Daniel Bryan vs. World Heavyweight Champion

WWE have added Daniel Bryan v World Heavyweight Champion to their minisite and added a poll of who he should challenge with the options being:

Sin Cara
Randy Orton
Mark Henry
Sheamus

guess the champion will be a Heel Sheamus? from what ive heard Randys ment to win the rumble again so...;

Sheamus(C) v Orton v Bryan

They are going to have to do some serious work on his character between now and Wrestlemania if they are going to throw him into a marquee match. He can be the best wrestler in the world all day long - but no-one but internet marks are going to buy into it if he hasn't got something else going for him by then!

I really hope they don't have Orton win the rumble, I want to see someone new like Ziggler, Wade, Rhodes etc.

Give it to someone who would benefit from it not a guy who is already solidified in the main event scene.

I would love to see Wade Barret win the royal rumble

But Daniel Bryan vs Wade Barret main event at maina really ?

Dont get me wrong both superstars are fantastic at all. But i think Maina could be a step too far. I still think Bryan should cash in early and go in as heel to maina against a Randy Orton, CM Punk kind of superstar at maina

Nick I am not saying they go one on one with each other, have Orton enter as champ and have it a triple threat between Orton (c) vs Bryan vs Barret/Rhodes.

That way you give quite a big rub to two young guys, personally I would prefer Ziggler to win it and challenge Punk for the wwe title and then Bryan vs Orton but as has been said before on this forum it seems they are going to go with a smackdown guy

Electric Demon wrote:They are going to have to do some serious work on his character between now and Wrestlemania if they are going to throw him into a marquee match. He can be the best wrestler in the world all day long - but no-one but internet marks are going to buy into it if he hasn't got something else going for him by then!

Daniel Bryan does need something certainly added to his character as at present he's Ted Dibiase with a better moveset.
He showed he can at least hold the mic here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUE0xOsx8TA

I dont understand why sin cara is on the list, he sucks and is nowhere near championship matetial

I agree Hero - but we need to start seeing more of that right now, on Smackdown.

Do the rules state that he has to challenge for the World Championship? Can't he go for the WWE title? Then he could challenge Punk if he was to be champ going into Mania. They could definitely have a great match on the biggest stage

WWE have put it up as Bryan v WHC, I did put forward the suggestion the other day though that with RAW & SD rosters allowed to appear on with show now that Punk could win the WHC at Elimination Chamber though.

Yeah, he has to challenge for the WHC because he won Smackdown's briefcase.

I think the only person it'd be worth him going over at 'Mania if they want him to become a main event star is Orton, none of the others would give him the same rub.

I honestly don't think he will be in a match. Rhodes v Orton at WM with Bryan running in to cash the case. And then getting beaten.

He needs new music before anything else.

I think I can see The Royal Rumble being for one of the World Titles this year

It needs something to boost it this year, the last few ones have been lacklustre apart from Punk's performance.

Has that ever been done befoere Gaff? That would be immense

Yeah once, 20 years ago, it's regarded as the best ever Rumble

Ric Flair won it

I think it could really emphasis the importance of the Rumble again, I agree with Hero that the last few have been let downs

I think it was 2008 where it properly went down hill when Cena cashed it in prior to Mania, that spoilt the point of the Rumble to me.

I still don't get why they did that, Cena/Orton was the big story before Cena got injured, they seemed to just mesh it all around to get HHH involved

I'd like to see Cody Rhodes hold the Intercontinental Championship to Elimination Chamber. Cody Rhodes gets offered a spot in the Elimination Chamber but gets told he'll have to forfeit the IC Championship if he wants to enter, as they don't want him holding both Championships if he wins. Cody would then decline which would give the IC Title a boost.

Then, after the Elimination Chamber (Sheamus winning it?) Bryan comes out, cashes in and loses.

All this would be building to a Wrestlemania match between Daniel Bryan and Cody Rhodes for the IC belt (which would be a fantastic match imo), playing on the angle of a man who waited for his shot at the WHC and a man who couldn't. I'd probably have Bryan win the belt, or maybe have Cody retain and Bryan go over at Backlash and move Cody up towards the World Heavyweight Championship. Daniel Bryan could then continue to bring some credibility back to the IC belt. A program with Christian could work really well for Bryan, using Christian to push Bryan. Christian could eventually take the IC belt off Bryan and Bryan would then be able to move up the ranks.

The way the WWE have built Bryan (or haven't built Bryan) since he won the MitB means for me he's almost coming from nowhere to be in the title picture at Wrestlemania. He won't be believable as a contender and, if they put the belt on him anyway, he won't be believable as a Champion. Having him sell out his dream (of headlining WM) to try and capitalise on a weaker foe and then failing could make him more determined to succeed, and if the WWE really build him up he could even win the Rumble in 2013.

