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With all the recent talk of WWE's creative direction in recent weeks, the company did monster first day ticket sales for Wrestlemania 28 in Miami. So, obviously, people do still care about the company, or at least, the spectacle of Wrestlemania. So, while there are going to be other events going into Wrestlemania, all storylines and all directions should be built, starting now, to climax in Miami.
While the major story of that show will be John Cena vs. The Rock, there is actually one other match already announced for the show and if WWE plays their cards right, they can come out of that match with a big new star - Daniel Bryan.
While I am never going to argue that Daniel Bryan could become a cross-over star the likes of Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, Bryan is a throwback to the world traveled journeyman wrestler who has been able to get himself over everywhere he has gone by mastering different ring styles and showing a lot more charisma as a performer than WWE fans have had a true window into as of yet.
So, with Daniel Bryan holding Money in the Bank and promising he's not going to cash in until The World champion gets to Wrestlemania, we have stage of the perfect old school pro wrestling storyline set for a much younger audience that has never been exposed to it before - and the company can pull the trigger at their biggest show of the year, forever placing Bryan into the WWE's time capsule and making him a player for years to come.
Now, with the current WWE Creative team often seemingly booking things haphazardly and backwards (Rock returning to help Cena the same week Cena dispatches dastardly heels Miz and Truth on his own, for example), let's lay this one out piece by piece. I'll be the first person to explain that I'm not a fan of fantasy booking because everything is perfect on paper, but once you try to execute it, there are so many variables that dilute the idea, whether they be politics, injuries or just plain bad performances that don't get over - so I'll be painting with a broad brush here.
We already know that Daniel Bryan has stated he won't cash in until Wrestlemania. On WWE.com, they have done interviews with Bryan where he's explained that he doesn't want to just "cash in" and have a meaningless title run. He wants to walk in like a man and win the belt like a man does. He wants to be a true champion. He's also explained that he refuses to shave his beard until Wrestlemania, doing one of those strange rituals that athletes often do to prepare for a major event.
Now, we will ignore the end of Smackdown where Bryan thought about cashing in on a beaten Mark Henry for the good of the storyline. It's not like WWE doesn't retroactively forget things. Just ask the Anonymous General Manager...or Triple H.
In recent weeks, Bryan has lost a series of matches, so we fold that into the new storyline, with interviewers asking Bryan how he can walk into Wrestlemania and hope to actually beat the World champion. Bryan admits that it's a problem and he's working on it, saying that he's mastered the art of submission wrestling and he knows that by getting someone in the LeBell Lock, he'll force anyone to tap out, whether they are the World champion or not. He reiterates that he's going to walk into Wrestlemania and defeat the champion.
We get through Survivor Series. Bryan is involved in an elimination tag. He's the last competitor on his side and is outnumbered 3 to 1. He makes two competitors tap out but in the end, he falls to the final winner. If you look at Bam Bam Bigelow's effort against three monster heels at the first Survivor Series (and at the 25th, you should be able to take some creative inspiration from the first) and that's what we are going for. He's shown he can be a threat but when it comes to the big, final win, he falls short. We show the audience he's good and put some sympathy on him for fighting the good fight.
In the TV after Survivor Series, Bryan talks about the Survivor Series. He did good, but the problem is that he needs, for himself, to be great. No one puts more pressure on Daniel Bryan than Daniel Bryan. Perhaps he needs help the interviewer says. Bryan says, perhaps, but from who? Bryan says that he's wrestled and trained with the best from the day after his High School graduation. He needs to help himself. He walks off.
We get through The Royal Rumble. Bryan wins some, he loses some. He doesn't enter the Rumble, because, as he says, he has a ticket to Wrestlemania already. He sits ringside for the World title match and stares down the World champion after. The stage is set but can Bryan do it?
As we head into February, we are told that Bryan has taken two weeks off competition to specifically train for Wrestlemania. We start to see vignettes of Bryan training to prepare himself for Wrestlemania. He's suplexing people and forcing sparring partners to tap out. However, he's still missing that spark, because when he gets into the ring, he's still losing matches on TV. The announcers, specifically Michael Cole, begin to wonder if Bryan picked Wrestlemania to just delay the inevitable, since he apparently just cannot get it done.
Then, the third week in February, Bryan is in the gym and he looks off-camera while he's punching and kicking a bag, honing his skills. He's obviously shocked. "What are you doing here?" he says to the person off-camera. The camera swings and it's Shawn Michaels, "Well, my friend. I trained you well. I trained you to be the best. I'm here to make sure that at Wrestlemania, you become the best."
Shawn Michaels, much like his own trainer Jose Lothario a decade before, will now help train his student going into Wrestlemania for the final six weeks of television to build to Wrestlemania. This tells the audience that the match is important and utilizes old HBK going into the biggest show of the year, because you just can't have Wrestlemania without Shawn Michaels.
So, Utilizing footage of Bryan's rookie year in Michaels' TWA, video pieces tell the story of the kid from Aberdeen, Washington who followed his dream from High School through Japan and Mexico and Great Britain and the wrestling world to make it to WWE. He's Shawn Michaels' greatest student and now, like his trainer, it's time for his Boyhood Dream to come true. Daniel Bryan promises that as he heads to Wrestlemania, it is, indeed, "My Final Countdown."
