WWE: How Did Daniel Bryan Become the Most Popular Heel Today?

When I first began watching wrestling, there seemed to be a general rule that you cheered for the good guys and booed the bad guys. Those days are over.

In the last couple of decades we have seen a major shift in fan perception as wrestling has become an open book, thanks to the Internet.

Now fans cheer for whoever they want instead of who is portraying the good guy, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Major faces like Randy Orton and Steve Austin started getting bigger pops than their baby-face opponents towards the end of their heel runs. WWE noticed this and made both men faces, much to the delight of the crowd.

Now a similar pattern seems to be happening with regards to everyone's favorite "Yes!"-man, Daniel Bryan.

Bryan is an amazing heel, first and foremost. He is very convincing when he is yelling at AJ, and he has proven to everyone that he is not just a tool box of wrestling moves, but an invaluable talent who can do everything.

When Bryan first turned heel, I was against it. I thought that there was no way someone like Bryan, being the smaller guy in almost every match, could be taken seriously as a heel.

I am not afraid to admit that I was dead wrong. Over the first month of Bryan's heel run he turned me into a true believer. He took what he was given and did something no one expected: he ended up with more fan support than when he was a face.

When Bryan was the good guy you would see plenty of Bryan signs in the crowd, but not an overbearing amount. Now, we see signs littered with the word "Yes" all over the crowd at every show.

His new "Yes" shirt is obviously selling well, as many fans can be seen wearing them during TV tapings. It really is incredible how he has managed to do this.

By being a more vindictive heel every single week and still getting louder and louder face reactions, he has proved that it does not matter if you are a good or bad guy. What matters is how well you do it.

Right now I feel comfortable saying that Bryan is WWE's best heel, even better than Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar and Mark Henry, who turned into a great heel over the last year.

Bryan's promos are always on point and he always puts everything he has into his matches and interview segments.

Bryan may no longer use the title "Best in the World" after CM Punk and Jericho began using it, but he can start calling himself "The Most Popular Heel in the World" and have the proof to back it up.

I hope Bryan regains the world championship in his two-out-of-three-falls match against Sheamus on Sunday.

Thanks for reading. What do you think of Bryan being more popular as a heel than he was as a face?

Please take a moment and check out the first two days from my Extreme Rules fan diary.

Day 1: A Hesitant Fan Gets His Feet Wet

Day 2: My First Live Event