WWE: Is Daniel Bryan and AJ Lee's Relationship Dangerous for Teen Audience?

WWE's commitment to airing kid-friendly content is commendable, albeit frustrating to me as an adult. Championing kid-friendly initiatives like the Be a Star anti-bullying campaign is also admirable.

While I understand that WWE still needs to air what they feel is a compelling and exciting product, several aspects of the angle between Daniel Bryan and AJ Lee are alarming to me because of the message it sends to children and adolescents.

As a realist, I'm aware that the storyline itself is pretty tame on its face, but lingering underneath the surface is the potential for misunderstanding about love and the nature of relationships.

Since Daniel Bryan began his heel turn, one of the biggest non-wrestling means of garnering heat has been to highlight the emotional gap between him and AJ. After declaring her love for him in true soap opera fashion, Daniel Bryan has refused to reciprocate her affection, only going so far as to say that he "cares about" her and that he "appreciates that."

This aspect of the storyline has conflated itself with Bryan's in-ring treachery and cowardice, and contributed to the view that Daniel Bryan is cowardly, manipulative, perhaps even emotionally abusive to AJ.

Frankly, this is a dangerous message to send to the children whose attention WWE is so eager to capture. By villainizing Daniel Bryan's decision to not tell AJ that he loves her, WWE is putting unrealistic ideas about the nature of love and relationships into the heads of impressionable young fans across the globe.

For some, love is a word to be thrown around without a second thought. I love those shoes. I love that band. I love that movie. Those people think nothing of the word or the feelings it connotes, and wield it with a woefully inexperienced hand.

For others, realizing that they really, truly care about someone is not something they take lightly. Realizing that you are "in love" with someone is a life-altering and special moment that hopefully everyone is able to experience at least once in their lives.

That realization comes slower for some people, however, and to portray Daniel Bryan's unwillingness to tell a love-struck AJ that he loves her back as heelish or worthy of scorn is irresponsible on WWE's part.

Developing healthy romantic relationships is crucial for children. To teach them that refusing to say "I love you too" is cowardly and manipulative, something to be demonized and stigmatized is preposterous.

Daniel Bryan is a heel, and I get that. It's his job to provoke boos and ill will from the crowd. He's also a person, however, just like the rest of us. At the end of the day, we can assume he ends up saddled with the same problems as a lot of other people.

Raise your hand if you've ever had someone tell you that they loved you before you were sure how you really felt about them.

Raise your hand if you've ever told someone you loved them before they were sure how they felt about you.

Would you want people to assume you were a terrible person if they found out that you didn't say "I love you too?" No. You're just a regular guy or girl, trying to navigate life the best way you can. And if you're not sure how you feel, that's OK. Relationships are complicated sometimes. It's not as easy as Hollywood—or WWE—would have you believe.

No one is more uncertain about how they feel than children and adolescents. To demonstrate week in and week out that uncertainty about your feelings is a sign of cowardice, a heel-worthy action, has potentially dangerous consequences for the fans that WWE otherwise seems eager to protect from the bitter reality of the world.

If something is going to happen with this angle, it needs to happen soon, lest the impressionable minds that WWE has been targeting come to a tragic misunderstanding about the true nature of healthy, loving relationships.