Daniel Bryan's MIC Skills....

[L@RISANO]

Have been reading through comments by wrestling fans on other sites, and whilst there are many D-Bry supporters all around, there are a few who don't support him as well.
However, in the middle-ground, there are those who believe that whilst he is brilliant in the ring, his MIC Skills leave a lot to be desired.
We have seen quite a few times, John Cena talking for Daniel Bryan and basically doing promos for him. Cena also did the same for a certain Zack Ryder...

My observation during the Authority storyline was that D-Bry never seemed to get over HHH or Steph in the promos. He was buried too easily in that aspect. That is not something a Face of the company should be associated with.

Is Daniel Bryan's apparent lack of MIC Skills his weak point and is it the reason that WWE is not keen enough to make him the FACE of the Company for a certain time until the others are ready(Reigns,Langston,Ambrose,etc.)?

Note: I have said in many threads that I would love for Daniel Bryan to Main Event Wrestlemania this year AND next year(vs Roman Reigns). But this is just a matter I observed and felt it would be an interesting discussion.

 

[Lockwoja02]

I think the vast majority of the IWC are massive fans of Bryan's work in the ring. I too am within that group. The problem with Bryan in the eyes of the wwe is his size. In my view, if say, wade barrett became as over as Daniel Bryan is/was in the same situation with the Yes chants, Barrett would of had a long title reign and would be consistently pushed by the machine because he would have the size, the skills and the ring work. Just been good at one of these three major aspects isn't good enough to be a main eventer. I wouldn't say Bryan's mic skills are amazing, but they are good enough to keep him steady, coupled with his control over the audience via the yes/no chants. The man doesn't have the size, the buy rates were down in most instances whilst he held the reigns (no pun intended) until cena returned from injury, but I believe he will return to the pinnacle and stay there. Or at least, I hope.

 

[The Yes Guy]

Not Really. I don't think it is his mic skills which limit him.
And I don't agree with u that WWE is not making him the face of the company. He's the most over guy in WWE right now. He gets in main events constantly. If u want him to be the champion all the time, then Sorry. That ain't happening. He, like Punk, has reached a level where he no longer needs the Championship on him. So that is out of the question.

Now, on to your question. I agree he's not a C M Punk or a Jericho or hell, even Cena is better. But this doesn't make him a bad speaker. He's delivered some great promos with Cena and with Kane.

The problem I find is, when he's with someone like HHH, he suffers badly. The thing is that DB cannot carry mediocre talkers with him. So someone like Orton or HHH will make him look like a bad speaker.

So the bottomline is that when he's with good, intense speakers, he is good.

 

[faltemer]

His mic skills I find to be lackluster at best. he stumbles over his words way too much, and has a tendency to repeat himself within the same promo. He just doesn't display the confidence on the mic that I think is necessary. With confidence people can get on the mic and speak nonsensical stuff, and as long as they remain confident, it'll sound decent at worst. His ring work, while I enjoy isn't up to the level where I would say that alone would draw me personally (Whereas HBK always could do so). Finally, not his size persay, but his look is pretty dreadful. Not saying ugly, buy just unmarketable. Same with Punk. Say what you will about Cena but he has the looks of marketability. Movie stars and TV stars alike, generally are very attractive clean cut. They aren't bearded or tatted up. There really isn't anything they can do about that, and is why, no matter how much the complaints rain down, Cena is their man.

Regarding size, I feel people have some misconception. Size matters, because to casuals and kids, size is a big thing. Cena vs big show is david vs goliath, but at a semi reasonable level. When you get to men like Bryan and Punk, for the above mentioned groups you have to put much more work building them as a serious threat before they can threaten the big men. With UFC, MMA, etc so big right now people are well aware of the weight classes in those sports, and transfer some of that to wrestling. If you constantly put out unbelievable feats of ability with no real reasoning behind them, people get put off.

 

[DietPepsiRocks]

what I dont understand is the people that say he has crappy mic skills and that he doesn't have charisma or a personality. Were they not watching him when he was with Team Hell No? that was the most entertaining thing about 2012 and the early part of 2013. Did they not see him being a comedian and super funny and did they not see his awesome promos when he was WHC? I don't get how people can call DB boring or that he lacks personality. How can people say that? How can you watch him back then and call him lackluster and that he doesn't have a personality? He showed he has more charisma than most on the roster, I think the people that call him lackluster are just Bryan haters. Which there seem to be a lot of lately. As to the poster above me, you think a bearded wrestler is unmarketable? what kind of marketing have you done? Respect the Beard isn't marketable? so Duck Dynasty isn't popular?

