Ring Crew Commentaries: Daniel Bryan is not a credible champion

By Dubya

Last night on WWE TLC, Daniel Bryan cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase to beat the Big Show and become World Heavyweight Champion.  At the end of the night, CM Punk tweeted a picture of Bryan and himself wearing the top titles in the company, reminding folks of Wrestlemania XX with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. 

Good for Daniel Bryan.  Nobody can take away the fact you are a World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE.  That will be in the history books forever.  In 2011, the company appreciated you enough to put the big gold belt around your waist.

Even so,  you are not a credible champion.

In 2011, Daniel Bryan has barely beaten anyone clean as a major babyface on Smackdown.  Just in the past few weeks he has been jobbed out to World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry and lost two weeks in a row to Cody Rhodes, the WWE Intercontinental Champion.  His biggest wins have been the Money in the Bank match at Money in the Bank and against… umm… Heath Slater?  Tyson Kidd?  I think he beat Dean Ambrose in FCW?  Am I missing someone?  Did Bryan ever beat Mark Henry?  Big Show?  Randy Orton?  John Cena?  CM Punk?  Alberto Del Rio?  The Miz?  Wade Barrett even!?

It’s funny to compare Barrett to Bryan, actually.  Since Money in the Bank, Wade Barrett has only had one real big profile loss and that was last night against Randy Orton.  Barrett has instead been on an impressive winning streak that has built up his credibility as an upper midcard heel on Smackdown to one day get the push to the top.  Daniel Bryan has been in constant losses and being treated as the third wheel of a Big Show/Mark Henry storyline.  This is all, of course, on the WWE brand that’s on SyFy and given barely any attention in the grand scheme of the WWE. 

The fact is that Bryan is completely lacking in credibility as champion and a perfect example of how the WWE has had no clue about getting a guy to the next level outside of the headliners (the last guy to get out of it was CM Punk and he cooled down to “just a main eventer” after the company decided to put him over by not being able to cleanly beat Triple H) yet people are… for the most part happy.  The most arduous critics of the WWE booking are more than happy to roll over and play dead if it means getting their wish.  That wish is for the guys like they to be top guys.  It doesn’t matter how they get there.  It doesn’t matter if the booking was bad.  It really doesn’t matter at all if it's good for business or viability or anything.  It just matters who wears the gold.   The American Dragon is a WWE Champ?  Who cares how, that’s great!  What a win for indy wrestling!  Yeah sure I can’t be bothered to pay $8 a month to actually support an indy like Ring of Honor or pay $10-15 to support an indy in my area but who cares, I’ll support indy wrestling through the WWE.  Yeah, read that one over a few times and think about it.

The truly sad part is when the WWE continues to book Daniel Bryan the same way they have been while he’s WWE Champion.  And the fanboys who cheerleaded and gave the WWE the benefit of the doubt just because Bryan cheaply won the title (which was something he argued about only months before, that CM Punk wasn’t a true Champion until he beat John Cena in a real match) will complain about how he’s booked as Champion.  It is pathetic but that’s the way it will be.  Give me what I want and I won’t care how you do it.  I’ll complain when I start paying attention again.  It doesn’t help that when you mention how terrible business is going for the WWE and now they have two indie darlings as their top champions, the only answer one can muster is, “Hey, it’s better now than in 1995!” That should be the new WWE catchphrase. 

I expect more out of my wrestling, and if the Sports Entertainment Company is going to make a wrestler their World Heavyweight Champion, I’d at least expect him to look good.  I remember when Jack Swagger won the belt and how we all looked at it critically.  Today, Jack Swagger is a midcard heel who gets tossed in weekly main events to make other guys look good.  Sound a bit familiar?  Of course it does.  In the words of Sean O’Haire, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

So stop getting angry at Dave Batista on twitter and stop posting tweets from WWE fans who question this.  What I’m asking and you should ask yourself, why the hell are you not questioning it?

Posted in: Daniel Bryan,Dubya,Money in the Bank,Ring Crew Commentaries,TLC,Wade Barrett,World Heavyweight Championship,WWE