How WWE should've handled Daniel Bryan's title reign.

[f_roEDGE]

I have always said that in wrestling, as long as you have a little wrestling skill, you can be a huge star. Even if you can't promo to save your life, or even if you don't have 'the look', you can still be pushed as a huge star. It all depends on the writing.

Now, it's no secret that ever since Daniel Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, interest in him has waned. It's sad because many of his supporters in the IWC have abandoned him.

But is it because Daniel Bryan is a bad champion?? No. Not at all. He was scheduled to fight Kane while Evolution is taking up the spotlight. The result is a myriad of pretty boring television, and more importantly a pretty boring title reign for Daniel Bryan.

So how should the WWE have handled Daniel Bryan's title reign? Here's how I would've booked it:

-

RAW April 7th - Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan. The Shield interferes on Bryan's behalf, exactly like what happened.

RAW April 14th - Daniel Bryan not at Raw. Triple H sets up himself vs. Daniel Bryan to a final no-DQ match at Extreme Rules. As for tonight, he will team with Orton and Batista to take on the Shield. If the Shield loses, they are banned from ringside for that title match. The Shield wins.

RAW April 21st - Daniel Bryan cuts a promo to start the show. Stephanie interrupts and says that DB will not make it to Extreme Rules, because right now, he'll have to defend the WWE Title against Kane (who was masked the previous week). DB wins when Kane goes too far and gets himself DQ'd. Later on, Triple H says that after Kane's vicious attack, he likes his chances, but has to find a way to convince the Shield not to interfere in the title match at Extreme Rules. So Stephanie tells the Shield that if they don't interfere, one of them will be the next in line for the WWE Title. While Reigns and Rollins aren't sure what to think, Ambrose says they will think about it. Reigns and Rollins are surprised by his answer.

RAW April 28th - In a pre-taped segment, Daniel Bryan talks about finally living his dream as WWE Champ, and says that regardless of what the Shield decides, he will overcome the odds and retain. Later on, Batista & Orton get into it with the Shield backstage. Triple H is pissed at them, as he wants to be on the Shield's good side. So, to ingratiate himself with the Shield, he schedules Batista and Orton vs. Rollins and Reigns. With Ambrose on commentary, JBL, Lawler and Cole actually do some good commentary and talk to him about whether or not the Shield will take Stephanie's offer. Ambrose says it has been his dream to become WWE Champ, but never gives a definite answer. The Shield wins by pinning Orton, and Raw goes off the air with Stephanie and Trips clapping for their victory. Batista looks pissed off.

EXTREME RULES May 4th - Batista and Orton challenge the Shield to a rematch backstage, and they accept. Triple H get pissed again and Stephanie tells them to lie down and give the win to the Shield. As Trips and Steph walk off, Orton and Batista look at each other angry. Batista and Orton choose to fight, but The Shield wins by pinning Batista this time.

During the title match, we get interference from Batista and Orton. The fans chant for the Shield, but they don't show up. Triple H delivers a pedigree and goes for the pin, but Daniel Bryan kicks out. Triple H gets ready for another one, but the Shield finally shows up and clears Batista and Orton from the ring. DB hits the Knee Plus and defends the title. As Daniel Bryan looks to celebrate, the Shield look disappointed, scowling at Bryan, and then walk off without celebrating.

From here on the Shield would separate themselves from Bryan, and Orton and Batista would separate themselves from Trips, leading to a four way war for the WWE Championship.

Now, if Daniel Bryan is injured, you have a back-up plan. This way, Triple H, Batista, Orton, Ambrose and Reigns would all be well suited candidates to take the vacant title.

-

THIS IS WHAT SHOULD'VE HAPPENED, AND IS BETTER THAN THIS BORING EVOLUTION CRAP. Builds all three members of the Shield as potential title contenders, and keeps Daniel Bryan's title reign relevant through his dad's passing and going forward.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[TheICChampion]

Well, regardless of how it could've been, the fact is Daniel Bryan is now out for at least a few months. So, while I agree with building up the Shield, what would they be doing right now since Bryan is injured? Oh, that's right. Setting up their match vs. Evolution at Payback.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

I agree with Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H at Extreme Rules. That was the way to go.

But I think instead of building up Batista/Orton as unlikely allies, I would've had them settle their beef in a one-on-one at Extreme Rules, for the #1 Contendership to the WWE Championship.

Kane could continue his feud with the Shield by doing what he does best: mind games. He tells them that they all won titles last year at Extreme Rules, but this year they'll all be fighting for one: Dean Ambrose's United States Championship. It will be Seth vs. Roman vs. Dean at ER.

Dean Ambrose retains by stealing a pin from Roman and pinning Seth. Daniel retains beating Triple H. And Batista wins and goes on to face Bryan at Payback.