 

[Reflection]

In my opinion, we should not expect everyone to be on John Cena or CM Punk or Damien Sandow's level in terms of mic skills... because if we do, we will feel that their skills are inadequate. Daniel Bryan on the mic, although not exceptional, says what he has to, and gets the job done. He is more like on the level of Alberto Del Rio, Christopher Daniels and Batista in that aspect, which is not bad by any means. Plus he has got his trademark chants, so he doesn't need to do too much talking to engage the crowd. He can speak a few lines and then ask a question like "Do you think Randy deserves to be champion?" And the crowd will respond with "No! No! No!" "How about Daniel Bryan facing Undertaker for the streak?" "Yes! Yes! Yes!" and so on... He certainly doesn't need John Cena to do the talking for him.

 

[faltemer]

what I dont understand is the people that say he has crappy mic skills and that he doesn't have charisma or a personality. Were they not watching him when he was with Team Hell No? that was the most entertaining thing about 2012 and the early part of 2013. Did they not see him being a comedian and super funny and did they not see his awesome promos when he was WHC? I don't get how people can call DB boring or that he lacks personality. How can people say that? How can you watch him back then and call him lackluster and that he doesn't have a personality? He showed he has more charisma than most on the roster, I think the people that call him lackluster are just Bryan haters. Which there seem to be a lot of lately. As to the poster above me, you think a bearded wrestler is unmarketable? what kind of marketing have you done? Respect the Beard isn't marketable? so Duck Dynasty isn't popular?

Periods and capitalization is cool I heard.

On a serious note, I expressed my opinions, which contrary to what you are saying are simply that. An opinion. Not a fact, and not something everyone shares.

As for team hell no and WHC, in neither did I find him overly charismatic and as far as mic skills his talking as part of team hell no were very short segments, and were generally taped. I simply don't find him interesting on the stick. I'm not a hater, and considering that's your fallback arguement it's clear you really like Daniel Bryan, like a lot. That's fine, but that means you simply cannot understand people that do not. The fact that you just picked out the word marketing, and then didn't read anything else is indicative of your whole nature.

A. Duck Dynasty is a reality show and thus caters to a different market.
B. Bearded is one thing, a beard as big as his, plus the long hair is pushing it.
C. Clearly respect the beard is marketable, but to a degree. It hasn't outsold Cena otherwise we would have heard. Which means the "hottest" wrestler in the world can't outsell the "stale and boring" Cena when they make a shirt specifically designed to be marketable.
D. If you want to see marketable look at the marque stars of each Era. Hogan was an icon, and looked the part of the ripped "hulkster". Micheals wasn't known as the heartbreak kid for nothing. Austin and Rock while rocking (no pun intended) quite different looks were either similar to the target demographic (austin) or were catching the eyes of the ladies. And cena is a poster boy for clean cut American now with good morals. AKA the target demographic. When you learn what the word marketing means, then maybe we can discuss this further.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

When it comes to mic work, Daniel Bryan isn't the best I've ever heard. At the same time, however, a LOT of people have unreasonable expectations when it comes to cutting promos. For instance, how many times have you read a post in which someone constantly tries to compare modern wrestlers with guys like The Rock, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Stone Cold or any other guy they grew up watching who was a major player. The vast majority of the time, those posts essentially bury the modern guy for not being like the guy that they grew up with. Maybe he genuinely isn't as good on the mic, which is true sometimes, and sometimes that sense of nostalgia isn't there.

I'm not worried about Daniel Bryan trying to be like The Rock, Stone Cold, CM Punk or whomever. Much of the time, on the mic, Bryan feels more authentic in a lot of ways. He's not over the top, he doesn't mix in a ton of catchphrases into his promos, he mostly is just himself. I can understand if that seems dull and lackluster to some people because, after all, wrestling is full of over the top gimmicks.

