WWE Royal Rumble 2012: Daniel Bryan Must Defend Against Big Show and Mark Henry

Daniel Bryan won his first World Heavyweight Championship after successfully cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Big Show, who had just won the title himself.  Since that night at TLC, Bryan and Show have both been showing signs of character changes.

Bryan has begun to act like a spoiled little brat, going overboard each and every time he wins a match.  Big Show has started to teeter towards becoming more aggressive in terms of trying to reclaim the title Bryan took away from him moments after winning it in Baltimore.

Show has a strong case for feeling anger and resentment.  After nine long years of being without the world title he once prominently held, will now go down in history as holding the shortest world title reign in WWE history.  He lost the title immediately after winning it because Mark Henry knocked him out, leaving Bryan to seize his opportunity as the MITB case holder, leaving Big Show baffled and frustrated after the events transpired.

For a guy who has been around as long as Big Show, spending most of the past decade as the proven veteran helping to get younger talent over, winning that title at TLC must have been the satisfying feeling he has been looking forward to for years.

Bryan is a classic case of picking his spot and cashing in when the time was perfect.

He may have stated he was going to wait until WrestleMania to cash it in, but conventional wisdom states that no Superstar, no matter how classy or trustworthy, can resist the call of the cash in.  He struck while the iron was still hot. 

Now, it may end up costing him in the end.

Big Show has been one of the few guys encouraging Bryan through his long losing streak on SmackDown.  He even went so far as to plant the seed of cashing in before WrestleMania when he felt he could.

Unfortunately for Big Show, the opportunity that Bryan found just so happened to be when he was the holder of the championship.

This past Friday on SmackDown, Big Show got his rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship against Daniel Bryan.  However, the match ended with a decision of disqualification after Henry got involved. 

After the match, Bryan grabbed his title and began celebrating as if he had won it for the first time all over again.

Showboating such as that has to stick in the crawl of the gentle giant.  Sure, he may act like he's slowly getting over it, but watching Bryan celebrate like it's 1999 after every match, whether it's for the title or not, can not be something Big Show likes to see.

Which leads me to the premise of the story: Daniel Bryan must defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Big Show and Mark Henry.

Why? Because both men deserve to get their shot at the gold again.

First, we examine Big Show's case.

Not only does Big Show deserve to have another title match, Daniel Bryan needs to prove he can tangle with the big man.

If Bryan were to defend the title against Henry alone, any outcome of the match would lead to Show getting his chance the next time around anyway.

Consider this: Henry cannot possibly lose cleanly to Bryan because it would crush all the momentum he had going for him before his leg injury.  Bryan can't possibly lose cleanly because it would kill his standing as the man who is supposed to be in the world title match at WrestleMania. 

Bryan can't win by disqualification because that, too, would effectively kill Henry's standing as the beastly heel, the same one who took out Randy Orton, cleanly, twice.

The only possible outcome that would work for a Bryan vs. Henry bout would be Henry winning by disqualification with Show getting involved, attacking Bryan during the match after built up frustration.  Henry would win and have an argument as to why he should get another title shot, but logic states that Show would also be thrown into the match in the end anyway.

Next, Mark Henry's case.

Henry lost his title to Show at TLC, more than likely because he suffered an injury the Monday before the pay-per-view, forcing a rash decision by the creative team to get the title off of him. Also, he was the one that took out Big Show, allowing Bryan to cash in on him.

Considering the possibility of a one-on-one match between Bryan and Show means that Henry would have to get involved in order to keep his momentum going, even if he is not in the match itself. No matter who he would attack, Henry would have to make his presence known to both competitors. 

A triple-threat match between champion Bryan, Big Show and Mark Henry is the only plausible option when you consider everything going on over on SmackDown. 

Why not spare the singles match and give us the triple threat we know should happen?