Report: Why WWE Turned Bryan?

[Jack-Hammer]

Since Daniel Bryan unexpectedly turned on The Wyatt Family after two weeks, there's been speculation as to why it happened and what the point of it was. There's a report from F4WOnline.com that offers what MIGHT be the explanation.

According to the report, the plan was always to turn Daniel Bryan babyface, just not so soon. The exact details on how it'd happen hadn't been completely worked out, only that he was gonna turn back. One idea, allegedly, involved Bryan competing turning at Elimination Chamber leading to a match against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania. Another one involved Bryan at WrestleMania itself as a member in a match and then turning, resulting in what WWE hopes would have been a massive babyface response from the fans.

The report goes onto state that WWE officials were extremely embarrassed by footage they saw of a Michigan State crowd all chanting "Yes!" in unison. The footage has been a big impact online, has been shown on television with Bryan & WWE being mentioned due to the chant. The report states that WWE wanted to go with the "Daniel Wyatt" angle but as source alleges ""when you have a whole college arena doing "yes!" chants and most likely others will, plus NFL stars in the post-season doing it." As a result, WWE officials felt they had no choice but to quickly turn Bryan back.

If this is indeed accurate, I can't help but shake my head at the decision to turn Bryan heel in the first place. One reason why Vince sometimes gets so much crap is because, ultimately, the buck stops with him as he has the ultimate say-so in what goes on. Big crowds outside of wrestling have been doing the Daniel Bryan "Yes!" chant for months on end now at various sporting events. It's a choice like this that lends credence to claims from some fans and even some wrestlers that Vince McMahon is genuinely out of touch. People WANT to cheer for Daniel Bryan, they WANT to see him as a top level guy in WWE. His popularity isn't something that's just sprung up over night, but rather it's something that's been progressively building for the better part of 2 years; a popularity that I'm thinking Vince McMahon has VASTLY underestimated.

I could understand if WWE was really certain of his future as a heel at this point in time. If they genuinely thought that Bryan belonged as a heel, I'd get it. It'd still be a big mistake, but one that I could at least wrap my head around. IF this report is legit, however, then I can't help but shake my head at the incredulity of how flat out stupid Vince McMahon must've been. Again, if true, then it's as if Vince McMahon has had his eyes shut and ears plugged over the last 6 months especially. Does he not watch his own product and is he so genuinely out of touch that it takes footage of another big crowd, outside of wrestling, doing what big wrestling crowds have been doing for what feels like forever?

 

[Mustang Sally]

Does Vince McMahon) not watch his own product and is he so genuinely out of touch that it takes footage of another big crowd, outside of wrestling, doing what big wrestling crowds have been doing for what feels like forever?

One of the problems with being a micro-manager like Vince is that he's so busy looking at every little nitpicking thing that he can miss big things, especially ones that occur outside his realm. From what we read, McMahon is so involved in screaming at employees who make the slightest perceived mistake that more important things might be happening right in front of his face that he misses because he spends so much of his time in a purple rage.

Have to laugh at the Michigan State fans shouting "Yes!" in unison. First, that belies that belief that "no one" watches pro wrestling. Second, I've been ranting all along that Daniel Bryan appears more popular than he actually is....because of the chant. Don't get me wrong; I think he's terrific, and hot as a pistol right now, but a lot of it is because people simply like doing the chant......and that even when it isn't associated with Daniel (as in the college football game), it's a crowd-pleasing participation vehicle that, when being led by Daniel, adds mountains to the positive manner in which crowds perceive him.

This leads to another possible explanation as to why management un-Wyatted him so quickly: with Daniel functioning as a bad guy, the audience wasn't getting to yell "Yes!" ....and the chant is too popular to let drop in WWE, especially when it's being done in other places.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I would've liked to have seen the story play on because it was prolly the most interesting angle on TV for me. But, I am ok with the turn. Mania is almost here and they need to start getting Bryan ready again for what could be, an ME Championship match with Orton.

Now I dunno how Brock or Cena will fit into all this but let's see. To be honest, I'd like to see Cena Vs Bryan go again. Cena needs redemption, Bryan needs the strap; shit'll be good.

 

[bioshock]

I was watching that MSU game when it happened, I knew it wouldn't be long before WWE had to turn him, this is like the time when people in all sports started doing the "you cant see me" thing, the YES chants are going to become very popular in all the major sports in a matter of time, in fact every since that game at MSU that WWE shown, they do this for all their home games now usually when a player is at the FT line.

Not only that at what point does WWE finally need to put the belt on Bryan and make him the official new face of the company, this is a great chance for WWE to of created something that becomes popular around the sporting world.

But in the end, its a shame because I was interested to see where this storyline would of went, but I don't think Bray vs Bryan is the match we want for Wrestlemania.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

DB was way too hot to be turned heel in the first place. But when you do it, you gotta run with it. For him to be switched back 3 weeks later, w/o a payoff of any sort is a complete joke. The turn-back should have been saved for the Rumble at minimum. Nah- lets do it in a meaningless match on RAW with the Uso's of all people?? The Uso's. Think about that.

Poor Vince has lost his touch. He needs to quit overthinking everything all the time. Its embarrassing really.

 

[Bash@theBeach]

Morons.

He was turned because Chyna Jr and the Schnozz LaVeque don't like him. Plus, Vinnie Mac has a hard on for bigger, Batista type physiques. Not some, muscleless Bryan figure. It's so bad that they put him in Duke the Dumpster's old outfit just to cover up the physique and stench from Brie Bella.