At the same time, however, you generally have to look at the results. Bryan's approach might not be what we're used to, but it's obviously working. He's extremely over, fans rally behind him and they hang on whatever he says during his promos. I think he's at his best when he's cutting an intense, passionate promo, however. I remember when he was eliminated from the original NXT back in 2010 and he cut a "shoot" promo on Michael Cole in the ring that people popped huge for. If I recall, Bryan called him "a poor man's Jim Ross" and it was the most memorable promo cut during NXT in my opinion.

Bryan can be very strong on the mic because I've seen him do it. At the same time, what he's doing right now looks to be working. To be fair though, I think he'd have a much harder time if he wasn't as good in the ring as he is.

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

I think Bryan isn't all that bad on the mic but his "YES" gimmick really limits him.

His promo with Cena before SS was great.

HHH and Steph burying him on the mic was terrible. They were burying him as a person, for his size / his looks rather than burying Bryan as a performer and that's BS!

WWE didn't drop the ball on Bryan, they took the ball and dropped it as hard as they can on the ground.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

There's nothing wrong with Bryan's mic skills. Is he one of the elite? No. But he can cut a decent promo and he has plenty of personality.

Bryan is a HBK/Bret Hart kind of performer. Not a larger than life wrestler motherfucker like Steve Austin or Hulk Hogan.

 

[Mustang Sally]

His mic skills are okay. Remember, he's playing a role; that of the underdog, the little guy trying to come out on top. During the Tell Hell No backstage program, he played the same role.... the small guy who shouted with frustration and paranoia that he was regarded as the weak link of the team. It was hardly designed to be inspiring, it was supposed to be entertaining.....and it was.

Now, he appears to have been on course for the world title, but the Authority has taken the chance away from him and kept him down. Again, remember that this is a program, not a demotion. He's still as much in the spotlight as he was when battling John Cena for the world belt. He gets featured matches at PPVs and tons of air time on Raw and Smackdown.

There are several members of this forum that insist Daniel is being shunted aside because he isn't the world champion. That's ridiculous: first, he isn't (yet) champ because that's the way the storyline is designed, and at any rate, pro wrestlers aren't rewarded with championships; they're rewarded with money and ring time.....both of which Daniel Bryan is surely getting plenty.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

I'm in the middle ground, I like Bryan... I like his work in the ring. There are some people that worship it, I don't, I think he could be a little crisper out there, he's kind of all over the place but I guess that's what fits him so I won't complain.

His mic skills aren't all THAT bad, when he was in the program with John Cena he pulled weight, maybe not all of it, and I don't really think he got the better of Cena but it certainly wasn't terrible. It was pretty good.

Here's what worries me though about his mic skills... what he's said since the start of the Summer has more or less been the same. About him having to overcome everything, about people thinking he can't win the title, the authority, he's been playing the ultimate underdog and has been doing okay with it, but there's going to come a time where he's going to have to evolve from that. He may have to do it already, I mean if you've proven you can beat Orton and Cena... are you still an underdog?

I just wonder if he can sound convincing and interesting on the mic playing a different role.

 

[BigThunder]

No, he's not Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, or Mic Foley. But he's much better than his detractors give him credit for; he's very very smart, and he knows exactly what to say to get the response he wants and make that audience connection that puts him over, be it portraying himself as an underdog, an abusive underconfident boyfriend, or some of the most hysterically funny guest commentary (on Saturday Morning Slam no less) I've ever heard.

He's not a person you want when you're looking for someone to cut a twenty minute Rock-style promo, But in getting his character over and setting up a match, he's very, very good.

 

[DietPepsiRocks]

Those saying that he'll actually win the championship are wrong.....Sources everywhere are saying that Batista is going to win the Rumble and beat Orton for the title, and that he'll hold onto it until next summer...probably losing it to Reigns or Langston, while Bryan will be left in the dust...this storyline isn't to put him over, it's to cast him aside. They only give us Bryan to appease the fans and make them shut up...they have no intentions of ever giving him a title reign..Look for him to face a washed up Kane at Mania....in a nothing match..I've lost all hope! For some reason, they just aren't high on him, but the rest of society is...Go figure! Everyone praises his work from JR, to Stone Cold, to Booker T, to Bret Hart, to Shawn Michaels, to Mick Foley, they all like his work, but Vince McMahon, not so much. You can tell in the booking..He's high on Reigns and Langston, not high on Bryan....those other two guys weren't booked to be a loser. It became more apparent when Big Show was put in his place and Vince told him to steal his Yes chant....

