Daniel Bryan-Roman Reigns Brawl Increases Appeal of WWE Fastlane Main Event

Add Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns' melee on the last Raw before WWE Fastlane to the list of examples of how powerful simple wrestling booking can be.

To get fans excited for an upcoming showdown, the key ingredient is often animosity. WWE provided a surplus of that on Monday's Raw, with a brawl in the stands closing out the show and enticing the audience moving forward.

Before that moment, Reigns vs. Bryan had an inherent appeal because of the high stakes involved. The winner would earn the right to headline WrestleMania and have a crack at felling the beast that is Brock Lesnar. A juxtaposition of styles and how much Reigns had to prove added more reasons to tune in.

Still, it didn't feel nearly as must-watch as it does now. An air of predictability, Reigns' lack of great singles bouts and Fastlane's status as a pay-per-view with no prestige held it back some. Not any longer.

It's amazing what an explosion of enmity can do.

Until Monday night, Reigns and Bryan had only shown flashes of that emotion. Just last week on SmackDown, they worked well enough together as a team to defeat six other squads, including tag team champs The Usos.

Sure, there was crackling tension between them, but it wasn't until WWE traveled to Orlando, Florida, that the two men lit the powder keg. 

Bryan watched from the announce desk as Reigns took on Kane. He distracted his Fastlane foe by leading a series of "Yes!" chants.

Credit: WWE.com

When it was Bryan's turn to go to work, stepping into the ring with Big Show, it was Reigns who did the distracting. The Juggernaut signed autographs, mugged for selfies and handed out T-shirts.

Each man pestered the other with displays of how much the fans loved him. This was a solid route to build toward Fastlane, but it missed intensity. Things were still far too respectful to care all that much about seeing these two men go at it.

It felt too much like the kind of competition one would see between two Greco-Roman wrestlers. Sportsmanship and mutual respect are fine for sports, but sports entertainment relies on things getting personal, getting out of hand and building around aggression.

That all came soon after Big Show and Bryan's bout ended.

Bryan and Reigns collided at ringside during the action, a push from Big Show acting as the lit match to what would soon be a wildfire. Reigns later interfered, landing a Superman punch on Big Show's massive chin. Then Bryan and Reigns were doing the punch-throwing.

Referees could not alleviate the situation. Reigns and Bryan bashed into each other in the ring and amid the crowd.

It was a fiery fight, one that made Bryan look like a crazed pit bull and Reigns like a titan with hands of stone. The energy this created incited the crowd but more importantly made their upcoming showdown more compelling.

As hard as these two went at each other with nothing on the line, one gets excited imagining the level of intensity they will reach when WrestleMania glory is up for grabs.

It didn't take an angle out of left field to give this feud ample momentum. No soap opera storyline or convoluted plot was needed. It just took two hungry, angry men with their fists aimed at each other.

Patient storytelling led to this point. WWE waited to unveil a full brawl until the last leg of the Fastlane build. 

Hall of Famer Jim Ross, for one, believes that the company did well here:

Now it's up to Reigns and Bryan to follow up that brawl with a stellar performance in the ring. WWE is counting on Reigns' progressing to have more backers heading into WrestleMania. A standout match will be huge in accomplishing that.

He'll certainly have a quality opponent and, after Monday's Raw, a wave of momentum to ride.