 

[justinept]

Second, I've been ranting all along that Daniel Bryan appears more popular than he actually is....because of the chant.

I've always laughed at this notion that the Yes Chant is more over than Daniel Bryan. So what if it is? Can you say definitively that Austin's "Hell Yea" chant wasn't more over than Austin? Was "Suck It" more over than DX? How about Cena's "You Can't See Me?" These are three top performers (granted, DX is a group) whose popularity soared thanks to crowd-friendly call backs. How is that any different than what Daniel Bryan has done with the Yes Chant?

And don't tell me that it's different because the crowd chants YES at moments that have nothing to do with Bryan. The only reason the other chants weren't used in moments not involving those particular stars is because the WWE wouldn't allow it. And therein lies the complex with Daniel Bryan. The WWE doesn't protect his material in the same manner they protected the material of guys they actually wanted to be stars. See, it's not hard for a wrestler to elicit most long-running chants. Do a crotch chop, and the crowd would call back with a "Suck It." Ask the crowd to give you a "hell yea," and they would. Do the "you can't see me" hand gesture, and the crowd would call that back as well.

So why don't we see this? Why did Gangrel never do the "Suck It" crotch chop? Why couldn't Trish Stratus get more over by telling the crowd to give her a hell yea. Why can't Big E. Langston start doing the "You Can't See Me." The answer for all three is simple. It's because they're protected for DX, Steve Austin and John Cena.

But the "Yes Chant." Well, that's another story all together. In the two years since the WrestleMania 28 Raw crowd made that chant huge, we've seen multiple stars elicit that chant by calling for it with the raising of their arms. We've seen the WWE let Big Show, Kane and even AJ Lee put that in their repertoire. It has always seemed as if the WWE was trying to transfer it to another performer so they could put Daniel Bryan on the back burner and still maintain that chant in their live broadcasts - as if they're trying to take away Daniel Bryan's credit for popularizing the chant.

Don't believe that the signature chant of a major star can be transferred to other performers? Look no further than Ric Flair. His Woo chant was being called back in WWE arenas during the Monday Night Wars, at a time when Flair was still wrestling for WCW. So how'd the WWE manage to do that? Simple. They associated hard chops to an opponent's chest as the signal for the crowd to call back WOO. Do you think if Flair was a WWE creation, if he was a guy they'd invested heavily in, that they'd have allowed so many people to seemingly steal his signature call back? Doubtful. More likely, they'd have banned hard chops to an opponent's chest.

My point is simple. Chants are fun. They often get over in ways that transcend the actual wrestlers, but that doesn't mean we can write off the wrestler's hard work that got the chant over in the first place. That seems to be what the WWE has tried to do for a couple years now - and some fans have bought it. There's a reason the Yes chant got over in the first place, and it was because the WWE fans appreciated Daniel Bryan's hard work and were genuinely angered that Vince McMahon tried to piss all over it. Furthermore, there's a reason that Daniel Bryan is one of three wrestlers (Bryan, Punk, Cena) who has his name chanted in every arena, and it's because he's genuinely over, regardless of the chant.

The WWE has seemingly refused to admit this for a long time now. Perhaps the MSU game really opened their eyes to it. Perhaps when major news sources reporting on the MSU game credited the "WWE's Daniel Bryan" as having popularized the chant, Vince McMahon finally realized that the history of the chant was out of his hands - that he couldn't simply transfer the chant to someone else and re-write the history books as if that new person had popularized it (ahem. Hulk Hogan's Real American...")

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Hey quick question would all your brains get raped at the same time if all this leads to Brock tapping out in the ME against Bryan as the 70k at Mania go absolutely bonkers?

Because if mainstream is riding one of your stars as a cross over success, VKM did ABSOLUTELY the right thing by turning Bryan. Rumble is here, Mania is almost upon us. Great time to change your mind.

 

[Blade]

Booking someone as a heel doesn't make them a heel. It's the crowd that makes someone a heel or a face, despite what WWE seems to think. If the crowd wants to cheer for someone, you can't stop it.

I don't see Bryan joining the family as a heel turn. I see it as more of a defeated face going with his tormentors. The crowd didn't give up on Bryan, he was still being cheered for the most part. He wasn't a heel, he was just a face trapped in a bad situation. That's why I don't have a problem with it. You don't turn a red hot face, but that wasn't a real turn.

Whether or not it should've lasted longer is a different matter. If Bryan had turned on Wyatt during the Rumble, he would've had to go on to win the Rumble based on the reaction everyone knew he would get after attacking Wyatt. If they had committed to the decision to have Bryan turn on Bray at the Rumble, they would be committing to Bryan winning the Rumble. Something which I'm guessing they're not willing to commit to. Not with big Batista stomping around and CM Punk getting restless again.

I'm in the camp that believes that Wrestlemania should end with Bryan standing tall at the end, WWE title in his hands. So yes, I think he should've turned on Bray at the Rumble. But I also think that keeping him as a Wyatt until EC or 'Mania would've been a mistake. But at Wrestlemania, Bryan should be the man. For that night, at least.

 

[Straightfromthehart]

Expect another heel turn from Bryan sooner rather than later. I think he'll be back with the wyatts this Monday night to be honest, with the real face turn at royal rumble. Bryan without a doubt will become the champ at wrestlemania.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Bryan should be everything they've ever wanted.

They've been looking for a top babyface to replace John Cena in the long run for years now. Then Bryan organically gets over with the crowd, becomes the most popular star on the roster, his chant is crossing over into mainstream sports, and the reaction he gets on TV is reaching Austin levels.

