Okay. I like Bryan’s work but...

[Abdullah]

It’s kind of allientating?

With the comparisons he gets to Punk’s 2009-2010 run, Punk was ironically something of an extremist. He judged people for drinking, for loose morals, and that kind of blowhard is relatable.

I’m not sure Bryan is. Like objectively, it’s good and consistent mic work but I feel a little detached from it. Maybe he needs a longer run to find character growth. Maybe he needs a better feud. But I found the first few promos after his turn to be more engaging.

And I still think he shouldn’t have turned heel.

[Deleted]

I really think this gimmick is absolutely awful and it's pretty much killed any interest I have in Bryan. It's also a pretty damn midcard gimmick - I could buy into this easier with the WCW TV title or something but with the WWE one it just comes off like the entire main event scene is a joke.

Although it'd probably help if they'd get him away from AJ. This feud has been going on since October and I'm sick of it.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

I do like that in his promo tonight, he didn’t heel out on his home state crowd. I understand that Washington has a bit of a reputation of being on the environmental forefront, but I’m not 100% certain.

But I actually haven’t been watching enough of the weekly TV lately to get a true gauge on his promo work of late.

[Abdullah]

Feb 5, 2019 22:41:27 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I really think this gimmick is absolutely awful and it's pretty much killed any interest I have in Bryan. It's also a pretty damn midcard gimmick - I could buy into this easier with the WCW TV title or something but with the WWE one it just comes off like the entire main event scene is a joke.

Although it'd probably help if they'd get him away from AJ. This feud has been going on since October and I'm sick of it.

He’s feuding with global warming and not a person. It’s kind of...

I’m sitting and watching like, ‘maybe he should refocus this in a wrestling context.’ He does that, of course, but it’s kind of clunky sometimes.

[Deleted]

I love Daniel Bryan. But I f***ing hate this character.

And not in a “You’re supposed to hate the heel!” way. I just think the whole character and look is a complete waste of Bryan’s talent. When Bryan turned heel, I was initially against the entire idea of it. Although he wasn’t getting 2014 reactions, he was still over and is probably the most likeable, cheerable wrestler on the roster next to Johnny Gargano (ironically, ALSO a heel but that’s for another thread...)

People say “Bryan’s reactions weren’t strong” but what do you expect when they bottled his entire comeback? This should have a massive deal. Take a look at Shawn Michaels” comeback in 2002 and compare it to Bryan. Shawn got the red hot HHH feud, he won the title in the Elimination Chamber and then had an epic feud with Jericho at WM19.

Bryan? He gets Big f***ing Cass. The most generic “hoss” in years. Nobody could make a feud with Big Cass interesting. It was always going to be a heatless feud. Then, they reformed Team Hell No and this would have gone on for MONTHS if Kane didn’t get injured. Literally nobody was demanding a Team Hell No comeback. But there we have it. Finally, we get The Miz feud. And this honestly had potential to headline Wrestlemania if done right. Of course it wasn’t done right. They had two shit matches, one that lasted an entire minute and then they decided “Oh, we’ll add their real life wives who also happen to be terrible wrestlers into it”... christ.

Look, although i was against the idea of a heel Bryan, I accepted it cause it meant he was WWE Champion again. I was HOPING we would see a return of THIS guy...



But instead we have a cardigan wearing environmental vegan activist or whatever you wanna call it. It sucks ass. Everything about it sucks. Whereas “2006 ROH Bryan Danielson” as a heel could have had been one of the best characters going, if he changed his move set to a more “boring technical” style to get heat from the crowd. Honestly I think it could have been up there with crazy Bob Backlund. It’s one big missed opportunity to not have Daniel Bryan like this.

[Mozenrath]

The heel turn was basically required. Bryan was visibly just bored being a face, his pops were losing their steam, and his character just was seeming like a smug ass, anyway, so leaning into it made sense. I think part of the problem now, though, is that AJ was a terrible face to do it with. Maybe a year ago, when he wasn't played out and boring, but his long, ponderous championship reign killed it.

[abjordans]

The “I’m using wrestling to accomplish something that has nothing to do with wrestling” gimmick is a trope right out of the mid 90s WWF, but how into it and over the top Bryan is has been enjoyable. Plus he has had dope matches aside from the last AJ one, I admit it was a bit of a snoozer.

[sarkerpolseng]

Nope. His character is breath of fresh air in the WWE. He is arrogant, and backs it up in the ring.

[bearned]

I think we should just enjoy the fact he’s getting a title run and wrestling most weeks, not long ago nobody ever expected he’d be back in the ring.

I actually really like this heel run and I appreciate the effort he has put into it.

[Deleted]

I love everything Bryan's doing and it's by far his best character work in this company since his world heavyweight champion days. He's killing it on all levels right now and the crowd's eating it up. I'm sooooooooooo glad they went with this heel turn rather than rehash some other bullshit he's done in the past. It's 2019, gotta come in with the new.

[Abdullah]

Feb 5, 2019 22:58:34 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

The heel turn was basically required. Bryan was visibly just bored being a face, his pops were losing their steam, and his character just was seeming like a smug ass, anyway, so leaning into it made sense. I think part of the problem now, though, is that AJ was a terrible face to do it with. Maybe a year ago, when he wasn't played out and boring, but his long, ponderous championship reign killed it.

I’m curious about his reactions now. I’m in the hospital, so I listen on my headphones but it just seems to me that some of the crowd have been pretty hohum for his promos, only booing for an obvious bit of heel heat.

