What if we told you Daniel Bryan main eventing Wrestlemania Tres Equis was the idea before tonight?
How about before the Royal Rumble?
Or Summerslam?
Or at Wrestlemania two years ago?
Or when he debuted as the top prospect on NXT four years ago?
What if we told you that the plans for Daniel Bryan go back all the way to the beginning of the WWE as you know it under the guidance of Vincent Kennedy McMahon?
It’s well documented that Vince bought the then WWWF from his father back in 1982. Vince wanted to turn wrestling into sports entertainment. Something that can be enjoyed not just in certain pockets of America, but all around the world, including Turkmenistan, a place that forbid wrestling like John Lithgow forbid dancing in his town in “Footloose”.
But the question you should being asking yourself is why 1982? What possessed Vince to invest into wrestling at this point? This did….
This is Daniel Bryan, or Bryan Danielson, at the time (EDITOR’S NOTE: We couldn’t find a baby photo of Bryan so we took a stock photo instead, but we identified him as Bryan so you get the drift). Vince learned about the birth of Bryan a year earlier and that’s when he began pressuring his father into selling him the WWWF. After months of wrangling, his father finally relented, but warned his son that his aspirations were likely to fail. Vince didn’t believe his father because he knew that someday, the man that would be the cornerstone of professional wrestling/sports entertainment would be there and the WWE would become a multi-billion dollar company.
In the meantime to hold over until Bryan’s arrival, Vince brought in Terry Bollea, or as you know him Hulk Hogan, or as the Japanese know him, the tangerine-skinned guy that sings lullabies to babies in order to sell air purifiers.
The fact is Hogan was merely a placeholder for Bryan, who at the time was learning the alphabet and how to count to ten. Hogan provided obvious stability for the company while Bryan was working his way up the grammar school ladder. He even won a geography bee in the fourth grade.
The early half of the 90s were a more trying time for the then-WWF. While Bryan was going into junior high without even the opportunity to have even kissed a girl after missing Jenny Jeffcoat’s 13th birthday party which included party-goers playing the games Spin the Bottle and Seven Minutes in Heaven, Vince was defiantly deflecting steroid accusations regarding his company. He even went to trial and nearly wound up in jail over it. Vince knew that his savior wouldn’t resort to those kind of performance enhancements. All he had to do was weather the storm for a few more years.
As Bryan was in the middle of high school, the WWF was experience a revival of sorts led by the precocious Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Mick Foley and others. Vince was enthusiastic about the future. His company was stable. Bryan finally got to third base with Jenny Jeffcoat. And most importantly, Bryan was only a couple of years away from formally entering the world of wrestling.
Things hit a bit of a lull involving Bryan shortly after high school in 1999 when he decided to get into topography by studying in a local community college, Vince contacted Bryan’s favorite wrestler growing up, Shawn Michaels, to spend most of his semi-retirement in order to court Bryan to get into wrestling. Michaels even created a wrestling school specifically just so Bryan would go there to train. Once Bryan was ready to make a splash, HBK closed up the school and went back into wrestling full time.
Bryan worked the indie circuit for a few years creating a buzz on the internet. This was the plan all along. Vince knew that the fans wouldn’t accept him if he immediately came to the company and they booked him like Brock Lesnar. Vince wanted Bryan to build credibility with their most critical of supporters. This proved to be a very successful idea as Bryan racked up accolades around wrestling circles building to a crescendo in 2009 when he formally signed a contract with the WWE.
Bryan’s debut was panned by play-by-play commentator Michael Cole deliberately. They wanted to build the underdog character type from day one. They even utilized the Miz, one of the most despised wrestlers in the internet community, to be his ‘coach’ on NXT. It was a move considered a slap to the fact of every fan out there. These measures worked flawlessly as fans pined for a Daniel Bryan push.
A major snag hit the company a few months later when an incident involving Daniel Bryan and ring announcer Justin Roberts took place involving Bryan choking Roberts with a tie. Rumors were that Mattel, a major company that did promotional work with the WWE, were shocked and appalled by the abhorrent violence that took place in that segment and demanded Bryan be fired. He was days later.
But it turns out….he never was fired. In fact, it was a work. The WWE AND Mattel were in cahoots. They wanted to maximize Bryan’s buzz by ‘firing’ him in order to build a groundswell of support for Bryan. It worked in a big way.
Bryan floundered for about a year until Vince was ready to start the Bryan Era. Vince had CM Punk cut a promo in Las Vegas to hype up the Money in the Bank PPV in Chicago in July of 2011. Punk’s promo brought a lot of attention to that show. Why? Because it was the night Daniel Bryan won the Money in the Bank briefcase.
Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship a few months later in December 2011. Shortly after winning the title, Bryan turned heel and began chanting the word ‘Yes’ anytime he achieved victory. These two measures were done deliberately for two different reasons. Number one, the internet fans love villains and number two, the yes chants would get over with general audiences.
At Wrestlemania 28, Bryan was put in a feud with supposed pet project Sheamus. On that fateful evening, Sheamus defeated Bryan with a swift Brogue Kick and Bryan was pinned in 18 seconds. This was the catalyst. A seed planted that grew into an orchard one day later when the RAW crowd chanted for Bryan throughout the show. Vince, backstage, was beyond thrilled. In fact, his penis he calls Big Earl was erect for approximately 37 hours. It broke his personal record of 32 hours caused by Gary Strydom during the 1992 WBF Invitational.
Bryan would spend the summer of 2012 teaming with Kane as tag-team champs. Their tandem won over the hearts and minds of the fans, which reverted Bryan back to face. A move that was…you guessed it….planned.
2013 was the year that they would play off Bryan as a man possessed. After going through a minor losing streak, Bryan would spend the summer going on a tear culminating in a clean victory over John Cena at Summerslam only to be screwed over by the Lord Voldemort of the IWC, the man they call Triple H.
Triple H was the obvious choice. A man reviled by hardcore fans as someone who refuses to put over guys like Booker T at Wrestlemania 19 for example. All of the things Triple H did to warrant such a reputation was done by the WWE just for this exact moment. And yes, marrying Steph in real life is included. Their marriage was created solely for Summerslam last year. The three daughters were just a bonus.
The remainder of 2013 was to build sympathy for Bryan. Worked like gangbusters. Crowds became more irate over the constant deflation of Bryan’s ascension to the top. The last piece of the puzzle, though, was the Royal Rumble.
Bringing back Batista was the plan since 2010. Dave’s return and Royal Rumble victory exemplified everything hardcore fans hate about the WWE. A guy with a killer physique who left four years earlier comes back just to main event their Super Bowl equivalent. The fans fell for it as you expect. Batista was booed heavily and the company was criticized heavily for their creative direction.
Simultaneously, the WWE unveiled their Network. Some people complained about buffering issues like having to wait a little bit longer to enjoy some of the content. Having to wait? Sound familiar Daniel Bryan fans??? Notice the Network launched shortly after the Royal Rumble incident. Any other time, the Network would have been an unmitigated disaster.
But this past Monday night, the WWE finally revealed the master plan. If Bryan defeats Triple H at Wrestlemania, he will participate in the main event later that evening. It is expected that he will win the WWE Title once and for all. The question now remains, how long will Bryan’s reign last? Our sources tell us it can either be several years or several months. Honestly, we’re not really all that good with prognostications. In fact, it’s easily where he usually show massive inaccuracies.
But one thing’s for sure. It was a plan that for Vince McMahon had nearly 33 years in the making.
