I disagree, while Bryan is good he's never been better than punk, and his audience has and will never reach cenas. It's his catchphrase that's popular. Ppl loved punk and he was close to being a household name, but Vince made him stale.
Bullshit. I don't know why there are people who don't want to give the guy credit for his achievements.
It's not his catchphrase, it's him. He's already more popular than Cena.
He's not better than Punk because Punk can talk on a high level but in the ring, they're equal and he was more popular than Punk when Punk left.
Punk was always 2nd and even when Bryan was over punk was the draw. Ppl wouldn't turn in tickets for refunds cuz Bryan isn't there. Despite cena needing change, Bryan will never touch him in terms of popularity. Ppl who don't watch wwe know who punk and cena are, they don't know who Bryan is.
He's already more popular than Cena.
People have canceled their Network subscriptions after the Rumble over Bryan so that part isn't true.
You're overselling Punk. Punk gets a lot of mainstream pub now because of his signing with UFC. He did nothing special to be any more mainstream than Daniel Bryan, who, btw, many non fans do know because his woman is on "Total Divas".
Bryan is a hell of a performer in the ring but like I said he is walking NyQuil as a person, reigns has been pushed too hard, they should've went the diesel route and let him be the silent renegade like someone said earlier.
I'm not a fan of his promos either but WWE fans are buying what he's selling and they need to push him hard. That's how you run a successful wrestling promotion: give the people what they want.
You can come up with names if you want, it doesn't change that the vast majority of WWE fans love the guy.
They did go the Diesel and are getting the same result: hot talent that the fans turn on because they take away the mystique that made him cool. Diesel went from the hottest guy in the business to a failed WWF champion.
I like Bryan but when they gave him the belt it was like "ok, he's had his moment, wtf do we do now??". It's like Rey mysterio, everyone wanted it but when it happened there's only so much you can do with him.
More nonsense. His reign was running out of steam because they put him with Kane. No one cares about Kane as a title challenger in 2014-2015 and the next step was for him to take Cena's asskicking by Brock at SummerSlam.
His title reign not taking off wasn't his fault since he doesn't book himself.
Who's he gonna fight?? Brock?? Nobody with half a brain would even believe that the way Brock is tearing shit up. Bryan doesn't need the belt to be where he is and he's gonna have to prove he can be trusted to carry the wwe. I don't blame them for being scared to give him the strap, he's just come off major surgery.
So what? Guys come back from major surgery all the time and pick up where they left off so why is Bryan different?
It's not a matter of needing the title, he's earned a run on top. He works hard, has good to great matches and is massively over.
They're not scared because he got hurt last year. Don't lie for them. Reigns got hurt too and more recently. Cena got hurt and came right back two years ago and beat Del Rio, even powering out of his finisher.
You really can't blame WWE with going with Reigns. Cena will be 38 years old soon and his work load is going to be decreasing with all the injuries and stacked bump card. Bryan is 34 & a neck injury away from calling it quits. Orton is in his mid 30's also. Smackdown will be live Thursday. WWE can only hope that Reigns gets a good reception and hopefully Heyman can sell the match.
That doesn't hold water. Everyone is a neck injury from calling it quits. With all the unnecessary crazy bumps and spots, guys are at risk all the time. If Bryan wasn't able to go, they wouldn't have booked him to work, much less work the schedule he has where they have clearly put the success of Smackdown on his shoulders.
I hate that Reigns has been caught up in this as he's a guy I thought was set for a big push from the first time the Shield jumped someone. But that doesn't change that despite getting over, like Vince and HHH claim they want guys to do, Bryan is overlooked and passed by for the second straight year. For the second straight year, he's not even scheduled in a featured match at the biggest show of the year while much less popular wrestlers are featured over him in bigger matches.