Yes, I am going there. For those who aren't aware, Daniel Bryan often used Europe's The Final Countdown as his theme music in Ring of Honor and other independents. The 80s hair metal song is iconic at sporting events when we get to the end of the home team's chance at coming from behind and was even used in a great 1989 Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat video. If CM Punk can have "Cult of Personality", surely WWE, while investing to make Bryan a star, can pay for the rights to Europe's only true international hit.
For the next six weeks, using that song as the backdrop of Daniels' promotional hype (I did consider Paul Stanley's "Live To Win" but Bryan is something of a throwback anyway, so his music should be as well), we do something unique for 2011 WWE. In a world of sports-entertainment, it's Rocky and a pure sports driven storyline, which the company can do since the main hoopla and hype is on the John Cena vs. Rock spectacle.
Under Michaels' tutelage, Bryan finds that "third heat" and he begins winning all of his matches. Michaels sometimes accompanies him Bryan to assure a big pop, sometimes he doesn't, but the message is clear. HBK has endorsed Bryan and Daniel Bryan is indeed, a threat. We see lots of training videos - we go all the way with these, right down to Bryan running in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. We steal every training montage cliché ever - from Best of the Best, from Rocky, you name it.
We see Michaels advising his protégé on what to expect being on such a major stage, since Bryan has never, ever wrestled on Wrestlemania (and he hasn't, at least on the PPV). We also get Michaels' ribbing his student about the beard, to which Bryan responds teasing Michaels' thinning hair. We get the impression there is a lot of love and mutual respect between the two. This will seem minor but is important.
Finally, we get to Wrestlemania. The night before, Shawn Michaels is utilized at the Hall of Fame to introduce or induct someone and while out there, points out Bryan in the crowd. "I am proud of you. You are ready. Tomorrow, I promise the world, you will be the new World champion." No biggest endorsement could ever be asked of.
We get to Wrestlemania in Miami. Hopefully, with six weeks of TV having prepared the audience, we hit Final Countdown. The keyboards play and when the first drum cracks - BOOM! - pyro explodes on the stage. Bryan is a star and stars have pyro. That's the message WWE has delivered forever now and they deliver it here. Bryan comes out, Michaels following in a dapper suit, and hopefully, we'll get the fans in Miami singing along to the song and screaming, "It's the Final Countdown" just as Bryan stands atop the top turnbuckle, pointing in the air. Pyro explodes overhead. Iconic visual achieved.
But, it's all about the match. As I noted before, I hate fantasy booking, so I won't start writing about the nuances of the match. However, in the end, after months of educating the audience, it all comes down to The LeBell Lock. There are two ways go write the final chapter of the story:
One: The World champion breaks the hold but in the end, gets trapped again and taps out in the center. Bryan and Michaels celebrate, the dream achieved. Bryan can then go forward defending the belt. I don't know that he would be someone you build the entire brand around forever but you can easily have him defend and retain the belt, building his legitimacy as champion until we make our way to Summerslam, where he faces a huge test in Randy Orton, who now has a fresh top tier talent to work against.
Two: Bryan fails. The LeBell Lock is broken somehow and despite the good fight, despite kicking out numerous times and despite the best efforts of Michaels, Bryan and the fans, it all comes down to a three count and Bryan loses his best chance at achieving his dream. Hey, Rocky didn't win the first match either, right? So, you can either build to the rematch down the line OR you can do what no one would expect:
Michaels helps up Bryan, who is devastated, to the point of tears. Michaels tries to console him but is shoved back. Bryan is out of it in the corner and Michaels comes back to him but Bryan explodes, screaming, wide-eyed and slaps Michaels in the face. Michaels take a bump on his ass and sits there completely shell-shocked that this happened. Bryan looks at him and screams, "I am the best and I should be World champion." He storms off. Michaels is left sitting there shocked and quietly disappears from the storylines.
The next week, Smackdown opens up with Daniel Bryan backstage at Wrestlemania explaining that he should be the World champion and he promised himself he would be. He allowed Shawn Michaels back into his life and what happened, he didn't become the champion. It can't be Bryan's fault, he's the best. Bryan says that for now on, he's not going to hold back or be the nice guy or do what's expected of him, but he does have one last promise to keep. He promised he would shave after Wrestlemania and he does - he shaves his head bald, leaving only the unruly beard he's grown. So, we go into the spring of 2011 with an angrier, pissed off, bitter Daniel Bryan, one who's lost his dream and now wants to be nothing but a nightmare for everyone in his path.
Either way, you've spent several months building Bryan, deepening his character and making him a star, not just for Wrestlemania but to come out of it and mean something going forward in whatever direction you want to take him. A leads to B leads to C, which is not often how WWE presents things these days.
Like I wrote, I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy booking but given the way WWE has presented themselves and their talents lately, I wanted to point out that what's missing is some of what I wrote about today - character development, goals and building to a moment. Sure, some of it has been seen before but that's because it worked and it can certainly work again, for Daniel Bryan and lots of others WWE talents. WWE, specifically Vince McMahon, has to want that first. Time will tell.
Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com or followed at www.Twitter.com/MikePWInsider.
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