Hard worker, takes time for his fans, the ultimate underdog

 

was over.

He's ruined I'd say. No rewriting history now.

 

Still most over guy in the company if you ask me.

 

Some reasons IMO:
- He's an 'underdog' that most fans like to root for
- He puts good effort into his matches
- He has indy background where he was a badass
- He's got a simple word that is easy for a crowd to chant

 

The Yes! Chant is fun to do.

 

Explain the loud Daniel Bryan chants? Explain how they tried to have Big Show and Del Rio steal that chant and fail? Explain Why they chanting His name during a Reign promo? Im a huge Ambrose mark but ive seen you posts about Bryan its very bias dude fpalm

 

Why cant anyone else on the roster get a chant or catchphrase over?

 

Why cant anyone else on the roster get a chant or catchphrase over?

Well most on the roster could probably get the yes chant over. Big Show did. Steph did.

not as well as Bryan though obviously, and Bryan created it so that's a part of being over..

They used a chant that bryan spent a yr getting over. What if steve blackman told the crowd he had two words for them back in the day?

 

The guys who get over organically tend to be the ones who stay over forever. Daniel Bryan got over despite his lame booking and despite WWE's attempts to bury him over the years.

We live in an era where the backstage stuff is all too well known to the fans, so we have an idea of the legit struggle that he's been through. Eventually they had to incorporate it somewhat into the story because it became too obvious that they were holding him back (late 2013/early 2014).

He has IT, which not many have. He's an amazingly sympathetic babyface; he has that knack and making you feel bad for him and root for him. We've seen him develop over the years and evolve, so we're invested in his character. it was never forced, it was slow and played out very naturally. He was somewhat bland at first, then became the cocky WHC heel, then the screwjob at WM 28 garnered him sympathy and that's when the movement had its origins.

From there, he was paired with Kane and we got to see his comedic chops come into the fold, and then there was the "weak line" story which gave the fans a reason to root for him to win and prove that he wasn't weak. From Summerslam 2013 onwards, he had won everybody over with his wrestling ability, comedy talent, and his evolved character. He's like Mick Foley in the sense that we've seen him grow before our very eyes. You can't manufacture stuff like that, where the fans truly care about a performer.

This is what Vince doesn't seem to understand. The forced pushes rarely work because it doesn't give the fans a reason to invest and understand. It feels like the company is just saying, "Cheer this guy because we told you to". With DB, it all happened under the radar and grew naturally.

Plus, how can you look at the gut and NOT like him? He's so likeable!

 

I kind of like Bryan because when he smiles or does nice things, it really comes off as being him unlike other wrestlers who comes off as being fake...

And he is also the ultimate underdog, I think that many people can relate to him, like a good friend, and that helps a lot and that's why to me. But I don't think it would last if he was THE guy, he wouldn't be that over. That's the big difference between him and Orton or Punk, Bryan never got the big push and so can stay the underdog that we love.

 

I can't tell you why he's over. I can just tell you why I like him.

(1) He's a great wrestler and that's something that I still appreciate. No, he's not the only great wrestler in WWE today, but he is damn good and not to mention that what we see from him is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what he's capable of. His moveset is very limited by WWE. Sometimes you'll be watching a Bryan match and he'll pull some awesome move that you haven't seen before and it's like "holy shit I forgot he could do that stuff." It's like he just taunts you with flashes of brilliance.

(2) He's got a personality that people relate to. Honestly, he just seems like someone you could hang out with and that makes him endearing. It's actually quite similar to why people liked Stone Cold Steve Austin back in the day. He wasn't a "pretty boy" or didn't have the classic look of a pro wrestler. But you liked him because he was like the common man. The ******* who told his boss off and kicked everybody's ass. D-Bry is the same type of guy, but for a new generation of fans. Rather than appealing to working class ******** and gen-x'ers, he appeals to millennials and hipsters.

(3) He's the underdog. That's classic storytelling 101, right? It's the same reason we cheer for Frodo in LOTR or Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

 

He is real in the sense you see the love and passion he has for the business and the fans. Bryan Danielson is a rare breed that changes the way you see wrestling and for the better. I have known the man for 15 years having had the pleasure of having him work for Jersey Championship Wrestling which I am a part of and he was always a pleasure to deal with on every level.

Having seen him and talked to him you can see the passion he has and continues to have for the sport, for his fans and for wrestling in general. A fan in the audience can relate to him because what you see is not an act. It is his true personality that comes through.