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Hysterical ranting aside, Daniel Bryan is one of the top entertainers in wrestling today. WWE will be putting the strap on him again if his merchandise keeps selling the way it has and WWE has shown that they are big on him regardless of what kayfabe story fans are clearly buying into that has him "held down". He's been booked solidly against the hottest new commodity WWE has going and is featured in every show since then. Saying he won't be a champion again is ridiculous at this point.

He can get a crowd going while on the microphone. That is all the skill he needs. He doesn't have to bring the house down with multiple catchphrases are curse out his opponents to make people care about him.

 

[DietPepsiRocks]

We're not exaggerating when we say the WWE isn't high on him....Look at nearly every show now, Bryan is beat down and made to look weak...He only looks strong in matches. Outside the ring, he's booked weak. Wyatts sent him off a loading dock last week on SD, to have Langston (the guy Vince likes) to replace him in the main event..That should tell you all you need to know right there. And all the reports say Big E and Roman Reigns will have a huge 2014....Bryan has no big 2014 rumors going off anywhere. He's the forgotten man! I don't know how you guys don't see it, they're not high on him.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

We're not exaggerating when we say the WWE isn't high on him....Look at nearly every show now, Bryan is beat down and made to look weak...He only looks strong in matches. Outside the ring, he's booked weak. Wyatts sent him off a loading dock last week on SD, to have Langston (the guy Vince likes) to replace him in the main event..That should tell you all you need to know right there. And all the reports say Big E and Roman Reigns will have a huge 2014....Bryan has no big 2014 rumors going off anywhere. He's the forgotten man! I don't know how you guys don't see it, they're not high on him.

I am inclined to agree but I am still crossing my fingers that won't happen moving forward. Bryan connects to the audience on a level Langston/Reigns have not yet.

He's been fine on the mic and convincing enough to carry a top feud. And with his work in recent years with Kane, Big Show, AJ, Punk, and Mark Henry he's been consistent with his promos even doing a good job being comedic in one month, and serious after reminding me a lot of Kurt Angle.

I think there's a ton of detractors with his mic skills. And I can't help but feel it's because his wrestling skills and indy roots over shadowed how he was able to get over just by creating a character for himself.

Or maybe its the preconceived assumption that a talent with great in ring skills and Indy background means they do not have good mic skills. Which seems to be branded on Bryan since his WWE debut.

It's the same preconception when a female talent who does not look like your typical diva joins the roster. People will immediately think she has great in ring skills even with a small sample set (which some turned out to be subpar matches).

 

[DietPepsiRocks]

his booking has been shady all over the place. First Big Show plays his protective older sibling, and now John Cena is...did they not see tapes of him in ROH before hiring him? he can kick major butt. He doesn't need protection or for someone to fight his battles for him. I wish he could be allowed to cut an awesome promo like, "oh yeah? you think i'm an ugly troll with no personality? Well, I have the hottie, and I'm going to marry her, so Orton, what do you have?" that would be epic! In real life, he has everything better than Orton...Orton might be genetically gifted and better looking, but Bryan has the awesome relationship, the hottie, and the respect from the fans. If legends of the sport like Stone Cold wonder why he isn't champion, then you know that Vince is losing it!
I still don't get how Orton can't beat Bryan clean, are they doing that for a reason? Because if Bryan isn't winning the title ever, then why are they having Orton not be able to beat him?
And after watching Tribute to the Troops, Bryan opened and closed the show with the whole roster doing his chant....so by the booking it looks like they aren't high on him, then they make him the center of the Troops show....so I can't tell anymore. Its too back and forth. The Wyatts feud is beneath him.

 

[L@RISANO]

With the rumoured Cena vs Wyatt programme going around. I wouldn't be surprised if Daniel Bryan is gradually moved back into the Main Event programme.
I don't think WWE will put a Batista vs Orton Main Event match,at least not a 1-on-1 match which majority of the WWE universe has very little interest in at this time.

As for a match with Kane...why would they have a match? Kane basically forgot he was destoryed by the Wyatts...what grudge does he have with D-Bry at this time? I doubt Kane will even have a match at WM, rather he might be an obstacle in CM Punk's journey to fighting HHH at WM.