Turning the Page: Daniel Bryan

[LSN80]

In the 6th installment of the Turn series, we look at Daniel Bryan. The purpose of this thread, like the rest, is to determine how you would successfully turn someone heel, or vice versa. The focus of this will be the United States Champion, Daniel Bryan.

Daniel Bryan debuted on WWE NXT season 1 as the "rookie" to The miz, as the internet darling that Michael Cole loved to hate. Despite being repeatedly embarrased by Miz and eliminated from NXT without winning a match, he had what many regard to be the best match and high point of the entire NXT concept. This was the first main event of the NXT show, against then World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho.

Spoiler

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Despite his elimination, he appeared on the following editions of NXT, being interviewed by Matt Striker and attacking both Michael Cole, who had constantly belittled him on commentary, and The Miz. The week after NXT ended, Aston Kutcher signed Daniel Bryan to a one night contract, in which he would face his former mentor Miz. Bryan defeated The Miz in a singles match, and after the match, he threw The Miz into Cole, who was commentating at ringside. Two weeks later, Bryan joined the 7 other NXT rookies, including NXT winner Wade Barrett, in interrupting the main event between John Cena and CM Punk of a Viewer's Choice Raw. Despite his elimination, he appeared on the following editions of NXT, being interviewed by Matt Striker and attacking both Michael Cole, who had constantly belittled him on commentary, and The Miz. Along with attacking both competitors, the 8 men attacked the ring crew, Jerry Lawler, and dismantled the ringside area along with the ring itself. This was the night of the infamous tie incident, where Bryan "choked out" Justin Roberts with his tie, and was subsequently released following this one night heel turn.

Spoiler

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Bryan was re-hired 3 months later by WWE, where he was the "surprise" 7th member of John Cena's team vs the Nexus in a 7 on 7 Elimination match at Summerslam. He replaced the Miz, who would later cause Bryan to be eliminated when there were only two members left per team. Following this match, Bryan entered into a feud against Miz, whom he defeated at Night of Champions for the U.S. title. The following month at Hell in a Cell, he defeated Miz and John Morrison to retain the title in the first ever Submissions Count Anywhere Match.

Spoiler

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There's a brief synopsis of Daniel Bryan's WWE career. He's a pro now on NXT season 4 and also "dating" the Bella Twins. Aside for that one night, Bryan has yet to be a heel within WWE. The purpose of this thread is to show why and, more importantly, how you would turn him heel. I welcome you ripping others scenario's to shreds, just be darn sure to give me an alternate one that will work as well. Discussion questions:

1. How would you successfully turn Daniel Bryan heel?

2. Why would this scenario work in your eyes?

3. 3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

Have fun kids.

 

[Disturbed]

The only way I could see him turning heel at the moment is if he re-joined Nexus. CM Punk's Nexus that is. I think he could contribute a lot to the faction and would love to see wrestle John Cena. If you remember he did spit in Cena's face. I think if he were to turn heel that he should, team with Cena to face Mason Ryan and CM Punk in a main event tag match on Raw, the night after the Rumble. Daniel Bryan can turn on Cena and the New Nexus would come out and beat down Cena.

I think this scenario would work because in my eyes it may be the only way Bryan could get over as a heel. He is over as a face at the moment, so no I don't think he should turn heel in 2011. Now, if he had to turn heel, like I said the only thing I could see working is re-joining Nexus.

 

[Zangash]

It seems like the only ways to become over as a heel on Raw nowadays is to either beat up on John Cena or be The Miz. Punk himself really wasn't all too big of a heel prior to Nexus, and now he's the top heel of the company, just like that. They're starting to use Nexus as a way to bring fresh talent in. The entire Nexus angle is drawing the largest majority of the attention away from the WWE title. This is because seeing Orton fight for the title against the Miz really isn't all that entertaining or even interesting.

Now, if you were to have Orton win the title at WM, and Daniel Bryan, deciding that since he's been such a strong US champion for so long, ambushes him immediately after his victory and locks in either his lebelle lock or even cattle mutilation... Boom. Daniel Bryan is a hell, will now be able to get over because the Nexus storyline will probably be played out, and is now having a Jeff Hardy-like feud against Orton. It'd be good stuff.

I don't think Daniel Bryan should turn heel, though. I actually think WWE creative is doing a good job with him, having him dominate the mid-card.

 

[#hamler]

It's about damn time LSN.

1. How would you successfully turn Daniel Bryan heel?

Daniel Bryan is pribably one of the hardest guys to turn heel right now. Daniel Bryan is very over with most fans. Turning him heel would have to involve someone else who is incredibly over as a face, just to piss people off. First he starts off becoming more agressive in the ring with other face mid carders. He loses the smiling attitude and adopts the Ice Man gimmick that was once portrayed by Dean Malenko. Maybe he starts attacking Randy Orton, using him to get over as a heel. Or maybe even John Cena. Using the excuse of "I'm a better wrestler than you are" as a reason to attack these massively over superstars.

