter's boy, Sheamus to beat him and become a bigger star

The fans said "Hell no!" to that and totally **** on Sheamus the day after, its the reason he won the RR, its the reason he won in 18 seconds, to look great and dominating, except the fans were having none of that, and instead cheered the other guy.

Like Meltzer said, the fans stole Raw and WM in general, they didnt care one bit was Cena was saying. They took a giant **** on their RR winner and new World Heavyweight Champion.

Its a classic example of WWE missing the boat and the fans saying "to hell with your champions!"

This.

TWJC..dude I usually can agree with some of what you're saying but I guess today is one of those days that I just cannot. You can say that the "smart marks" have been worked but the thing you leave out is that had everyone cheered when Sheamus won, the WWE would have gotten exactly what they were pushing for months. The crowd's defiance to what the WWE was doing was really the driving force for the changes that were made with Daniel Bryan. They took a chance on him because of the whining of many internet fans. Think of who he was able to outshine with a simple heel turn.

He turned out to be a solid heel that could shockingly do more with far less than was given to someone like Alberto Del Rio in 2010. Del Rio had weeks and weeks of character build promos before ever making his debut. Then when he made his debut, he had the epic entrance, the loud music, the personal announcer who goes on for 30 seconds bragging about him, the expensive car to drive out in, the spark waterfall, the very over Rey Mysterio to feud with etc. Basically Del Rio was given faaaaaar more than anyone to accomplish becoming the ultimate heel and all Daniel Bryan was given was one night of turning on his word that he wouldn't use his Money in the Bank until Wrestlemania to cash it in on Big Show's seconds of glory.

This was WWE's way of turning him heel to test the waters with his relevancy. The idea of keeping DB a face the entire time, caused an obvious creative conflict with their budding rebuilding of Sheamus. But if they could turn him heel for months by having him screw over the (kinda loveable) Big Show, they could finally take the belt off of Mark Henry who (in many people's opinion) successfully gave higher rank to the Heavyweight title than Orton. So as I mentioned before, instead of working the smarks, they were testing the relevancy of DB by using him as the primary heel replacing Henry. Their priority however, was with revitalizing Sheamus as a dominant force in the WWE. The squash at Wrestlemania was not to tug the heartstrings of the IWC but instead to cement Sheamus on the path of greatness. Just like his RR victory was done to help reinforce the idea that he's one of the best today.

If everyone would have cheered Sheamus for squashing DB, they would have been ecstatic that their rebuild had worked. It's welcoming to look at the rebellious response as a bunch of know-it-alls being worked. So I can see why you'd want to believe that but unfortunately, I just think you're seeing what we want to see.

 

[GrandSword]

You are giving WWE astronomical credit here, they have no clue what they are generally doing. Their plan was to build Bryan as a chicken **** heel and Hunter's boy, Sheamus to beat him and become a bigger star

The fans said "Hell no!" to that and totally **** on Sheamus the day after, its the reason he won the RR, its the reason he won in 18 seconds, to look great and dominating, except the fans were having none of that, and instead cheered the other guy.

Like Meltzer said, the fans stole Raw and WM in general, they didnt care one bit was Cena was saying. They took a giant **** on their RR winner and new World Heavyweight Champion.

Its a classic example of WWE missing the boat and the fans saying "to hell with your champions!"

This is the correct answer. Creative booked Bryan as this slimey guy who is able to weasle his way out of a title loss. So they thought Sheamus kicking his head off and pinning him would do two things.

1. Give a big pop for their new guy they are pushing, and get everyone behind him.

2. Have the fans be happy that Bryan finally got what was coming to him.

None of this happened.. what did .. read above. Sorry OP but why would the WWE want us to have sympathy for him? No one's being worked, the fans have caught onto the simplest of catch phrases thanks to Bryan's great play of it, and we've got ourselves a new "hero". Creative had nothing to do with it.

 

[#Zombienatureboy]

I can't buy into the fact that since DB's introduction into WWE that VKM and creative have been building towards this for the IWC. No way. I think it's more plausible that they wanted DB to job the belt away in 18 seconds to put Sheamus over and make him look like an unstoppable force, but the smarky Miami crowd didn't like it.

Interesting to see what happens with DB now. What do you do with him? He's basically transcended his character. People want to like him. They want to cheer for him.

But he is a heel. I think the worst thing VKM could do is turn him face! Hope not. Best thing is just to keep him heel and see how this plays out with the fans. Print up some yes yes yes t-shirts and start making some cash off of all this.

But, to me anyway, VKM has never seemed to like the heel who is so over he gets cheers from the fans. Like Christian before he went to TNA. He was over. He got cheers. VKM didn't like that. Buried Christian.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Members of the IWC continue to overreact to the reaction from Monday night. Bryan is this month's Zach Ryder. A guy who gets a temporary big reaction from masochistic smarks who want no more than to be able to say, "I knew Daniel Bryan was awesome before anyone else". Eventually these smarks are going to get tired of him as soon as WWE starts to give these fans what they seem to want. It is not an organic reaction to the real ability of a Superstar and it is not good for the wrestler or business in the long run.

WWE has found a guy who can get shuffled in and out of the main event here and there for awhile but I expect "Yes! Yes! Yes!" will have a longer shelf life than Daniel Bryan's popularity.

