WWE: Is Daniel Bryan's Heel Turn Being Approached the Right Way?

Whether we like it or not, Daniel Bryan is undoubtedly turning heel. 

When Bryan cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on The Big Show at WWE TLC to become World Heavyweight Champion, we all assumed that either he or Show would be making a turn to the dark side. 

But, as the storyline between the two has progressed, it’s become pretty clear that Bryan—not Big Show—is the one who’s going bad. 

The odd thing about Bryan’s gradual heel turn, though, is that nothing he’s done has been overtly heel. He has shown some very heelish tendencies by excessively celebrating wins (kissing the belt, screaming and jumping on the ringside barrier), appearing to get himself intentionally disqualified against Big Show on two different occasions and starting to become a little more arrogant. 

But it’s still hard to point to any particular instance and say, “Oh yeah, that’s where he turned heel.” You just can’t say that because his heel turn is taking place like it should: ever so slowly. 

Rather than rushing Bryan’s heel turn angle and randomly flipping him by having him attack another baby face, the creative team is building up his turn in beautiful fashion. Each and every week, we are left to wait and anticipate what happens next. 

And this all stems from the perfect booking on the road to what is certainly inevitable: Bryan’s heel turn. 

The key to what has made it work so well thus far is that the WWE hasn’t come out and said, “Hey, Bryan’s a heel! You have to start booing him now.” 

Instead, the creative team is having Bryan do things that are borderline heelish and then letting us, the fans, decide whether we want to boo or cheer him. 

So many times in the past, we have been blindsided by a heel turn. It seemingly comes out of nowhere, with no build whatsoever. 

In Bryan’s case, however, the creative team is taking a similar approach to the one it took with Christian in 2011. Last year, Christian began whining about losing his World Heavyweight Championship, and slowly but surely, the fans began to hate him because of that. 

That’s not all that different from what’s going on with Bryan at the moment. 

Rather than complaining about being forced to defend his title and losing it (like Christian), though, Bryan is doing different things to try to get the fans to hate him. He’s being an a**hole to his girlfriend A.J., he’s getting cheap victories and he’s celebrating victories in a completely over-the-top manner. 

It’s working brilliantly, too. 

Whereas some heel turns feel forced or rushed, the creative team is preventing that from happening in this case. Bryan is going to continue to act like he has been, and it’s up to us to push him into a full-fledged heel turn. 

I fully expect to see Bryan be the sarcastic heel, who offers to shake the hand of the opposing baby face but doesn’t really mean it or who cheats without really cheating. It’s similar to what we see out of guys like Alberto Del Rio and Wade Barrett, who are full-blown heels, but it’s not quite as obvious. 

It’s sly, it’s sneaky and—dare I say it?—it’s the best way that the creative team could have ever approached a Daniel Bryan heel turn.

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