This should be everything they've ever wanted. But it's not.

He wasn't "hand picked" by Vince to be in this spot. He doesn't have the look. He doesn't have the body. Bla, bla, bla. So they have no idea how to use him properly or even how to capitalize on his success. Vince and Hunter are so stuck in the 80's where a wrestler needs to look a certain way, that they're going to push Lesnar and Batista to the moon, instead of giving fans what they want.

 

[russoswornouteraser]

I tend to agree with Madden, 'the Family' will screw with Bryans status as much as possible, then when the fans finally tire of him, backwards rationalize their premeditated plan (they are complicated people) as 'he is too small to draw'.

That being said, it is possible that the original plan was Bryan turning on the Wyatts, either to win the Royal Rumble or as a Royal Rumble winner at elimination chamber, to go on and face WWE champion Lesnar or Batista as 'the ultimate underdog', but the reaction on Raw caused part one of the angle to be hotshotted...

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Is the chant more over than Bryan? Yes. It's being chanted by people who have no idea who DB is and wouldn't watch WWE if you paid them. Isn't that the definition of a chant being more over than a wrestler. I'm guessing half those people would be embarassed if they were told that it came from pro wrestling and then have a good laugh when they saw the wrestler it came from.

To me WWE is trying to drag out DB as long as possible. If there's been one consistent theme to both the educated and uneducated fan it's that DB is getting held back. It is making both groups of fans more emotionally invested. I think the problem WWE must now be facing is that they believe that DB is making them money and "abusing" him may cost them money. Otherwise I can't think of why they would have run a such a short and lackluster story with him and Bray. Ratings, gate reciepts, PPV buys and merchandise sales drove this decision like most.

Or maybe has some backstage pull and is refusing to work unless he gets what he wants.

 

[ajdb]

It just got worse people. I saw ESPN commercial today that used the MSU "Yes" chant footage.

I'm sorry people, but Vince looked like a shell of a man during the WWE Network announcement. I really don't think he's in control as much as we'd like to think. WWE need to understand that not every smart person in wrestling works for them.

I think WWE is a little out of its depth these days. In the Vince's prime he literally could just pick people off the NWA circuit and use them anyway he wanted. Hulk, any comments?

Then, he was able to do the same with WCW & ECW. How many stars of the 90s & 00s spent time in WCW or ECW before they hit WWE? Mark Calloway do you have any imput here? No? Austin, you gone silent too?

WWE needs to grasp that wrestling no longer needs freakishly large people as their stars. They also needs to understand that they can't make talent, sometimes talent makes itself.

WWE needs to be looking at indy wrestling more for their stars. Those people pay their due and create a bond with hardcore fans. Why is Sting popular? He's been able to connect with fans in so many different places.

Bottomline, WWE is trying to create the future nowadays instead of looking for it like they used to.

 

[JJ15776]

Yes, let's all jump to conclusions and judge a storyline that's clearly not over yet. People freaked out when he turned heel, assuming that he was being buried and/or punished or whatever you fools said, and then he turns back face and zOMG!1 they did it too soon and they did it wrong and it's still going to hurt him.

This is the same nonsense we had to go through in the thread after he joined the Wyatt family. You have NO IDEA why they did what they did and you have NO IDEA what they're going to do in the future. You rip them because you're taking as fact the rumors about why they turned him back, even though there's absolutely no reason to think there's any truth whatsoever to that - all these dirtsheets do is keep propagating the same old foolish rumors about Vince and the WWE (he changes his mind all the time, he yells and screams at everybody, he micromanages everything, etc etc), even though there's no proof any of it's true and the only reason they come up with these is because they provide a convenient excuse when the dirtsheets get something wrong. It's such a brilliant plan. You can claim anything you want will happen, and when it's wrong, just say they changed their minds...for bonus points, you can even claim they changed their minds because you reported it would happen! And people will believe you because A)You do get a few things right every once in awhile(it's pro wrestling, as long as your guesses are realistic, it's not that hard to guess things that are going to happen - when CM Punk was six months into his 434 day title reign, before Raw 1000 when Rock had announced his title shot or CM Punk had turned heel on him, I said I thought CM Punk should hold the title until Royal Rumble where I'd have him lose it to The Rock and then he could go onto face Undertaker at WrestleMania. Did I have any sources? Nope. It was a reasonable guess. That's what dirtsheets do when they get things right.) and B)because they really, really want to believe they're getting inside information. It makes them feel smart. It makes them feel cool. So these sites basically have carte blanche to say whatever they want as long as they don't say anything completely unrealistic too often.

Of course, the other part of this that's absolutely ludicrous is judging what they're doing in the middle of it. When you people watch a movie, do you pause it after every scene so that you can assume something stupid is about to happen, then go online to criticize the writer/director/producer/actors about the stupidity of what they're doing? Then watch the next scene, and even though you were wrong, again assume something stupid is about to happen and repeat the process throughout the movie? That's essentially what you're doing here. You have no idea why Bryan joined the Wyatt family(and you were clearly wrong about what you thought, based on the thread from when he first joined, so I don't know why you think you're right now), you have no idea why they turned him back(again, given your atrocious track record of assuming why things happened, I don't know why you're giving your assumptions so much credibility and treating them as fact), and you have no idea what they're going to do with him in the future. Rather than sit back and wait and see what happens...or, hell, at least approach this with a bit of skepticism but an open mind("I'm not sure I agree with what they've done so far, but let's see how it plays out")...you have to consistently make complete fools of yourselves by ripping what they've done so far, as if there's nothing they could do from here on out that would make what's happened so far not only acceptable, but a good thing. I remember when Christian won the world title and then lost it days later to Randy Orton and everybody was livid and ripped them for it, saying it was bad writing, bad storyline, blah blah blah...how'd that turn out for him? He certainly ended up much more over than he would have had he kept the title. And yet, funnily enough, nobody ever goes back and acknowledges they were wrong. They just keep making the same foolish statements over and over and over and over again.