With Bryan injured, the pitch would be to do Evolution/Shield at Payback, with Batista/Orton having beef and Roman/Dean having beef as well. "Which team will implode first?" Shield goes on to win, seemingly making up. But their breakup will be coming soon after Dean loses the title.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I can see both sides of it. Like most people, I would have preferred to see Bryan take on someone other than Kane. I like Kane, I think he's someone that hasn't gotten enough credit from a good number of fans, but he's at a point in his life where everyone knows that he's not gonna be the top dog. As a result, it would've been fun to see Bryan and Triple H go at it again one on one. All in all though, I thought the build up to Extreme Rules between Kane & Bryan was pretty solid and I thought they had a great match; much better than I was expecting.

As for The Shield vs. Evolution feud, I can't really complain too much about it. When you consider how over Bryan is and has been as a babyface and that The Shield was in the process of turning babyface, a strong argument can be made that The Shield needed a feud with Evolution more than Bryan needed a singles feud against a member of the group. If WWE was hoping to lay a strong foundation for The Shield as a babyface faction, mission accomplished. Since Bryan's on the shelf for the time being, WWE's essentially relying on The Shield to be the top babyfaces and they've risen to the occasion thus far. Like Daniel Bryan, The Shield have made the most of whatever opportunity they've been given.

WWE isn't interested in breaking The Shield up right now and considering the response they've gotten, it's looking to be the right move. I wasn't sure The Shield would be able to stay fresh and relevant by this time, but I was obviously wrong. There's money in The Shield as a babyface faction, I didn't think there would be but, again, I was obviously wrong.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

WWE has everyone's money for the next six months. They don't see any reason to give their fans bigish title matches. Putting Bryan up against HHH would have been better but if Bryan is a worthy champ he should be able to maintain his own heat for a while. This is art imitating our perceived life as we assume HHH is just hogging the spotlight and doesn't want to give DB a real chance as champion so he puts him in a feud with an outdated Kane in a corny storyline.

 

[RicSpade]

You can play the what if card all we want but were in the here and now and they have about 5 options they can go with...
1. Not have the title defended until Summerslam when hopefully Daniel Bryan comes back (3 months without a champion is a really long time though)
2. Stephanie makes the Elimination No holds Barred match for the title and it basically becomes and 6 pack challenge where Roman Reigns gets the title and splits from the Shield
3. Raw next week has a series of tag matches where the winners of the match has their payback match for the championship (could you imagine Bray and Cena teaming up for a chance to have their Last Man Standing match for the title?)
4. They award it to Kane and Kane has no one really to face because all the main roster is tied up So they do a #1 contenders at Payback.
5. Least likely to happen but we are heading to Chicago, Bryan goes to drop the belt but says he has found a challenger for the Big Red Monster at Payback for the title out comes CM Punk they continue that feud from Royal Rumble which is more viable because Corporate Kane could've lost to 3MB Punk gets the title in his hometown which sends them home happy and then can set up for a possible Daniel bryan vs CM Punk at Summerslam or he holds the title until WM and Main events against someone special.

Can't change how they handled it, but this could be how they solve it.

 

[MrJay]

Okay, so first we're going to bitch about the WWE not giving Bryan the title, now that he's got it we're going to bitch about how they've handled it? And you wonder why the IWC gets such a bad rap. Jesus, some of you are never satisfied.

 

[f_roEDGE]

Okay, so first we're going to bitch about the WWE not giving Bryan the title, now that he's got it we're going to bitch about how they've handled it? And you wonder why the IWC gets such a bad rap. Jesus, some of you are never satisfied.

I wouldn't be a wrestling fan if all I ever wanted was to see a promotion put the strap on someone. That's not what this is about.

This is about building a credible champion and challengers for the future. The fact that right now, there's not one new guy that is a sensible pick to hold the title is pathetic.

Back in the early 2000s, there were a buttload of new guys you could put the strap on. From Benoit, to Jericho, to Angle, to Brock, to Eddie...any of them would've been a sensible pick had somebody been injured. Not only that, there were several fresh main eventers like Rock and Austin, who had only won their first title in the late 90's.

But now? Reigns is ALMOST ready, and that's it. Cena, Batista and Orton won their first titles almost a decade ago, and each had many reigns. Trips is even worse. They're boring now.

This thread is about how the WWE should've been building Bryan as a mainstay in the main event, not about them simply giving him the strap.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

Okay, so first we're going to bitch about the WWE not giving Bryan the title, now that he's got it we're going to bitch about how they've handled it? And you wonder why the IWC gets such a bad rap. Jesus, some of you are never satisfied.

So, our team scores a goal to get the lead, and that's what we want, then out team gets scored a goal. Of course we will bitch for another one.
Same here. We scored with Bryan getting the title, but Kane vs Bryan was us getting scored. We need another one now.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

So, our team scores a goal to get the lead, and that's what we want, then out team gets scored a goal. Of course we will bitch for another one.
Same here. We scored with Bryan getting the title, but Kane vs Bryan was us getting scored. We need another one now.