I like the idea if Cody was a face and Bryan was a heel, the other way around it doesn't seem to quite work. I really nice idea though.

Bryan Vs Henry makes the most sense.

Let Henry run through everyone between now and Wrestlemania. Have the Royal Rumble winner (hopefully Punk) picks the WWE title so to indirectly put over the fact that no one wants a piece of Henry.

If Henry retains against Sheamus, Orton, Christian, Big Show and Cody in the Chamber, he looks like an absolute monster. With no no.1 contender established. Bryan is the only viable candidate.

Have the match booked, but Henry be completely dismissive of Bryan to the point where Henry walks out at Wrestlemania getting a promo about how he's waited his whole life to Main Event Wrestlemania and when he finally gets a chance, he's already destroyed the competition.

Cue Bryan and his briefcase. The ultimate underdog then proceeds to get squashed for 5 minutes, Henry goes for the Strongest Slam, Bryan counters with an arm submission and the match is then on for real. Henry tries to power through the pain (keeping him badass) and Bryan fights like crazy just to stay in the match. Finally Bryan snatches the submission win and you have an awesome underdog feel good moment. (Which the show will need because when Cena wins, the pro-Rocky crowd will go apeshit).

Don't agree at all, I do think it's important to build your World Champion up but Henry wouldn't be a good foil for Bryan at all, he can't bend anyway that would help Bryan look good and Henry's arms and neck are so thick Bryan wouldn't look believable when locking in the labell lock

If the WWE really wanted to put Daniel Bryan over as a huge star he'd make Randy Orton tap at WrestleMania, Orton is far more high profile than Henry and a far more legitimate WrestleMania scalp than Mark Henry.

I'll be very surprised if Henry is eve relevant come WrestleMania to be honest

What better way to put Bryan over as the underdog than over Henry?
They have close to 6 months to figure out a way to put this together. But thats probably giving WWE too much credit.

Flair-Vader at Starrcade 1993 is an example of that type of booking.

Orton needs to be kept away from the title for as long as possible so when he wins it again, it actually feels like it means something. Plus Orton is too strong a face to tap out in a title match at Wrestlemania.

Bryan won't have a match. The whole reason why he made the "I want to go to wrestlemania, so that's when I will cash it in" claim is because he wouldn't have featured at wrestlemania otherwise.

There are more probable WHC matches that could feature at WM, that don't involve Bryan. He will cash it in at WM, but the WHC match itself will involve other wrestlers.

There is a massive difference between Mark Henry and Big Van Vader, plus Henry as the Champion would never go down well at WrestleMania, his push has peaked, look at a year ago, Kane was the World Champion and had just come off the back of 3 PPV wins on the spin over Taker, some of the promo's he was cutting where unbelievable, he wasn't as highly regarded in the company since 1998 yet by the time Mania came round he was stuck in the most pointless match of the night as an extra simply to get a Mania cheque

I know Orton tapping would be monumental but thats the point, if you wanted to get Bryan over thats exactly how to do it

The only difference is the workrate. The example to Kane is negligible because Kane was there simply as a part of the Undertaker is not as great as he once was story.

Henry is different, he has been put over Orton clean as a sheet. Once Henry gets through Big Show, the viable matches are a rematch with Orton or a loss to an unexpected contender.

Plus Bryan going over Henry means he'd be the face. Against Orton, Bryan would be the heel. Which makes for the better feel good moment? Like I said there is no way Orton taps clean to anyone or anything but Cena's STFU.

Unexpected contender? Sheamus is a shoo-in to take the title off him, they've been building him for months and that count out loss to Henry back at SummerSlam was all part of it to give them some form of backstory, for me it's been obvious since the get go

I'd also not say the only difference between Vader and Heney is work rate, ability is the big difference between the two of them, Vader'x work rate just topped it off

Also no-one said Brya would need to be heel to face Orton, also whose to say he wouldn't tap to Bryan??? That's just an opinion without foundation, while I would never expect any top face to tap in the WWE under normal circumstances, Mania isn't normal circumstances

Got to agree with gaff, if Bryan is to truly get over with the mainstream fans then going over orton is the way to do it. Sure a win over Henry or Sheamus would give him some credibility but nothing near the rub that making orton tap out would receive.

Just imagine a Henry vs Bryan WHC match at mania... Pretty awful isn't it?! Neither has the draw or the promo skills to build and sell a world title match at the biggest ppv! However if you replaced one of the two with either cena/punk/orton you have a main event calibre match. I rate bryan's in ring ability very highly but he needs the right foil not just to get over with the fans but to put on an entertaining (in all meaning of the word) angle. I haven't seen anything entertaining outside of the ring from Bryan since his run in's with the miz and Michael cole, that's why I think putting Bryan in a main event angle in the run up to mania with Henry just wouldn't work, a one off match maybe but a full blown fued...no!