If you know the man or not you just see the passion and he wears it on his sleeve.

 

Because he's the opposite of Reigns. He has talent and fans see the difference between the two. He can also get sympathy, which is something Reigns has NO idea how to garner for himself.

 

Charm. "It factor". He's the purest example this generation of "it factor"

He's a likable, nice guy that people can related to. He's more down to earth than probably any other wrestler on the roster

He also knows how to CONNECT with people, which is why he is a better promo than Punk and Dean Ambrose. Yeah, you heard that right. Promos aren't about how many cool things you can say and how many insider references you can make (Punk), they're about connecting with the audience

His wrestling style is high energy. He talked about this in an interview once, about how he learned from Japanese wrestling about going into that second gear and getting the crowd pumped. We see it from him when he puts his arms out and starts shaking his head. It pumps up a crowd. He has that "second gear" where he just goes on the warpath and it's awesome. Ziggler needs to learn this and stop making his matches all about selling

The Shield. He started REALLY getting over when he was single handedly taking out all 3 Shield members during his, "I'm not the weakest link" story line. That was FUCKING BAD ASS!!!!

The beard. Seriously, it gave him a more distinctive look. Before that he was a generic looking wrestler

His adaptive role playing ability. You give Bryan any type of character to play and he can pull it off. AJ's douchey boyfriend. A member of the Wyatt family. Team Hell No

He's a student of the game. Ask Bryan anything about WWE history, Ring of Honor, New Japan, Mexican wrestling, he knows his stuff. That's valuable knowledge when you're in the biz

He's wrestled around the world. You can't teach that. That's a diverse, wide amount of experience to draw from

He works his ass off and people recognize that.

He looks like an underdog and people love an underdog. He plays that role better than anyone since maybe Mysterio.

Yes/No chants. He's not over solely because of them, but they caught on like wildfire and people associate that to him

His frequent appearances at sporting events = mainstream attention

Right guy/right time. People are more into indie style wrestlers with great work rate these days. It's not about looks anymore. Vince hasn't figured this out yet...and probably never will

The 18 second Mania squash. It got people behind him

CM Punk. I think in a lot of ways Punk paved the way for guys like Bryan to get over

His music. Seriously. It's RIDE OF THE FUCKING VALKYRIES. That's viking warrior music bitches.

 

Cause he's a believable underdog?

which is why he is a better promo than Punk and Dean Ambrose.

 

Character development. Why was Rock so over? We saw Rock go from being a blue chipper to becoming the wrestling personification of the coolest jock in high school to becoming a Hollywood star. Similarly, fans saw Bryan go from becoming a loser on NXT to finally winning a championship only to become an arrogant and obnoxious heel to working alongside Kane to become one of the most fun tag team champions in years. And after that, we saw Bryan develop a mean streak through his feud with The Shield which transitioned into his singles career where he played the ultimate underdog against the Authority in a feud that blurred the lines between kayfabe and reality. I'm leaving out some more details, but that only proves my point. It's all about character development, and Bryan had lots of it.

 

He is more than great in the ring
Fine promos/mic skills
He has a look, not the look but he has a look. A look that's different, that helps. He looks nothing like the prototype of "the look" and that gains sympathy from the fans when you are more than great in the ring.

He also seems like a likable guy and the booking, although maybe without that intent, favored him a lot.

edit: Don't forget the yes chants. A good chant/catchphrase goes a long way.

 

Most over wrestler in the past decade? Take your mark glasses off and come back to earth

 

Bryan draws from the right influences too. Mentored by Regal and HBK. Also, it says a lot too that Bryan's favorite wrestler seems to be Shinsuke Nakamura

Take a look at that guy's body of work and just think of whatever influence it may have on Bryan

That's a good role model to have if you're a wrestler. Nakamura just "get's it"

 

Hope you bought some condoms for all that dick riding :will2

 

Daniel Bryan was the most over wrestler in NXT Season 1 because of his achievements in the independent scene. WWE firing him after the choking incident made him even more popular among the smarks who are against WWE's PG product. Daniel Bryan losing to Sheamus in 18 seconds at Wrestlemania upset the smark heavy Wrestlemania crowd and it led to even the general fans chanting his catchphrase. This was the biggest moment in Bryan's career as he had now caught the imagination with the general fans too. The catchphrase was so popular that people were chanting even when Rock was cutting a promo.