But I’m biased. I really think his face run, and his feud with Miz, could have been reworked. But I think a combination of Bryan not wanting to do it and most likely sending Miz back to Raw ended it. I was digging the odd couple vibe they had going way more than this ‘daddy kink’ stalling tactic with Shane.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

I love it. All of it. The character, his promos, his ring work, hell even Rowan tagging along. Most I’ve dug Bryan. Ever.

[Deleted]

Couldn’t disagree more if I tried. Dude’s killing it. He had already completely run out of steam as a face by the time he turned, and the turn had lit a fire under him.

Most interesting he’s been since his big rise.

For clarification, this isn’t directed at the OP. Just the general idea that the gimmick sucks. It doesn’t. It rules.

[Deleted]

The gimmick is firing on all cylinders and it’s absolutely glorious. Becoming this jaded veteran who’s being consumed by the WWE title and being a dick about his world views is the best thing. In most videos I’ve seen, the crowd is booing the hell out of him. They’re listening but booing him because of how big of a dickhead he’s being.

[Wrestling Curmudgeon]

I guess we hate Daniel Bryan now. LOL. He's doing his WWE work minus the WM 30 buildup. Enjoy it.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2019 23:39:29 GMT -5 Wrestling Curmudgeon said:

I guess we hate Daniel Bryan now. LOL. He's doing his WWE work minus the WM 30 buildup. Enjoy it.

Disliking a character someone is doing isn't the same as hating the performer. I still like Bryan. I'll readily grant that, the godawful Rumble match with AJ aside (and really boring PPV matches are just what's expected out of AJ at this point), Bryan's better in the ring as a heel than he is as a face and he's been doing some great stuff there - like top of my head the Mustafa Ali match was great. I'll also readily grant that he's giving 100% to the material, though I find his delivery of promos more obnoxious than anything mostly because he screams every single word of them.

I just think it's a gimmick that's very, very hard to take seriously as a main event fixture and the act is basically 100% reliant on cheap heat, and having to hear him come out screaming the same tired things every single week before his matches is making me disinterested in watching those matches afterward. That's not the same thing as hating Bryan as a performer.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2019 23:43:36 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Feb 5, 2019 23:39:29 GMT -5 Wrestling Curmudgeon said:

I guess we hate Daniel Bryan now. LOL. He's doing his WWE work minus the WM 30 buildup. Enjoy it.

Disliking a character someone is doing isn't the same as hating the performer. I still like Bryan. I'll readily grant that, the godawful Rumble match with AJ aside (and really boring PPV matches are just what's expected out of AJ at this point), Bryan's better in the ring as a heel than he is as a face and he's been doing some great stuff there - like top of my head the Mustafa Ali match was great. I'll also readily grant that he's giving 100% to the material, though I find his delivery of promos more obnoxious than anything mostly because he screams every single word of them.

I just think it's a gimmick that's very, very hard to take seriously as a main event fixture and the act is basically 100% reliant on cheap heat, and having to hear him come out screaming the same tired things every single week before his matches is making me disinterested in watching those matches afterward. That's not the same thing as hating Bryan as a performer.

The heel turn would’ve failed miserably had he not gone the cheap heat route. The purpose of a heel is to get heat and booed by the crowd and get the crowd to love the good guy. We can’t exactly get that with a heel who doesn’t do cheap heat. Ciampa does it, Owens does it, Drew does, every heel does it. I just don’t personally see it being a problem with Bryan.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2019 23:45:47 GMT -5 @jessem52 said:

Feb 5, 2019 23:43:36 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Disliking a character someone is doing isn't the same as hating the performer. I still like Bryan. I'll readily grant that, the godawful Rumble match with AJ aside (and really boring PPV matches are just what's expected out of AJ at this point), Bryan's better in the ring as a heel than he is as a face and he's been doing some great stuff there - like top of my head the Mustafa Ali match was great. I'll also readily grant that he's giving 100% to the material, though I find his delivery of promos more obnoxious than anything mostly because he screams every single word of them.

I just think it's a gimmick that's very, very hard to take seriously as a main event fixture and the act is basically 100% reliant on cheap heat, and having to hear him come out screaming the same tired things every single week before his matches is making me disinterested in watching those matches afterward. That's not the same thing as hating Bryan as a performer.

The heel turn would’ve failed miserably had he not gone the cheap heat route. The purpose of a heel is to get heat and booed by the crowd and get the crowd to love the good guy. We can’t exactly get that with a heel who doesn’t do cheap heat. Ciampa does it, Owens does it, Drew does, every heel does it. I just don’t personally see it being a problem with Bryan.

To me, being entertaining is more important than being booed, and Bryan's gimmick is about the exact opposite of entertaining. More than once his promos have just made me fed up enough to turn the show off and not bother to continue it (that tag match against Mysterio and Ali a few weeks ago comes to mind, I lost all interest in watching the match the second Bryan opened his mouth). I'm not about to give an act props for being so bad that it makes me stop watching.

Also, there's indulging in cheap heat and then there's making it the entire act. That's the entire gimmick, it's just endlessly going on and on and on and on and on and on about how much he hates the crowd. He's doing nothing else.

[Chiral]

It feels like too much of a rehash of his 2012 character, which was fun then, but much less fun now. Like he'll still do Prius references and stuff but I don't really wanna boo...a guy talking about global warming? I get that he's a dick but it feels like a totally misguided thing for a wrestler right now and it just makes me more uncomfortable than really wanting to boo him. Combine that with him still doing "NO!" and "FICKLE!" as basically a yes substitute...I just was hoping there'd be something more to this than cheap heat and weird conflicting messages. I can't shake the feeling it's just a strawman environmentalist character for Vince's enjoyment.

[toodarkmark]

Its my favorite thing about the WWE right now.