In the words of the great Homer Simpson, don't you ever get tired of being wrong all the time?

The point is, let's wait and see what happens with Daniel Bryan, even if you don't agree with them "turning"(like somebody said, he was never a heel since he was getting face reactions even as a Wyatt Family member) him back so fast(which I thought was odd and kind of surprising, but it certainly made him even more over than he was, so to that end it worked out well so far). Clearly this Daniel Bryan/Wyatt Family storyline isn't over yet, this was just one chapter. When the whole thing is done, we can look back and judge it on everything that happened.

 

[Kidpolean]

I've always laughed at this notion that the Yes Chant is more over than Daniel Bryan. So what if it is? Can you say definitively that Austin's "Hell Yea" chant wasn't more over than Austin? Was "Suck It" more over than DX? How about Cena's "You Can't See Me?" These are three top performers (granted, DX is a group) whose popularity soared thanks to crowd-friendly call backs. How is that any different than what Daniel Bryan has done with the Yes Chant?

And don't tell me that it's different because the crowd chants YES at moments that have nothing to do with Bryan. The only reason the other chants weren't used in moments not involving those particular stars is because the WWE wouldn't allow it. And therein lies the complex with Daniel Bryan. The WWE doesn't protect his material in the same manner they protected the material of guys they actually wanted to be stars. See, it's not hard for a wrestler to elicit most long-running chants. Do a crotch chop, and the crowd would call back with a "Suck It." Ask the crowd to give you a "hell yea," and they would. Do the "you can't see me" hand gesture, and the crowd would call that back as well.

So why don't we see this? Why did Gangrel never do the "Suck It" crotch chop? Why couldn't Trish Stratus get more over by telling the crowd to give her a hell yea. Why can't Big E. Langston start doing the "You Can't See Me." The answer for all three is simple. It's because they're protected for DX, Steve Austin and John Cena.

But the "Yes Chant." Well, that's another story all together. In the two years since the WrestleMania 28 Raw crowd made that chant huge, we've seen multiple stars elicit that chant by calling for it with the raising of their arms. We've seen the WWE let Big Show, Kane and even AJ Lee put that in their repertoire. It has always seemed as if the WWE was trying to transfer it to another performer so they could put Daniel Bryan on the back burner and still maintain that chant in their live broadcasts - as if they're trying to take away Daniel Bryan's credit for popularizing the chant.

Don't believe that the signature chant of a major star can be transferred to other performers? Look no further than Ric Flair. His Woo chant was being called back in WWE arenas during the Monday Night Wars, at a time when Flair was still wrestling for WCW. So how'd the WWE manage to do that? Simple. They associated hard chops to an opponent's chest as the signal for the crowd to call back WOO. Do you think if Flair was a WWE creation, if he was a guy they'd invested heavily in, that they'd have allowed so many people to seemingly steal his signature call back? Doubtful. More likely, they'd have banned hard chops to an opponent's chest.

My point is simple. Chants are fun. They often get over in ways that transcend the actual wrestlers, but that doesn't mean we can write off the wrestler's hard work that got the chant over in the first place. That seems to be what the WWE has tried to do for a couple years now - and some fans have bought it. There's a reason the Yes chant got over in the first place, and it was because the WWE fans appreciated Daniel Bryan's hard work and were genuinely angered that Vince McMahon tried to piss all over it. Furthermore, there's a reason that Daniel Bryan is one of three wrestlers (Bryan, Punk, Cena) who has his name chanted in every arena, and it's because he's genuinely over, regardless of the chant.

The WWE has seemingly refused to admit this for a long time now. Perhaps the MSU game really opened their eyes to it. Perhaps when major news sources reporting on the MSU game credited the "WWE's Daniel Bryan" as having popularized the chant, Vince McMahon finally realized that the history of the chant was out of his hands - that he couldn't simply transfer the chant to someone else and re-write the history books as if that new person had popularized it (ahem. Hulk Hogan's Real American...")

Let me stop you right there buddy...the yes chant is indeed more over than DB is. You wanna know the difference between suck it, hell yea, you cant see me, and yes? Well here it is...HBK was the top guy before DX was even created, Austin was the top guy before he started using hell yea, and Cena well im not even sure why this one was even on this list. DB got over completely based off the sucess of the yes chant and that cant be said for any other example you provided.

BTW, I was at WM28 in miami and I can tell you that the yes chanting there was random and not really because of DB. It was just a fun thing to do. There was also wooo chants for the majority of the event but it had nothing to do with Flair. Everyone in my section, including myself, was wearing either a CM Punk, Cena, or Rock shirt. There was literally nobody with a DB shirt on. I saw very few DB signs. He got a good pop because it was the start of the show and because of the yes chants and that was the only reasons. Hell the guy next to me even asked why we were chanting yes.