Who else would you have had facing Bryan? WWE wanted to push "Evolution" as a thing again so they put their 3 top heels against The Shield. That left Kane as the sole member of the Authority left for Bryan, unless you wanted Brad Maddox to wrestle him.

If they had had Bryan faced anyone else, you would've bitched the same. Who are the heels that are left? Cesaro, Bad News Barrett, The Miz, Jack Swagger, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow, Brodus Clay, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Fandango, David Otunga, JTG, Titus O'Neil, Curt Hawkins, 3MB, Rusev....

None of those guys were even close to a main event push. The closest would be Cesaro, but even he isn't ready. Bryan making Cesaro tap does nothing for either of their careers.

You should be happy Daniel got to main event with Kane. The main event could have easily been Evolution vs. Shield.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

Who else would you have had facing Bryan? WWE wanted to push "Evolution" as a thing again so they put their 3 top heels against The Shield. That left Kane as the sole member of the Authority left for Bryan, unless you wanted Brad Maddox to wrestle him.

If they had had Bryan faced anyone else, you would've bitched the same. Who are the heels that are left? Cesaro, Bad News Barrett, The Miz, Jack Swagger, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow, Brodus Clay, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Fandango, David Otunga, JTG, Titus O'Neil, Curt Hawkins, 3MB, Rusev....

None of those guys were even close to a main event push. The closest would be Cesaro, but even he isn't ready. Bryan making Cesaro tap does nothing for either of their careers.

You should be happy Daniel got to main event with Kane. The main event could have easily been Evolution vs. Shield.

They could have easily pushed back Evolution vs the Shield a bit. They should have HHH vs Bryan at Extreme Rules, so that his momentum keeps going, then Orton vs Bryan for his rematch and maybe even Batista vs Bryan, seeing as Batista never got his one on one match for the title.

After all of those three are defeated, they try to unite to take Bryan down, but the Shield comes out, setting up the feud. We already have passed MitB at this point and we get Evo-Shield for Battleground going into Summerslam and Bryan will most probably get Lesnar, or someone like Kane at that point. The main thing here is that Bryan should have been kept hot, in a hot storyline after WM, not a feud with Kane.

In the meanwhile, the Shield could enter some sort of feud with Paul Heyman guys, or go after the tag titles.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

They could have easily pushed back Evolution vs the Shield a bit. They should have HHH vs Bryan at Extreme Rules, so that his momentum keeps going, then Orton vs Bryan for his rematch and maybe even Batista vs Bryan, seeing as Batista never got his one on one match for the title.

After all of those three are defeated, they try to unite to take Bryan down, but the Shield comes out, setting up the feud. We already have passed MitB at this point and we get Evo-Shield for Battleground going into Summerslam and Bryan will most probably get Lesnar, or someone like Kane at that point. The main thing here is that Bryan should have been kept hot, in a hot storyline after WM, not a feud with Kane.

In the meanwhile, the Shield could enter some sort of feud with Paul Heyman guys, or go after the tag titles.

I also wanted to see Triple H/Bryan at Extreme Rules, but there are other things we have to consider. Maybe Triple H isn't in shape to work so many singles matches. He once said that at his age, working 1 Mania feels like he's getting run over by a truck. And heaven knows how gassed Batista gets working a singles match.

It probably took a lot of thought into reviving Evolution. Merchandise, marketing, focus groups, they all probably thought Evolution coming back was a good idea. If they felt that it would make them the most money going into Extreme Rules, there are some sacrifices to be made.

In my opinion, they should have dumped the stupid Bray/Cena feud and had Bryan beat Bray Wyatt once and for all in a grudge match at ER. It would have been simple enough to do it. Have Cena gloat about beating Bray, say he's ready for the World title main event. Bray comes out, says that he doesn't care about titles, but he cares about breaking John Cena, so he challenges him to a rematch and winner gets the shot at the title. Bray wins and moves onto a great grudge feud with Bryan.

But of course that would leave the golden boy without something to do and we can't have that!

 

[sauravnation]

titles are what we want..if we could do anything..thats probably bcoz of titles

 

[Franchize1990]

It's not a bad idea but, at the same time, I think the WWE has handled Daniel Bryan's title reign as well as they possibly could given his situation over the past couple of months. The reason that Bryan's reign hasn't been a dream run is largely due to circumstances out of Bryan's and the WWE's control. 2nd Raw after WrestleMania was his honeymoon, then the very next week he gets news that his father passes away. I'd like to think that he was in no condition to go out and cut any type of promo or compete that night. At Extreme Rules, he put on a better than expected match with Kane and we got the epic confrontation between Evolution and the Shield that did much more to put Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns over with the fans than the suggested scenario here. Again, I believe that we can credit Bryan's "lackluster" reign, which isn't officially over yet, to forces out of his control and just being plain unlucky.