WWE: Will the Fans Ultimately Turn Daniel Bryan Face Again?

Daniel Bryan is on the roll of his career.

In what seemed like a blink of the eye, he went from a rather generic babyface to a top heel and arguably the most over performer in the entire WWE.

At least for now, WWE creative seems committed to keeping Bryan in his heel role, even starting to send him to “anger management” as his character continues to evolve.

I think that’s the right decision.

Bryan has always been a great in-ring performer, but he’s been a thousand times more interesting and more entertaining as a heel than he ever was as a babyface.

The problem, however, is that Bryan has been so good as a heel throughout 2012 that the fans still react to him as if he were a babyface.

It’s a sign of the times, really. Generally speaking, the fans cheer whom they want to cheer, regardless of their status as faces or heels.

That’s particularly evident with the reactions that guys like Dolph Ziggler receive. He’s a bad guy who should be booed, but instead, he gets showered in cheers because he’s so good at what he does.

The same goes for Bryan.

He’s in such a zone as a performer that his “Yes” and “No” catchphrases are ridiculously over right now, and rather than hating him, the fans just seem to be entertained by him.

That’s a good thing for Bryan, who’s probably making a boatload of money off of two of the most common words in the English language.

Unfortunately, I think we can all see where this is likely headed: A face turn.

It’s certainly not inevitable that Bryan will turn face anytime soon, but just go back and take a look at recent history. What happens when a major superstar gets ridiculously over as a heel?

He usually turns face.

The best examples of this are Randy Orton in 2010 and CM Punk just last year. Though the scenarios for these two were different, the end result was the same.

They were big-time heels who started generating massive babyface reactions, and once those reactions just couldn’t go away, the creative team turned both of them babyface.

Orton, of course, continued to be one of the WWE’s biggest stars. Meanwhile, Punk’s turn catapulted him to heights he’d never previously reached in the WWE.

Now, some will argue that both Orton and Punk quickly got stale as faces and that they were much better off as heels. But that’s neither here nor there.

I’m not debating whether or not Bryan is better as a face or heel. I’ve made my stance on that perfectly clear.

What I am saying, however, is that when a heel—no matter how cowardly his actions may be—continues to get more and more over by the week, it’s almost a certainty that the WWE will “capitalize” on that by turning that heel into a babyface.

Right now, that heel is none other than Daniel Bryan.

He’s technically a bad guy, but judging by the way the crowd responds to him night in and night out, you would think that he’s the “Man of the Year.”

Regardless of what Bryan does and how hard he tries to be a heel, the fans are slowly but surely (and unofficially) turning him face.

But it likely won’t be too long before that face turn becomes official and Bryan starts being booked like a good guy again.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter!