To think, they could have avoided all of this...

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

...if they had just given Daniel Bryan and Sheamus a decent-length match at WrestleMania XXVIII. He'd probably would have still been over, but not "completely derail a show by his absence" over. Now, we're at something rarely seen in the history of the company.

It's amazing how the butterfly effect works.

[Boo!]

That's a HUGE stretch. I don't think many people outside the hardcore fans either/or remember or think about that match at all

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2014 10:37:40 GMT -5 Boo! said:

That's a HUGE stretch. I don't think many people outside the hardcore fans either/or remember or think about that match at all

I disagree with that, if only how in segments involving either Bryan or Sheamus nobody be it them, the commentators, other people, or whoever can seem to shut up about it.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Jan 27, 2014 10:37:40 GMT -5 Boo! said:

That's a HUGE stretch. I don't think many people outside the hardcore fans either/or remember or think about that match at all

If that's the case now, in your opinion, then theoretically a lot less would have remembered it if it was just a normal, good-to-great match.

[Boo!]

Jan 27, 2014 10:40:16 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

Jan 27, 2014 10:37:40 GMT -5 Boo! said:

That's a HUGE stretch. I don't think many people outside the hardcore fans either/or remember or think about that match at all

If that's the case now, in your opinion, then theoretically a lot less would have remembered it if it was just a normal, good-to-great match.

It wasn't a good to great match it was a pointless squash but it isn't that big of a deal at a time when nearly every other guy on the roster had a title of some kind. Half the matches that night were title matches. Nobody sits there now thinking "you know what pisses me off? That 18 seconds match two years ago - I just haven't gotten over that!"

It's far detached from what we see today and why people react like they do. It was a moment that was so short and early in the card it's barely memorable. We're talking about an audience that needs streams and streams of review packages to recall what happened on a main event fortnight ago. You really think they're going back 24 months and thinking about that?

[Deleted]

It's not that people think about that match specifically. But it was the birth of "Daniel Bryan is getting screwed by the man" and YES chants hijacking shows. It's grown and grown from there into quite the phenomenon, and in WWE's eyes, quite the problem.

[ritt works hard fo da chickens]

It's a true evolution of what we have gotten too though. I don't think fans wanted DB to win last night because of 18 seconds. I think because of 18 seconds fans hijacked the Raw afterwards and it put a big cramp in Sheamus feel good face reign. Then that chant got more and more over. It lead into team Hell No. That lead into his weakest link story and more Yes! chanting. Every step of the way the Yes! got louder and more prominent, and more consistent. It's at a dangerous level now where it trumps all other angles it comes up against. And because of that slow burn we got last night.

[Reflecto]

Jan 27, 2014 10:48:48 GMT -5 @lovehater said:

It's not that people think about that match specifically. But it was the birth of "Daniel Bryan is getting screwed by the man" and YES chants hijacking shows. It's grown and grown from there into quite the phenomenon, and in WWE's eyes, quite the problem.

But if you're going to go there, then you also have to consider the bigger butterfly effect:

-If WWE swapped The Miz and CM Punk's Pros on NXT 1, then all of this- and more- does not happen.

-If CM Punk is Daniel Bryan's NXT Pro, absolutely no one says a word about Bryan's Pro since everyone accepts CM Punk as a longtime friend/rival, someone who could teach Bryan to be a WWE Star.
-Meanwhile, CM Punk/Darren Young's NXT storyline boiled down to how different Young was from the SES- something Bryan could have hummed the same bars for [on a smaller scale], but The Miz and Young's gimmicks would have clicked well and been acceptable to fans.

From there, it goes even further- without Bryan going after Miz for this "Bryan should be MIZ'S Pro, not vice-versa!"- suddenly, Michael Cole's hatred has less of a raison d'etre (taking away Heel Cole and making 2010-12 WWE easier to deal with), The Miz doesn't get nearly the hatred (which fueled the fire enough to turn him from "really good US Champion" to "WWE Champion and Mania main eventer..."

[thelonewolf527]

Def not the case

Sheamus and Bryan could have had a 20 minute spectacular match and the fact that he was losing meant the crowd was going to chant for him no matter what

[paywindah]

Jan 27, 2014 12:04:47 GMT -5 thelonewolf527 said:

Def not the case

Sheamus and Bryan could have had a 20 minute spectacular match and the fact that he was losing meant the crowd was going to chant for him no matter what

If they had a 20 minute match, the following night's Raw crowd wouldn't have made the show all about Bryan the way they did. That crowd was the one that really kick started things.

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2014 10:43:48 GMT -5 Boo! said:

Jan 27, 2014 10:40:16 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

If that's the case now, in your opinion, then theoretically a lot less would have remembered it if it was just a normal, good-to-great match.

It wasn't a good to great match it was a pointless squash but it isn't that big of a deal at a time when nearly every other guy on the roster had a title of some kind. Half the matches that night were title matches. Nobody sits there now thinking "you know what pisses me off? That 18 seconds match two years ago - I just haven't gotten over that!"

It's far detached from what we see today and why people react like they do. It was a moment that was so short and early in the card it's barely memorable. We're talking about an audience that needs streams and streams of review packages to recall what happened on a main event fortnight ago. You really think they're going back 24 months and thinking about that?

I don't think the arguments that the fans who go nuts for Bryan at live events are still annoyed about that one match. Its more that incident was the beginning of the live audiences seeing Bryan as being misused or mistreated by WWE. It was the origins of a snowball effect that really led the the YES chants catching on and Bryan coming to the attention of a larger section of the audience than he'd had before.

[Lancers]

A proper world title run after Summerslam would have sufficed I believe. Orton cashing it in at Hell in a Cell, Survivor Series or TLC as opposed to Summerslam would have been better.

[Joe Neglia]

Jan 27, 2014 10:37:40 GMT -5 Boo! said:

That's a HUGE stretch. I don't think many people outside the hardcore fans either/or remember or think about that match at all

Not a HUGE stretch at all. The Raw after that match was when the fans notoriously hijacked the entire show and when Bryan's name and Yes chants started taking over parts of the show he wasn't on. I don't care how much of an apologist you are, you cannot in any semblance of earnestness deny that. Sorry, I know you're trying to be the devil's advocate or whatever it is you're doing, but that's exactly where the momentum started.

[Reflecto]

Jan 27, 2014 12:04:47 GMT -5 thelonewolf527 said:

Def not the case

Sheamus and Bryan could have had a 20 minute spectacular match and the fact that he was losing meant the crowd was going to chant for him no matter what

On the contrary- most of Bryan's biggest fans usually tend to be savvy enough about the storyline to inherently know "yeah, it's coming to an end at Wrestlemania 28, Sheamus is going to beat Bryan for the title", and were thinking "As long as this is a really good match, that's good enough for us...and Bryan/Sheamus have good chemistry together, so they can put on a decent match." If the two put on a 20 minute spectacular, that would have been good enough for a lot of fans in the crowd.