Bryan was dropped from the main event scene to the mid card by pairing with Kane. Team Hell No's comedy skits soon became the most popular segments on Raw and his popularity rose further. Post CM Punk's pipe bomb, the crowd became more aware of the backstage stuff. By Summerslam 2013, Bryan had become the most over wrestler in the company. Post-Summerslam, Bryan's feud with The Authority mirrored the real life burial of Bryan by WWE which made him even more popular. The fans completely rejected Batista's return. We live in the age of social media and Punk left WWE on bad terms. The fans wanted to express their displeasure with the way WWE was being run and they expressed it by cheering for Bryan. Kayfabe wise, Bryan going up against arguably the best heel in modern wrestling(Triple H) helped him a lot.

 

I think people misinterpret what gets a person over (especially Vince unfortunately). More than size, or da look, or even in ring ability, it's about being cool and tough. It's about keeping it real. Every classic wrestler, their characters were an extension of themselves, they were cool tough guys and found a way to show that in their character. Yes they need to look cool and have some in ring ability too, but that is the number one unifying factor.

Daniel Bryan is clearly tough, and with his in ring persona and on the mic, it seems like who he really is. He's cool and likable. His character is an underdog but so is he in real life. Rocky and Steve Austin never got over until they found a way to KEEP IT REAL and express their personality instead of just playing a fake character on TV. If they ever let Ambrose be himself, I think he could be huge too. It's also why people don't like Reigns, he is clearly an actor playing a character. Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Macho Man, even Hulk Hogan, they were just doing exaggerated versions of their best selves. That's the key.

To put it in shorter R Truth terms, real recognize real, and you gots to keep it rizeal!

 

Simple

Good worker
Believable underdog especially for dirtsheet reading hardcore fans.
Character has grown since he arrived in 2010
Has a catch phrase
Relatable to undersized underdogs, blue collar folk, beard hipsters, work rate fans
He's had some of the best on screen storylines since joining Team Hell No
Connor

Them boots with the fur puts him over the top though

 

The Yes chant is over

 

He just has an innate connection with his fans. This has happened wherever he goes so its no accident.

 

1. He's not fake
2. He got over organically
3. He's a hard worker
4. He's a man of the people
5. He's nice and people love his humble attitude
6. He's different from all the other stars
7. He is a guy parents won't mind being a role model

Really anyone can get over organically but it takes time, not rushing someone and shoving him down your throats.

 

Fresh and underdog. When he won feud against Triple H he was starting to get mixed reactions. People was complaining about his bad mic skills, terrible acting skills. His injury kinda saved him.

 

Really? I just remember the one RAW where he got like 5% boos/no chants and 95% cheers & YES chants.

 

I'm legitimately about to write an essay on this because I find the whole Daniel Bryan phenomenon so amazing, so bear with me.

Because he received the best babyface arc that anyone has received in this decade and most of the last - and the hilaaaarious yet baffling thing, is that most of this was apparently inadvertent. And the story doesn't even start at Summerslam 2013, I actually take you back all the way to mid 2012 when Team Hell No first formed.

Arriving to WWE and in the initial time with the company, nothing was particularly sticking for Daniel Bryan. Every few months he would change his theme song, get some different walkout attire, change his look by shaving his head or what have you. People point to the RAW after Wrestlemania as the point at which he got really over with the audience but I'd say that's the point at which people started gaining an interest in engaging with him.
The thing that actually got him over with the family audience and casuals, was his time in Hell No where people thought they were trying to bury him with a kiddish character. That was the time when the Yes/No chants got over, and that was the time Daniel Bryan started getting over because he made professional wrestling fun. People loved yanking his chain during this time, so now the association in every audience member's mind was Bryan = fun. It should be a no-brainer, epic feuds and spectacular promos are all well and good, but people go to live events TO HAVE FUN. There is always a special appreciation for characters that can provide that, and Bryan was it at the time.

Makes sense then that once he's made his singles split, everyone has very much warmed up to Daniel Bryan building up to Summerslam. He's a nice guy and your normal babyface in that sense, but most importantly in the 'what-have-you-done-for-me-lately' part of people's minds, he's the guy that made the midcard so entertaining for that period of time. It's baffling that a guy that broke his eyeball or whatever shit in the indys, should have to pay his dues again to a different audience, but he does if he wants to get over across the board, and at this point he has. Anyway, nice guy, seems to enjoy wrestling - audience is all for it, and why wouldn't you be? Who could possibly dislike the guy.

