Because I’m such a know-it-all, I like to think that I’m one step ahead of the average wrestling fan; I know that doesn’t sound like anything to necessarily be proud of, but whatever I’m a wrestling fan and there’s no point in denying it. But that means I don’t necessarily root for the obvious things that the business is trying to steer the fans towards, and I like to think that I’m capable of seeing the things between the lines and being able to identify when there’s ironic truths hidden in scripted promos and storylines.
Case in point, I was catching up with Smackdown, and the show opened up with a HHH promo. Basically, the storyline has it where HHH has been forced by an indignant Daniel Bryan, the fan darling of the company and an extraordinary worker to boot, into a match at the upcoming Wrestlemania XXX. Not only does it serve the ever-popular storyline of hard-worker versus the evil boss, but a stipulation was added to the match where if Daniel Bryan beats HHH, then he gets added to a second match in the show, where he can additionally compete for the World Championship. Never mind that the architecture of such a storyline has basically written in stone that Bryan is going to defeat HHH, so that he can singlehandedly rescue the previously-abhorred main event of Randy Orton versus Dave BooBatista, and possibly win the World Championship; that’s not what I’m here to write about today. It’s the buildup of the story, and the ironic truths between the lines that sparked this train of thought, that prompted me to write about it, because it’s sort of beautiful in a way.
Long promo short, HHH rambled on and on about how he essentially created the “YES Movement,” which WWE fans across arenas around the country are eating up like McRibs. HHH additionally rambled on and on about how he “protected” Daniel Bryan, and how if he definitively won the World Championship back last summer, that he would have been metaphorically thrown to the wolves, implying that he would have probably drowned in pecking order politics and gone insane. Naturally, the reaction of the crowd was to boo heartily, and chant the defiant NO that they’ve so been conditioned to do when they hear something they shouldn’t like.
However, the irony is that everything HHH said during the entire interview wasn’t just right in the fact that that’s what the heel character in the story should be saying, everything HHH said during the entire interview was right, well, outright.
I don’t think the average wrestling fan realizes that if they got what they wanted back at Summer Slam, Daniel Bryan would probably already be burned out and creative might have no more ideas for him going into Wrestlemania; the one show of the year that trumps Summer Slam, and where the company effectively gets an unwritten “reset” for the year.
HHH “screwing” Daniel Bryan back at Summer Slam was effectively the true birth of the YES Movement, and sowed the land for the escalating storyline that’s transpiring before our very eyes right now.
Had Daniel Bryan kept the World Championship back in July, what happens then? He fights John Cena a few more times, and then Randy Orton a few times. Maybe tourists like Bootista come back, and take losses to Daniel Bryan. “Non-veteran” talent like the Wyatts and the Shield don’t get cracks at Daniel Bryan if he’s World Champion if the typical WWE pecking hierarchy maintains status quo. The Authority decides they don’t want to have Bryan with the belt and we get a watered-down version of the feud that’s culminating right now.
The bottom line is that Daniel Bryan with a World Championship reign is not a good thing at all. A lot of people don’t agree with this statement, but World Championship reigns aren’t really that great, in terms of character developmental longevity. The title being on Bryan stunts all development to his character, and by right about now, people would be beyond tired of crowds chanting YES (if they already aren’t).
I get that everyone wants to be a World Champion, because there’s all sorts of benefit, be it financial, to the simple recognition of being a champion, but from the base, business aspect, it’s not always necessarily the best thing to be World Champion. There are guys that are simply too good for championship belts, and should be considered either a demotion, or a conclusion to their character when they are given them.
In fact, World Championship reigns in general aren’t that great for any other reason than a career milestone that really only needs to be achieved once, in order for someone to forever be a “former world champion.” What a lot of people don’t realize is that there exists a class of wrestlers that are for lack of a better term, too good for World Championships. Daniel Bryan is among them, as would have be guys like CM Punk, Undertaker, The Rock and Shawn Michaels to name a few more recent examples. These are guys that have the talent, charisma or simply, presence to not need a championship belt to define their success. Putting the belt on them becomes a waste, because it then limits the pool of guys in which they should be feuding with to a smaller number, and usually consisting of guys that aren’t always on their level. However, keeping the World Championship off of them, keeps their character flexible, able to work with all sorts of varying talents and storylines, and like in the case of Daniel Bryan, keep the windows open for all sorts of character development.
Everything HHH said in his promo was 100% true. He created the YES Movement by squashing him immediately after his World Championship win. Through HHH’s “protection,” Bryan has been put in this unforgettable underdog persona that always resonates well with the common fans. Without the restrictions of the World Championship, Bryan is allowed to work with up-and-comers like Bray Wyatt and The Shield, and have lots of flexibility with storylines, instead of always being involved with the same schlubs that consist of the “Main Event Scene.”
Throughout the last eight months, the YES Movement has grown, instead of peaked at a lower plateau, to where it could be rolling downhill upon the approach of Wrestlemania. This does not happen if Bryan is given a World Championship reign at Summer Slam.
The timing of the current storyline is pretty perfect, in my opinion. Personally, I feel that the simple act of YES chants has crested at this point, and it’s getting to be the right time to truly culminate with Daniel Bryan’s long awaited World Championship reign. And as its always stated in promos, there’s no better time and place to immortalized a character than at Wrestlemania. The chants appear to be dying down, and I don’t think we will ever see anything again like when Bryan double-crossed the Wyatts, or when the Occupy RAW thing happened, and there are talents that are being heard knocking at the door, like Roman Reigns and Cesaro, so I think it’s time to finally go for the payoff, which will be a Bryan Championship reign that begins at Wrestlemania.
The irony is that the storyline is one where HHH has held Daniel Bryan down over the last year, but in reality, that in by suppressing the man, he has turned him into the biggest star in the company currently. And anyone would have to be completely inept to not recognize that such was done completely by design.
Daniel Bryan has done his part by working hard, having great matches, and acting how he’s told to act. But all talent and ability aside, he’s still lost without the strings that HHH is pulling with his character.
We’re supposed to hate HHH’s character right now, but guys like me find that hard to do when the actual man behind The Game is ingeniously running such a great product right now. I haven’t been this captivated in wrestling for this long since I was like in the second grade.
In HHH we trust.
