Post by gl83 on May 25, 2015 7:00:18 GMT -5
In honor of sidelined WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan celebrating his 34th birthday today, I thought I'd share the story of the small part that I played in Bryan (and AJ Lee's) career during my time on the WWE creative team.
I want to make it clear that I am in no way taking any credit for Bryan or AJ's success. They are both incredibly talented and driven performers and I'm a firm believer in the axiom that the cream always rises to the top.
I was just fortunate enough to have had an opportunity to pitch an idea. Vince McMahon and the entire creative team, as well as Bryan and AJ, took that idea and ran with it, so they deserve all the credit.
This story starts in the spring of 2011. I was going through the interview process for a job on the creative team and was asked to come up with a sample story line. The only guidelines were that the story had to involve characters that were currently on the roster and included matches, promos and backstage segments.
I was intrigued by Bryan, who was obviously a good hand but seemed to be lacking personality and was stuck in mid-card purgatory. I, like a lot of fans and pundits, thought he was capable of a lot more. He had yet to win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match when I submitted the story.
I was also intrigued by AJ, who I don't think was even on the main roster at that point, but she had made a positive impression on me during her stint on the third season of NXT.
She was attractive but was more the girl-next-door than a bombshell, which made her stand out. A self-professed nerd with a fondness for video games and pro wrestling, she struck me as the type of girl that male teenage fans would adore, especially because seemed attainable, unlike most of the Divas.
My idea was for Bryan and AJ to be attracted to each other, but they're both too shy and socially awkward to make the first move. John Morrison happens to see one of Bryan's failed attempts to ask out AJ, so he offers to help Bryan.
That leads to a series of vignettes of Morrison the cool ladies' man trying to "coach up" Bryan in the art of seduction. Eventually, Bryan and AJ get together and become the modern-day Spike Dudley and Molly Holly.
Bryan and Morrison form a friendship and a tag team, with AJ accompanying them to ringside for their matches. AJ views Morrison as a big brother, but Bryan begins to misconstrue the relationship between his best pal and his girlfriend and gradually becomes more and more jealous and insecure.
So Bryan and AJ go from Spike and Molly to Randy Savage and Elizabeth during the Mega Powers era. Eventually, Bryan loses it and attacks Morrison and dumps AJ because he thinks they're playing him for a fool.
Bryan becomes a bitter, psychotic heel, gets a buzz-cut and adopts an ultra-aggressive in-ring style. He gets the better of Morrison in their program and goes on to become a contender for the WWE Title.
I was hired by WWE that August.
One of the first ideas I pitched when I got there was a romantic story line for Bryan and AJ, neither of whom where doing much of anything. Bryan had won the Money in the Bank Ladder Match to earn a contract for a World Heavyweight Title Match, but he was in the midst of a losing streak and I got the sense that he was going to be the first person to unsuccessfully cash in the MITB contract.
Other people on the team seemed to like the relationship idea, and I approached Bryan and AJ at TV one day to discuss it with them. AJ loved it, but Bryan's reaction surprised me.
He politely but firmly said he'd rather not be in a story line with a Diva since he had done one about a year earlier with the Bellas and Gail Kim and he felt it did nothing for his career.
Despite Bryan's misgivings, we proceeded with the angle. It certainly wasn't a major story line, but Bryan and AJ did sort-of become a couple that fall. We never did the thing with Morrison, who was on his way out of WWE.
I don't know where the Bryan-AJ story line would have gone, if anywhere, but the landscape changed significantly that December. World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry was battling some injuries and the call was made to take the title off him.
It was decided that Big Show would win the title from Henry at TLC and then fall victim to a post-match attack by Henry. Bryan, the MITB contract-holder, would then pick the bones of Big Show and become the new champion.
Bryan was a babyface at the time, but McMahon's vision was that success would go to Bryan's head and he would gradually turn heel. I suggested that one of the ways we could tell that story was by Bryan mistreating the love-struck AJ and caring only about himself and the title.
And off we went.
But while I wanted to make AJ a modern-day Miss Elizabeth, others in creative began to have a different vision for the character.
That's when AJ transformed into a "crazy chick" and started making out with Kane and CM Punk and skipping around the ring. I have to admit that I viewed her as a one-dimensional character and never would have thought to take her in that direction, but it obviously worked big time.
Bryan eventually went on to headline WrestleMania in 2014 and AJ is regarded as one of the greatest Divas of all time.
Again, I can't take any credit for that, but I am incredibly proud of the fact that I was able to play a role in at least getting the ball rolling.
kevineckwrestling.sportsblog.com/posts/2506493/the-story-of-daniel-bryan--aj-lee-and-me.html