 

[ZUMBOdriver]

Let me stop you right there buddy...the yes chant is indeed more over than DB is. You wanna know the difference between suck it, hell yea, you cant see me, and yes? Well here it is...HBK was the top guy before DX was even created, Austin was the top guy before he started using hell yea, and Cena well im not even sure why this one was even on this list. DB got over completely based off the sucess of the yes chant and that cant be said for any other example you provided.

BTW, I was at WM28 in miami and I can tell you that the yes chanting there was random and not really because of DB. It was just a fun thing to do. There was also wooo chants for the majority of the event but it had nothing to do with Flair. Everyone in my section, including myself, was wearing either a CM Punk, Cena, or Rock shirt. There was literally nobody with a DB shirt on. I saw very few DB signs. He got a good pop because it was the start of the show and because of the yes chants and that was the only reasons. Hell the guy next to me even asked why we were chanting yes.

Man, you are the worst kind of mark there is. Your reasoning is that the few marks sitting around you (2 years ago btw) didn't know about the yes chant and that you didn't have his t-shirt on?

And I don't know if you know this, but the Austin 3:16 catchphrase was born almost 2 years before Austin was the main guy. How long ago were you clad in your John Cena (you'll probably say it was CM Punk, but no difference) t-shirt at WM28 when yes was beginning to catch fire? Oh yeah, almost two years ago. Notice that pattern, mark?

Also, don't know if you've noticed but Bryan's come a long way since then pal. Not just with his loyal following, but legit marks too. I see many children sporting Daniel Bryan gear. Maybe even you've bought a Bryan shirt since WM28. But hey, Batista will be back soon so you can smack it to his big muscles.

And I don't care if you were there, those yes chants were because of Bryan dude. So don't tell me otherwise. Marks like you will always follow what the smarks do, even if you're not exactly sure what is going on. The smarks were cheering for their guy and you and your wrestling t-shirt wearing buddies followed so you weren't left out.

Daniel Bryan has been way over with tons of people. It took the chant to get him over with wrestling t-shirt wearing marks like you and the HGH loving executives of the WWE.

You want to put Bryan down, but keep chanting yes you stupid mark. It only gets him more over, no matter how much you want to think it's just the chant.

 

[Kidpolean]

Man, you are the worst kind of mark there is. Your reasoning is that the few marks sitting around you (2 years ago btw) didn't know about the yes chant and that you didn't have his t-shirt on?

And I don't know if you know this, but the Austin 3:16 catchphrase was born almost 2 years before Austin was the main guy. How long ago were you clad in your John Cena (you'll probably say it was CM Punk, but no difference) t-shirt at WM28 when yes was beginning to catch fire? Oh yeah, almost two years ago. Notice that pattern, mark?

Also, don't know if you've noticed but Bryan's come a long way since then pal. Not just with his loyal following, but legit marks too. I see many children sporting Daniel Bryan gear. Maybe even you've bought a Bryan shirt since WM28. But hey, Batista will be back soon so you can smack it to his big muscles.

And I don't care if you were there, those yes chants were because of Bryan dude. So don't tell me otherwise. Marks like you will always follow what the smarks do, even if you're not exactly sure what is going on. The smarks were cheering for their guy and you and your wrestling t-shirt wearing buddies followed so you weren't left out.

Daniel Bryan has been way over with tons of people. It took the chant to get him over with wrestling t-shirt wearing marks like you and the HGH loving executives of the WWE.

You want to put Bryan down, but keep chanting yes you stupid mark. It only gets him more over, no matter how much you want to think it's just the chant.

random insults...typical iwc response

ask anybody that went to wm28 if the yes chants were in support of db or just cuz it was fun and they will tell u it had almost nothing to do with people actually liking Bryan.

I had a cm punk shirt on and I was a huge DB fan back from when he was in roh so I don't understand why you attacked me as if I don't like DB. Don't randomly insult people without knowing anything about them. I'm a 5'6 170lb Indy wrestler so who do you think I support more db or batista?

I like how you changed hell yea to Austin 3:16. I'm fully aware of when Austin first said Austin 3:16 but that isn't what we were discussing.

WTH does db's popularity now have to do with WM28? Of course db is more popular now but that doesn't change the fact the the yes chants are still more popular than him. How many people at the sports games that chant yes know who db even is? Maybe half...and out of that half how many do you think are doing it to support db? The yes chant is done at sports games because it is fun. Nobody is thinking, hey lets support db in the middle of this basketball game. They are thinking, hey lets do that yes chant that they do on wrestling. Anyone with a brain can see that the yes chant is more over than db.

 

[daddyJ_t]

for christ sake. regardless of a college game or not. they can justify it as follows. i lured the buzzards into a trap. bryan wanted his hands on bray for awhile and never got the chance. he joins then waits then gets the ultimate oppertunaty when maddox and kane put them in the cage match. then bamn witht he usos not in the ring and harper and rowan are locked out and bray cant escape. nuff said thats how it will be justified and therefore vince can remain in the dark about the msu game as people put it. bryan will claim i lured them in waited for the perfect oppertunaty to get my hands on bray.

 

[justinept]

Let me stop you right there buddy...the yes chant is indeed more over than DB is. You wanna know the difference between suck it, hell yea, you cant see me, and yes? Well here it is...HBK was the top guy before DX was even created, Austin was the top guy before he started using hell yea, and Cena well im not even sure why this one was even on this list. DB got over completely based off the sucess of the yes chant and that cant be said for any other example you provided.