2. Why would this scenario work in your eyes?

I think so. Daniel Bryan has played a very agressive type before in the independents, I believe he can certainly pull it off in the WWE. If he does as I suggested, attacking one of the two incredibly over faces like John Cena or Randy Orton, he can turn heel. Quite possibly a top heel on RAW.

3. 3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

I'm very torn on this one. For the first time in the thread series, I would love a turn to happen. Daniel Bryan is a great wrestler. But the whole smiling, pimp thing isn't working for me. If he wants to be taken seriously, he'd drop the attitude completely. I remember watching Dean Malenko during his WCW days and he was real easy to hate because he showed no emotion but yet, kicked total ass. The same could work for Daniel Bryan and I think no one would actually recognize the similarities. I would love a Daniel Bryan heel turn.

 

[Tired0FthePeople]

1&2 I would turn him heel by having him work a program with Morrison. Morrison already won their first match. I would have Bryan challenge Morrison to another match and also lose that one cleanly. Id then have a segment back stage where Bryan is upset about losing twice to Morrison while the Bellas try to console him.

Morrison walks by in the back and Bryan asks for another match. Morrison would says "Naw man. You should just focus on defending the US title, you know? There is a lot of great competition 'down' there in your 'weight class.' I have unfinished business with the Miz and that WWE championship."

Bryan looks taken aback by this comment, but says nothing. Id then build the heel turn slowly by booking Bryan in a bunch of US title matches against Tyson Kidd, Chris Masters, Dibasi and a couple more people in his 'weight class." BUT, Bryan uses very slight and subtle heel tactics in these matches. He slaps one guy across the face. He throws one guy over the top rope. He suplexes one guy on the steel steps. He uses a couple of closed fists rather than the European Uppercut. I mean..just one subtle heel tactic per match, but he wins the matches in face fashion.

Meanwhile Morrison is on a role winning a bunch of matches against Shaemus, Chris Masters, Jackson Andrews and others in his weight class.

Finally, there'd be a tag team match with Morrison and Bryan Vs Swagger and Ziggler. (or something like that.) Bryan and Morrison are shown back stage and Morrison is telling Bryan how impressive he's been as of late. The faces go out to the ring first. But when Swaggers music hits, no one comes out. Bryan then attacks Morrison and lays him out. He lays the stomps down on him. Then picks Jo-Mo up and lands a viscous Regalplex. He gets Morrison up on the ropes and lands a top rope belly-to-back suplex.

Now Bryan gets a mic and screams at Morrison 'DO you....think...Im...Out of Your LEAGUE?" I was winning world titles and wowwing wrestling fans before you knew how to throw a hip toss!" Basically, Bryan cuts a scathing promo on Morrison on how he hasnt done half as much for pro wrestling as Bryan, and how he has half the talent. He then lands an onslaught of MMA elbows, totally fucking Morrison up.

He'll get great instant heat by turning heel like this on a super fan favorite like Morrison.

3. Having said all that, He should remain face for now. Raw is heel heavy anyway. He shouldnt turn heel yet because outside of a couple of matches with Ziggler, he hasnt done all that much since his feud with Miz. Id like to see Bryan get some steady rivals and really show what he can do on a consistent basic. The match with Regal was OK, but he's not really going hard each and every week. There is so much more he can do and he could be booked better and stronger as a face right now.

 

[TheSheaver]

I think Daniel Bryan has no reason to turn heel. The fans enjoy and appreciate him and he has a nice looking submission that the fans just want to see put on guys like Ted DiBiase and other lower and mid-card heels. I think him rejoining Nexus would be quite interesting but I don't see it as logical or a good career move.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I think it's important to say before I go any further, unlike some of these guys I can envision Bryan as a heel and that obviously makes this job easier for me. So without further ado:

1. How would you successfully turn Daniel Bryan heel?

When Bryan first entered the WWE as part of series one of NXT, he was probably the most bland competitor on face value had you not known anything about him from the idys. All that the average WWE Universe fan really had to go on was his small jabs at the Miz for being a "pro", the jokes from Michael Cole about his lifestyle on the commentary and the fact he was clearly a very good wrestler but wasn't winning himself any matches. This continues of course until he "eliminated himself" from the competition. Shortly after this he had his altercation with Cole leading to one of, if not, the best feud of the year for as long as it happened to last. It got Bryan hell over as a face and was the ground work for Cole becoming a heel, the whole situation was incredibly real and convincing because it came from a real place.

