WWE: How Daniel Bryan and Kane Have Helped Each Other

Anger Management, the wacky, mismatched team of Daniel Bryan and Kane, has emerged as one of 2012’s great success stories in WWE.

The storyline, a spin on Charlie Sheen’s popular FX comedy series Anger Management, has produced great tag matches, funny promos and several great comedy skits. The one most famous is when Kane delved into his dark and deeply complicated past in front of therapist Dr. Shelby’s increasingly terrified class.

Fans have reacted warmly to the team as well, loudly chanting “Hug it Out!” throughout their various and promos and urging them to get along. While the two men are still technically heels and haven’t done anything remotely babyface-like lately, the two squabbling wrestlers are fast becoming crowd favourites.

More recently, Raw general manager AJ Lee has brought the well-meaning, but ultimately clueless Dr. Shelby to the arenas to help the two men solve their problems, but received patchy results.    

The angle is also notable for Bryan and Kane bringing out the very best in each other.

Kane isn’t exactly a stranger to the concept of the “odd couple” tag team. In the past, he’s been paired with Rob Van Dam, X-Pac and The Hurricane—usually with entertaining results.  

This new team with Daniel Bryan has also helped rejuvenate Kane’s flagging career.

In the past few years, Glenn Jacobs has been stuck in some truly rotten feuds. Anyone remember Edge kidnapping Paul Bearer, Kane’s dad?

Or the abysmal, dull feud with Randy Orton earlier this year? And let’s not even forget the amount of times he’s clashed with his brother The Undertaker. Observational astrophysics may be easier to understand than the long, complicated history of those two.

Most fans were getting bored of Kane as his awful programmes dominated SmackDown’s World Heavyweight Championship scene. With this in mind, a solid role in the tag-team ranks with Bryan may be the best place for the veteran.

He can be an important and prominent part of the show without getting the world title, and help floundering younger stars like Kofi Kingston and the Prime Time Players.

He’s also more entertaining with Bryan managing to bring out the very best in him. The two have terrific chemistry, and seeing Kane attempt to manage his rage and deal with this neurotic, slightly uptight up-and-comer is great entertainment. We can buy that they intensely dislike each other. Over the course of this fighting and therapy, they have grown to tolerate and like each other.

It’s also given Bryan something to do. With frequent foe CM Punk turning heel and on-screen girlfriend AJ becoming GM, he looked to be a loose end in the storylines. However, the current anger management has, thankfully, occupied his time and allowed him to remain relevant in WWE.  

Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing from here. The two men may have worked together to win the tag titles from R-Truth and Kofi Kingston at WWE Night of Champions 2012, but they continue to clash and still get into fights wanting to claim credit for their success.

One thing is for sure: The good Dr. Shelby still has a lot of work to do.