BTW, I was at WM28 in miami and I can tell you that the yes chanting there was random and not really because of DB. It was just a fun thing to do. There was also wooo chants for the majority of the event but it had nothing to do with Flair. Everyone in my section, including myself, was wearing either a CM Punk, Cena, or Rock shirt. There was literally nobody with a DB shirt on. I saw very few DB signs. He got a good pop because it was the start of the show and because of the yes chants and that was the only reasons. Hell the guy next to me even asked why we were chanting yes.

So we're judging the credibility of Daniel Bryan based on the idea that no one near you - in a crowd of 60,000 people - was wearing the t-shirt of a heel champion? I guess I won't argue that... But what I will argue is that the Yes chants were random. Sorry, but your being in attendance doesn't make you an expert on this matter - unless of course there was some secret meeting in the middle of WrestleMania where everyone in the crowd threw out random ideas for chants.

WrestleMania is the snarkiest crowd of the year. It's a very European crowd filled with thousands upon thousands of wrestling nerds (that's not an insult) who use their yearly vacation to make a WrestleMania pilgrimage. If you think the IWC is bad, then multiply that by 10,000 and you get the WrestleMania crowd (trust me, I've been to three of them.) These are the people that think C.M. Punk and Daniel Bryan should be the top-two stars in the company - who generally loathe John Cena for his repetitive matches. These are the people who think Vince McMahon has lost his touch, who can't stand that Triple H is in charge, and who hate the WWE's dedication to the big, slow muscle-bound guys.

...so consider this. These guys drop thousands of dollars between their plane ticket, hotel rooms and 'Mania tickets... They're excited to see a great show - to see both CM Punk and Daniel Bryan - two of their darlings - defend their WWE and World Championships. And what do they get? They get an 18-second opening bout - a match meant to elevate another one of Vince McMahon's "big guys" at the expense of a guy they genuinely like. Even worse, the crowd was still filing in at this point, meaning a lot of people actually missed the match. There's all that, and you're telling me that them mimicking the chant the guy had been screaming for the previous 4 months was random? The night after Austin gave his Austin 3:16 speech at the KOTR 96, was it random that thousands of fans had Austin 3:16 signs? Likewise, was it random the night after WrestleMania 28 when the entire arena did the Yes chant for three-straight hours, and the WWE was all but forced to send out Daniel Bryan after the show so the crowd could go home happy? Most people saw that for what it was... it was the crowd's way of saying "F U, Vince McMahon." I'm sorry you saw it otherwise. Perhaps it was a case of being too close to the action to see it for what it really was, but it came through loud and clear on the television.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure how you can "stop me right there" to repeat what was one of the first lines in my post. I agreed that the Yes chant is bigger than Bryan. I simply said it doesn't matter. Austin's, Cena's and DX's call back are also bigger than those stars. That doesn't mean those guys deserve any less credit for creating them.

And you can say they were all big stars before their chants/callbacks, whatever... but were they? Were people dying to cheer for Austin when he was jobbing to Savio Vega back in 95? Did Triple H have future star written on his forehead when he was bowing to the crowd like some kind of muscle-bound aristocrat? How about Cena? Were you a fan of the Ruthless Aggression Cena when he was wearing neon spandex?

It's a no to all of that. They all needed something to connect them with the audience - something the audience could appreciate that transcended their abilities in the ring. For each of them it was a catch phrase - and a call back chant. And for all of them, that chant became bigger than them. Why is that a negative?

 

[ZUMBOdriver]

random insults...typical iwc response

I hate to sound cliche, but what the hell does "iwc" really mean? Compare our join dates and number of posts and see who fits the "iwc" bill more, me or you???

Sorry to be insulting, but I just read asinine things like you basing Daniel Bryan's popularity on the number of his t-shirts in your little section in a huge arena and I get a little message board crazy. I apologize I said you're a Batista fan. You didn't deserve that.

ask anybody that went to wm28 if the yes chants were in support of db or just cuz it was fun and they will tell u it had almost nothing to do with people actually liking Bryan.

Didn't come off that way on the broadcast. There were some Daniel Bryan chants in the matches following the opener of wm28 if I remember. I guess we all choose to see things as we like.

I like how you changed hell yea to Austin 3:16. I'm fully aware of when Austin first said Austin 3:16 but that isn't what we were discussing.

Dude, we are arguing about catchphrases being "over". So you mean to tell me, if it was Bob Holly calling for a HELL YEAH!!!!!!, that the crowd would have erupted?? Aren't chants kind of synonymous with the wrestler?

WTH does db's popularity now have to do with WM28?

Because you referenced some schmucks in your section didn't know what the yes chants were about. I'm sure they are fully aware of them now and that they are synonymous with Daniel Bryan.

How many people at the sports games that chant yes know who db even is?

Of course the people catching wind of this due to the mainstream sports media won't be completely familiar with the background of the chant. But, it's that mainstream attention that gets the attention of the people who matter at WWE.

Wrestlers have had signature hand gestures and chants for quite some time now that helped them identify with the crowd. It's just working extremely well for Daniel Bryan right now.

I honestly believe the yes chants work because of Bryan. Don't have to agree, but I won't agree if someone says otherwise. The underdog turned cocky and pompous champion had to constantly remind the many critics and naysayers that, "Yes!" he was the champion. As foolproof as it seems, yes wouldn't be nearly as "over" if it were tied to many others on the roster.

It's no secret that Bryan is an "internet darling" or as I like to call, a great and entertaining worker. It's also no secret that big PPVs in big cities tend to favor these "internet darlings." To me, these yes chants at wm28 were to support Daniel Bryan, with the others who weren't sure joining in for the fun of it. Now these other people start to take notice of Bryan. Once again, chants and wrestlers are synonymous, at least on the mainstream level. This creates exposure and thus creates more opportunities for Bryan.