Then obviously by Summerslam 2013 it turned out HHH very much didn't like the guy. Classic pro wrestling bait and switch, and the beautiful thing was they milked Bryan's victory. They gave him confetti. They had him thank his mother and father. They had him wrestle Cena in a hard, stiff match to embody what it looked like to taste victory after a hard fought challenge. Then when HHH snatched that away from him, the audience took it very much to heart. That's when it went from the audience liking Daniel Bryan, to loving him.

After that they talked about how he's not good enough, how he's a B+ player etc etc and the crowd did identify him - not that pathetic idea that he looks like his fans(??) or whatever idiocy has been spewed - but because everyone knows what it's like to be told that you're not good enough. So they 'bury' him some more, people get upset some more, but since Bryan can't actually move forward at this point, because of The Authority having the WWEWHC on lockdown, he does the only other thing anyone in his position can do and turns to drugs.

Not actual drugs maybe, but the pro wrestling equivalent. This was the part where people thought they were trying to bury Bryan and turn him heel by joining the Wyatts since he wasn't winning the Rumble. I think of it as the moment people went from loving Bryan, to loving him A LOT. Because it evoked the exact same reactions as you get when you see someone you care about go down a bad way. When they start forming bad habits and spending time with shady people, you don't go "oh whatever, fuck you then" and they're automatically 'heel' to you now. You ask them what's wrong, try telling them that they're changing in a bad way and hope they come to their senses soon.
And when you watch that steel cage seggie you can see the audience struggling at first because they've not been taught how to convey that complexity of emotion in a wrestling arena. They want to boo, not at Bryan but at the Wyatts and at what's happening to Bryan, but they don't want anything to be misconstrued as actually booing Bryan so they mostly sit there like "...????" and hope that Bryan snaps out of it soon.

Then obviously, Bryan finally comes to his senses, turns on Bryan, and elicits the biggest reaction we'd seen in a decade.

All of that time period had so many subtle intricacies that I couldn't believe it was accidental - from the dynamic of Bryan in Team Hell No as a babyface that thought he was heel, to the crowd psychology in the Bryan/Wyatt seggie, it was all so perfectly done, and so interesting to watch unfold. Best of all it led to a top face that people were genuinely emotionally invested in. The reactions Bryan elicited from grown men and women were actually amazing to see. Too bad WWE didn't want to continue this massive success forward.

edit: did I really write that much? bloody hell.

tl;dr: Daniel Bryan's massively compelling trajectory and story arc obliged the audience to invest in him emotionally.

 

- He's a loveable underdog and I guess with his unimpressive size and shape, people can relate to him.
- Has been screwed over so many times
- Is one of the best wrestlers in the world
- Seems a nice guy who cares about the fans

 

Daniel Bryan is over because he is the focal point for the resentment that fans hold toward the manufactured, inauthentic product that they've been presented with over the last few years. Nothing feels RAW anymore; the show was supposedly named for the action and the characters that felt raw and real, but now it is anything but.

Essentially he's over for the same reasons Dave Batista got a negative reaction last year. Two sides of the same coin, really; he didn't get booed because he's Batista, rather he got booed because he represented a company that has stopped listening to its audience.

Nothing about Daniel Bryan is manufactured. He doesn't look, talk, act, or wrestle the way that the products of WWE normally do. He is different, outside of the norm, and because everything else on this show has become so vanilla, people react to him simply because he's the only nail sticking up.

 

He was over because.

1-The current WWE audience prefer underdogs, Bryan is a lovable underdog and his fans are passionate and hate to see the guy being screwed for the authority.

2-The yes chant is the greatest chant ever.

3-He is a phenomenal in ring worker.

But saying that, Im still thinking Cm Punk reaction was much more impressive than Daniel Bryan, he was getting insane reaction without need of any catchphrase, he got huge initial points constantly (something Daniel Bryan hardly does), after a long time the crowd still chanting his name even when he is in UFC, he is the only guy i know never took pauses to hear the crowd chanting his name throughout his great promos.

Punk is universally loved for the people and he never got booed as a babyface, even if Bryan have the yes chant, i feel Cm Punk was much more popular and charismatic and if he comes back he would get one of the loudest pops ever.

So always will desagree with him being considered more over than Cm Punk.