But few people may have ever noted the crowd reaction during some parts of his debut worked shoot against Cole and Vince. He was supposed to be the face but he said things like "I don't need to tell anybody how good I am" and not to mention when he stopped Matt Striker to say "one thing I don't miss is you constantly interupting me". Yes that's right! before he actually got up and approached Cole, he was coming across very superiorist and conceipted. This is the angle I'd travel along.

I'd have Bryan stock up a bit of a winning streak against good opponents and then after a month or so chalk up a promo about how he worked his way up from the indy's an beat everybody and he eventually got his shot here in WWE expecting to face some real guys, and he got there and nobody could come close to him. He should mention that he is trained by Shawn Michaels and how it proves he is a chosen prodigy. It'd work for the same reason the very best material always works like Punk straight edge stuff, comes from a real place, allows you to put real knowledge and emotion into it and it could hardly fail. So basically I'd use his experience of the indy's and talking about some guys like the Miz have never had to work a real match and how nobody else coud hold a candle to him to styart a feud, and a feud with someone quite big I could imagine.

2. Why would this scenario work in your eyes?

If it is anything like how conceipted he looked in "that" promo on NXT then I don't see any reason why it wouldn't. After all like I said, real experiences = bigger draws (it's not as if Matt Hardy had a massive fan following when he feuded with Edge after their real life embargo, purely the fact that real contraversy sells). To use a current example, kurt angle and jeff jarrett are the most current thing in TNA right now, and if Jeff Jarrett is current you can obviously tell that it's because of the story because it damn sure hasn't got anything to do with him.

3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?

This is definately the toughest one. I don't know if anybody else has noticed this, or if they are all thinking wishfully, but his pops have actually getting less and less meaning his thing witht he bellas hasn't been helping him out at all. As always, and as creative never ever to thier discredit seem to do with the face mid-carders, I would say a little bit of mic time maybe an interview here and there would freshen him up a lot. However, if they don't decide to do this or if it doesn't work so well, I'd say he's going to need a big chunk of character re-development to keep him from turning. If they don't manage to keep interest in him and if there is sufficient talent to fill the face roles then I'd say a heel turn for Bryan would be coming about Summerslam time. And I'll welcome it with open arms because heel = mic time = entertainment = a chance to move up the card. I think when he next turns it'll be very successful because he does have the ability to do face and heel promos and right now we're only getting one side of him which is successful regardless of that, if he turns his notoriety could explode.

My only worry is that WWE likes to have too many of the talented guys as heels, Bryan is a stronghold on Raw as a face alongside Orton, Cena and Morrison surrounded by talented heels like Miz, Punk, Sheamus and the nexus along with others. I'd just want to make sure they can afford him as a heel by counter-balancing him with someone similarly talented on the show, I wouldn't want it to become a heel show like Smackdown is right now. Therefore I'd have Huskey Harris, or maybe even HHH when he returns be face as insurance for him turning.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

1. How would you successfully turn Daniel Bryan heel?


I think that an interesting way to turn Bryan heel is for him to really flip out on guys like Orton and Cena and claim that he deserves to be a champion because he is a better technical wrestler than them. It could happen that he gets a title shot against Orton, his first title shot, and when he enters the ring he sees himself getting booed by the fans who are strongly behind Orton. Orton wins the match via a distraction by a midcard heel whom Bryan is feuding with. Despite winning under questionable circumstances Bryan sees that the crowd is still firmly behind Orton. This could cause Bryan to flip out and claim that he does not understand what he has to do to gain the crowd's approval and that the fans know nothing about wrestling and that is probably the reason why they are cheering Orton over him, because he is much superior to Orton as a wrestler.

2. Why would this scenario work in your eyes?

Because the IWC and most fans over the age of 18 love to point out that Cena cannot wrestle and generally look down on Orton's wrestling skills as well. This is really tapping into what they believe and turning it into a storyline. And there could not be a better candidate to play the heel than Daniel Bryan, the internet darling.

3. In 2011, is it a good idea to turn him, or should he remain a face? Why?



That depends on where WWE want Daniel Bryan to be. If they want him to be in the upper midcard, then I think that he should be kept a face. If they want to make him a main eventer, then I think he should probably be turned heel. He does not appear all that serious as a face, in my opinion, and a heel turn would probably make him more serious and help him rise on the card. I don't think he has the charisma to be a main event face and so the best way for him to main event would be to do evil things.

 

[Trivia247]

For some reason I see alot of Bob Backlund in Daniel Bryan. He is bland, but I think its purposely, I think he is a mixture of a classic barely on the mic chain link wrestler, and a high spotter with his Muay Ti kicks and high risk dives. A Way to turn him Heel could be coming out one night and just complain and whine about the company feeling like they couldn't back him without some "Gimmick" Like the Bella Twins following him around. That he doesn't need it to get over with these fans, maybe even use the "Internet Darling" stigma against the crowd, calling them total Marks that they are cattle for high spots, and catch phrases in order for the company to sell merchandise.