It's a popular myth that Daniel Bryan wasn't over before the "Yes!" gimmick. He was. Very over. He was by and far the most significant thing to come out of the first season of NXT and was very over with the fans - as a 'serious wrestler'. You remember: he ran down Michael Cole, sparking that whole heel turn, then got fired, and "Daniel Bry-an!" chants closed out a pay-per-view.
What happened? Writing happened. The two pronged fork of shitty writing and The Bella Twins to be exact. Two problems - The Bella Twins (who I'm sure are great sex, Messrs. Bryan and Cena, just not great television) and vanilla face syndrome. If you've read Chris Jericho's book (the good first one, not the boring second one) then you'll have read how your heart drops when you're handed "vanilla babyface" and tasked with getting over. In short, it's like being handed a bucket of ice and asked to start a house fire. Daniel Bryan became infamous for sportsmanship, competitiveness and, um, smiling. Essentially, he was given exposure without being given an outlet for his personality, and so his heat died out in such a way that you could put the blame on him.
Then, oh, he's given the world title, given an outlet for his personality and this bizarre thing happens - he gets over again. This was before he was a goatface, before he had yelling matches with Kane and before he had a best-selling t-shirt. He was still a 'serious wrestler', he just had a personality. He got so over that he was more popular than the actual babyface he was facing at WrestleMania, and it was his chant which interrupted The fucking Rock. "Yes!" chants were systematically removed from SmackDown for weeks on end - because no getting over without permission, damn it! Bryan, as a 'serious wrestler', had one of the best matches - and biggest crowd reactions - of the year against Sheamus at Extreme Rules.
Bryan didn't get over as a comedy wrestler. He got over, then became a comedy wrestler, and has remained over. Because it's a good gimmick. But it shouldn't be forever. It's already worn out its welcome for me, fond as I was of it for the first few, well, months. There's a future for Daniel Bryan, and it shouldn't be as a Santino 2.0 who always takes the pin so fucking Kane doesn't have to look bad. He's better than that; he's proved he's better than that. Let's not pretend that becoming a 'serious wrestler' (yes, those inverted commas are staying put) is a death sentence.