And I know he took the chant from some MMA guy. But that guy couldn't get it over like Bryan either.

YES! = Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan = YES!

 

[The Eighties]

If Bryan wins the title at Mania then some will claim that it was a masterwork all along by Vince, Trips and creative, that the oddest face booking I've ever seen was intentional for the long term pay-off at Mania that we mere fans couldn't see.

OR maybe, just maybe, Vince hoped this milk-toast, bearded midget would slide into a supporting role after the Orton program and continue to be a good soldier who shifted some merch and delivered good matches on Vince's product without sullying the WWE title scene again, however the fans haven't let this happen and some genuine attempts to minimize him have turned him into the realest underdog of all time and made him into a martyr that is the hottest pure face WWE has had in a long time.

I've never seen a situation like Bryan before, other guys got over and didn't quite fit the bill so they were positioned just beneath the very top and it went smoothly, the fan revolt is quite unique and has made for unpredictable and entertaining TV.

As far as the YES! chant goes, people like it because of Bryan, if not then why didn't it translate over to Big Show when Bryan was switched out for him in November and he started doing it? Simple, because while the chant is clearly fun crowd participation, it's fun when done with the guy that got them doing it in the first place, it's a show of allegiance.

Everyone can argue the YES! chant all day but regardless, the arenas all over have been filled with thunderous Daniel Bryan chants as well, and he is one of only 3 guys WWE have that gets a big pop and his name chanted everywhere WWE go, he is hugely over, it doesn't matter if the chant elevates his overness, he is molten hot and has been since last summer.

Madden's article the other night was spot on, and yes Madden is a dick whether you agree or disagree with his articles, but his pure point was correct, it doesn't matter what has happened up to this point, it doesn't matter if Bryan can't sustain it, the fans unrelenting support has given WWE a chance to still find out if Bryan can be a true money spinner for them.

CM Punk is my favourite wrestler and I want him to get his chance to close a Mania, but I just can't make any counter point to the idea that Mania should end with Bryan winning the WWE title and leading 70,000 people in the biggest YES! chant so far.

 

[enviousdominous]

I've been a fan of the guy since the early 2000s, I can honestly say that his mainstream popularity has come with a great deal of luck.

I personally would be cheering for him even if he hadn't happened upon his more crowd pleasing traits. I'm of the opinion that the WWE helped build Daniel Bryan's success in their company by accident.

He was already huge in the minds of indy superfans like myself, in my mind he was too good to soil the bottom of his boots by walking into a WWE talent office. If it were up to me, I'd have probably pushed him too far at first and forced him into an injury inducing spot or caused him to jump-the-shark in a more obscene fashion than Cena ever has.

The WWE put him in NXT as a rookie unto The Miz. To superfans like me, this fired us up and made us want to pay to see every second of Daniel Bryan's ordeal of having to work with a sloppy air-head like Miz. To ordinary fans, this has been described to me as something like when Hogan first rebelled against Jesse Ventura. We got someone with fire in their eyes being directly opposed against a social invalid with a permanent 1000 yard stare.

I realize that the WWE likely wanted to humiliate Daniel Bryan, and any indy hopeful, as their longterm goal for this saga. They stood him up against the most immature sack that ever impressed HHH, Shaemus, and Daniel Bryan dutifully took a series of squash pinfall losses for only getting one count-out win. The "YES" chants were deafening when Wrestlemania was in Miami, and they continued for Daniel Bryan even after he laid down for one shitty looking bicycle kick.

I recall Shaemus tried to use the "YES" chant for himself on one occasion. It didn't work out so well. Proof, in my mind, that any dipshit can please Triple H, but it takes someone who's actually talented to connect with the fans and keep them loyal.

Do fans of competitive sports think of Daniel Bryan when they're chanting "YES" at their sporting events? Probably not all of them. I'm of the assumption that the person who started the chant did so in an effort to pay homage to Daniel Bryan. The rest probably just fell in because it was fun to do, which isn't necessarily a shot at Daniel Bryan. While all of those participating aren't doing so in honor of Daniel Bryan, they're using a chant that he made popular without the help of any of those brain damaged monkeys the WWE hired to write their shows.

The way I see it, the WWE has too many cry babies who hate turning heel and won't ever do it even if it makes sense for the good of the business. John Cena will ALWAYS have opponents who have to resort to depraved behavior in character so as to make the crowd not hate Cena so much. Shaemus went from a "good guy" loud-mouth spaz to a "good guy" loud-mouth spaz with a hotline. Daniel Bryan knew that turning heel didn't make much sense, but he did so because despite his obligation to his fans he's still a pro-wrestler and he knows full well that betraying his fans is sometimes part of the job.

They turned him back pretty damn fast, which undermines the usefulness of The Wyatts in my opinion. Bray doesn't come across as an intensely insightful cult leader with a prolific amount of philosophical wisdom to share, he comes across as an obnoxious geek who after ingesting a mixture of shrooms and x was paid in sudafed to imitate the death throes of Chris Farley.

 

[justinept]

I've been a fan of the guy since the early 2000s, I can honestly say that his mainstream popularity has come with a great deal of luck.

Enjoyed the post just wanted to say something about this before someone else jumped on it. I've already said in previous posts that I agree the Yes chant has become bigger than Daniel Bryan - and I want to further that by agreeing that his mainstream popularity has come with a great deal of luck as well. None of these are bad things, and they can be said about most WWE stars of yesteryear and today.