In summary, the WWE doesn't know what they are doing. They created something that is catching them by surprise. I think they wanted the 18 second loss to be something to carry in to the next few WMs not the next night. Now they have a nerdy white boy whose popularity will ebb and flow for the next few months, DB and the WWE won't be able to continue his consistent heat at all as they work in front of different towns. Their best bet is to move him to Raw to give the fans the illusion that he is worth caring about to see what they can get out of it but then he would just sit behind the top guys like he has been most of his WWE career.

 

[mrkingofworld]

I've never been a huge Daniel Bryan fan. Despite that, I can honestly say that what you are trying to tell us is absolutely wrong on every account. You think that D-bry's entire career in WWE has been a huge work? That the WWE was expecting this to happen and it is all going according to their master plan? That they have been purposely pissing off the fans for the past 2 YEARS so that it can lead to this very moment? WOW!

What you are saying is similar to someone buying a lottery ticket for $2.00 evreyday for 2 years (about $1500 total) because they know that 2 years down the road they will hit a $1000 winner. Makes no sense.

Truth is, WWE hardly knows what they are doing 6 months down the road let alone 2 years. And honestly, they shouldn't have to worry about it.

 

[mr.wrestling iv]

This is the correct answer. Creative booked Bryan as this slimey guy who is able to weasle his way out of a title loss. So they thought Sheamus kicking his head off and pinning him would do two things.

1. Give a big pop for their new guy they are pushing, and get everyone behind him.

2. Have the fans be happy that Bryan finally got what was coming to him.

None of this happened.. what did .. read above. Sorry OP but why would the WWE want us to have sympathy for him? No one's being worked, the fans have caught onto the simplest of catch phrases thanks to Bryan's great play of it, and we've got ourselves a new "hero". Creative had nothing to do with it.

Amen.

According to the story they had been telling, Sheamus gave the heel who weaseled his way out of title match after title match after title match his just do. Could they had booked a match that least went ten minutes? Of course, if you scrapped the Diva Tag Team Match and gave the time to them it would had come across a whole lot better. But nope. Sheamus caught Bryan napping. One, two, three. Bryan loses. Sheamus moves on to his six month reign by the looks of things, or at least until Barrett comes back, wins Money in the Bank and we move on to him. WWE didn't book that 18 second match to rile up smart marks. They weren't thinking "The next night Bryan will receive a great reaction from the crowd." They have been booking Sheamus to be the destroyer of worlds for months. That's their boy now. Period.

WWE doesn't deserve credit for something they didn't intend on doing. And besides, as we are constantly told we IWC people make up 10% of the entire wrestling audience so unless that 10% flocked to Miami during Wrestlemania weekend and Monday Night Raw, the point of the poster of this thread made isn't valid at all. Maybe, just maybe, the Universe didn't appreciate an 18 second match. Maybe the Universe is capable of thinking of there own, and maybe people who are not marks, internet fans and super marks weren't fans of the way Sheamus became champion in the first place.

Just a thought.

 

[XXJJ]

This reminds me of Rydermania last year. It will die down after a couple of months of over the top hype. I'm sure if will be huge at Extreme Rules with the smarky Chicago crowd.

Daniel Bryan was booked to finally get what was coming to him. The way he has treated AJ, the stuff he was saying about Big Show, getting a bunch of cheap wins. It was kind of like when CM Punk cashed in MITB on Edge.... Edge had it coming to him. That was the type of feel they were going for. It wasn't a way to make Sheamus look dominant. It they wanted Sheamus to look dominant they could of had him squash DB in a 3 minute match.

But the smarks got offended that their golden boy jobbed in 18 seconds. A lot of fans will now jump on the "Daniel Bryan got screwed" bandwagon, and will continue the chants because its the "cool" thing to do. Eventually it will die down.

Vince is already printing up "Yes" shirts. I love that people think chanting "Yes" is a big Fuck u to Vince. Yet they are buying tickets and will be buying overpriced merchandise... Do you think Vince is really upset? He is planning to make money off this.

 

[Merkin353]

Yes, Vince McMahon is making money off of this but if you really think that making money is all that is on McMahons mind you're a fool... He has an ego & it's pretty big from what I've heard & wanted this to work I'm sure... (GrandSword & Nada said it best) He cannot be the genius he thinks he is without doing things right... At least at WrestleMania... With that being said, this is how the attitude era began... We are getting tired of PG & want our moneys worth...

 

[dman1373]

its pretty much him forcing his way in. They keep on knocking him down, but he is so over cause his talent and past that they really cant. They did the same thing with kaval, but he just wasn't able to get that over so they cut him. They cut tons of people down, it doesn't mean there working us. I think wwe (or a certain son inlaw in wwe) thinks that you have to cut someone down when there over to see if they can get over again. Which is the stupidest thing ever. It just so happens that with the crowd that was at mania and raw, they couldn't cut daniel bryan down, and the crowd got pissed that they tried and got him more over.

 

[deslok]

I've been watching since 1984. I don't get the appeal of some of these newer folks, daniel Bryan included. Ryder? I'd rather see him job to Barry Horrowitz.
Either way, I always thought the "what"chants ruined good promos. I hope the yes thing doesn't end up doing that, but I'm sure it will. Wrestling has a buzz again though, no matter what you think of him Daniel Bryan is a part of that.