Examining Daniel Bryan's Fall from WrestleMania's Main Event to the Midcard

Daniel Bryan was the next big thing.  Rising up through the ranks due to overwhelming fan support and an insane work ethic, Bryan reached the top of WWE when he won the industry's biggest prize, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, back at WrestleMania 30 in 2014.  Now, he will likely be in the midcard of WrestleMania 31.

As quick as that paragraph was read, so too was Bryan's fall in Vince McMahon's company.  To this day, Bryan's fall confounds wrestling fans as one of the most curious cases of the highs and lows of a wrestling career.

How did someone as talented as Bryan go from working the main event of WWE's biggest night of the year to falling to the midcard the very next year?  How did that happen?  More importantly, why did that happen?

He seems to be on the right track.  The crowds are still popping for him, he can still work them up into the "Yes!" chant, and he continues to be a highlight on WWE programming.  He is a strong babyface, and in terms of his ring work, there are few who can match his frenzied pace.

He is likable, he has a gimmick that can get him over despite what audience he's in front of, and he plays his role to the fullest.  Where other talents have struggled in the past to get that connection to fans, it just comes naturally for Bryan.

When fans look at him, they see a guy who looks like them.  He has that "everyman" factor going for him.  While he may not have the height and build of Roman Reigns, the fact is, he doesn't need it.  Bryan does well just being himself.

Yet he's nowhere near the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Mania this year.  Why?

The truth is, none of this seems to be through any fault of his own.  Bryan does appear to be the same WWE Superstar with the same drive and the same intensity as he had this time just one year ago.  So if he is the same and still a value to the company, then what has changed?

The most reasonable answer to that is WWE.  From the point that Bryan won the championship at WrestleMania 30 through his injury and subsequent return, something changed in the minds of people in the WWE.  Someone on some level, whether it was McMahon himself or a member of WWE Creative, decided that Bryan was no longer the guy who should be at the top.

The question is, was that the idea all along?

Was the plan to merely have Bryan rise up because Reigns was not ready to do so in 2014?  Was Bryan nothing more than a fill-in babyface between John Cena and Reigns?  Was WWE capitalizing on the "Yes!" chants and Bryan's explosion in popularity in order to give fans a compelling storyline and make some money along the way?

If you screamed "Yes!", you're on the right track.

There just can be no other answers—at least none that make any sense.  Bryan is the best example of what a talent can achieve through hard work and perseverance, a guy who came up through the system, did everything right and reached the very top of the mountain.

He is not at fault for where he is now.

WWE seems to have been so concerned with moving ahead and building the next era with Reigns that it somehow neglected to address Bryan's immediate future as it went.  Bryan is a strong protagonist, one of the best in the company, so using him as a heel against Reigns makes no sense.  That was probably not an option.

Keeping him as the champ was obviously not what the company wanted either.  That leaves fans with the most obvious yet wholly unsatisfying answer: WWE did not have a plan for Bryan.

He returned from injury as Reigns was making his move toward Brock Lesnar and WrestleMania 31. WWE used Bryan to get Reigns over, and it then moved forward with its original Mania plans.  Now, Bryan is left seemingly without a plan and ready to step right back into a main event picture that WWE evidently does not want him to be a part of.

If there is one positive thing about this entire situation, it's that Bryan is still highly visible.  He has not been "buried" in the slightest. He's on TV, and the fans want to see him.  And if he is added to the Ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 31, then he will surely do what he's always done and deliver on a high level.

He will do his part to help bring the house down because that's what he does and that's who he is.  He's the same wrestler who entered WWE to little fanfare, and he's the same one that rose up to the main event of WrestleMania.  He is everything the fans want.  He is an asset to WWE despite where he is on the card.