I've already established my stance that I don't believe Austin gets over without his Austin 3:16 speech at the King of the Ring. It was a speech that connected, that made people care about him, and without it, it's possible the fans never would've shouted back "Hell yea" every time Austin asked them to do so. But what would've happened if the MSG Incident never occurred, and Triple H - not Austin - won that King of the Ring? Sure, Austin would've been the odds on favorite to win the '97 KOTR, but the circumstances would have changed and the Austin 3:16 speech wouldn't have made sense. After all, the Austin 3:16 speech was a direct insult to Jake Roberts - his opponent in the finals of KOTR - who was working a born-again Christian angle. Does it diminish Austin's legacy that the turning point of his career was had by luck?

Mick Foley wrote in his first book that the wrestling industry was passing him by in late 1998. Everyone was using catch phrases to connect with the audience, and he couldn't keep up. He even went so far as to remind people that his HIAC match at the KOTR 98 was such an amazing turning point for him that within two weeks of it, he was getting zero reaction during his entrance. Then what happened? Vince McMahon legitimately busted his ankle in a motorcycle accident, they wrote the injury into the script to explain the cast on his leg, and Mick Foley showed up to the hospital with a bunch of gags to cheer up the Chairman - one of which is a sock puppet that was on screen for less than 10 seconds. A week later, Mr. Socko signs littered the arena. And within two months, a guy who had worked his ass for 10 years, who was constantly told he'd never be the champion despite having put his body through hell, was finally given the opportunity to be the WWF Champion. And why? Because he got lucky and connected with the audience by creating a friggin' sock puppet.

So as I've been saying about Bryan since WrestleMania 28... it was luck, but who cares? Some of the biggest stars in wrestling history have needed luck to get over. It doesn't change the fact that they are - or were - massively over with the audience.

 

[Kidpolean]

I hate to sound cliche, but what the hell does "iwc" really mean? Compare our join dates and number of posts and see who fits the "iwc" bill more, me or you???

Sorry to be insulting, but I just read asinine things like you basing Daniel Bryan's popularity on the number of his t-shirts in your little section in a huge arena and I get a little message board crazy. I apologize I said you're a Batista fan. You didn't deserve that.



Didn't come off that way on the broadcast. There were some Daniel Bryan chants in the matches following the opener of wm28 if I remember. I guess we all choose to see things as we like.



Dude, we are arguing about catchphrases being "over". So you mean to tell me, if it was Bob Holly calling for a HELL YEAH!!!!!!, that the crowd would have erupted?? Aren't chants kind of synonymous with the wrestler?



Because you referenced some schmucks in your section didn't know what the yes chants were about. I'm sure they are fully aware of them now and that they are synonymous with Daniel Bryan.



Of course the people catching wind of this due to the mainstream sports media won't be completely familiar with the background of the chant. But, it's that mainstream attention that gets the attention of the people who matter at WWE.

Wrestlers have had signature hand gestures and chants for quite some time now that helped them identify with the crowd. It's just working extremely well for Daniel Bryan right now.

I honestly believe the yes chants work because of Bryan. Don't have to agree, but I won't agree if someone says otherwise. The underdog turned cocky and pompous champion had to constantly remind the many critics and naysayers that, "Yes!" he was the champion. As foolproof as it seems, yes wouldn't be nearly as "over" if it were tied to many others on the roster.

It's no secret that Bryan is an "internet darling" or as I like to call, a great and entertaining worker. It's also no secret that big PPVs in big cities tend to favor these "internet darlings." To me, these yes chants at wm28 were to support Daniel Bryan, with the others who weren't sure joining in for the fun of it. Now these other people start to take notice of Bryan. Once again, chants and wrestlers are synonymous, at least on the mainstream level. This creates exposure and thus creates more opportunities for Bryan.

And I know he took the chant from some MMA guy. But that guy couldn't get it over like Bryan either.

YES! = Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan = YES!

The typical IWC response is not an insult. I am aware that I am a part of the iwc. I was simply pointing out the fact that 9 times out of 10 if someone has replied to a post on a wrestling forum than it will start with an insult.

I wasnt basing his popularity off of my section. I was referring to the theory that DB was the most over wrestler at WM28 which people seem to believe. I was there live and it was clear that Punk, Cena, and Rock has WAY more fans than DB did. This is why i brought up the shirts because that can be a pretty good measure of how over a wrestler is.

Ive watched the broadcast and it doesnt do his actual reaction justice. There were yes chants in the parking lot before the show, in walmart next to the arena, at the gate to get into the arena, all throughout the show, and after the show in the parking lot, it was one of my favorite experiences ive had as a wrestling fan. But IMO it didnt have much to do with DB, it was more of a rebellious fun chant, at one point it was even done to piss of the cops that wouldnt let us cross the street after the show which also had nothing to do with bryan.

Having catch phrase be more over than the actual superstar isn't a bad thing. Look at Road dogg and Billy gunn. The thing they do before there matches gets a huge pop almost as big as the yes chants and back in the AE they were getting DB type pops. They get that reaction because it is fun to say it along with Road dogg. Of course nobody else could do it and get the same reaction but that is far more over than the NAO. NAO have no legendary matches or feuds or anything yet they still get that reaction because of their speech/promo they do before every match. Th same could be said for Mr. Kennedy/Anderson and even to a lesser extent Austin's What chant. Austin evented it but it became more than a reference to Austins and it lives on even without Austins name attached to it. Yes will be the same way imo.