My Daniel Bryan conspiracy theory revisited (contains spoilers, obviously)

I thought Summerslam 2013 was probably the best Summerslam ever, and possibly the best PPV that WWE has offered up since The Attitude Era. It had everything I want to see in a wrestling product: great in-ring action, hot characters, a rabid crowd and major storyline progression. You know there's a 'but' coming, right?

One thing I will say, and it's a comment rather than a criticism, is that I see it as further evidence of the backhanded 'push' of Bryan.

They give him a clean win over Cena to ride the wave of his popularity, but it was about as anticlimactic as a big win gets with the weird running knee finish. I think the company ultimately realised they had to book a Bryan victory so that the fans wouldn't defecate all over Cena and the product. So in a number of ways Bryan winning actually helped Cena.

Then they take advantage of the crowd's delight at Bryan's win by using it as a way to turn Triple H (and presumably Orton). Another in a long line of examples of Triple H and the McMahon family latching on to a popular wrestler to put themselves in the spotlight.

The story going into tonight's Raw is now 'why did Triple H turn?'. If they'd been 100% behind Daniel Bryan the story would be 'Daniel Bryan wins WWE title'.

Like I said, it's not a criticism. It isn't the way I'd have done it, but they have succeeded in telling a great story and establishing the leading players they wanted to establish.

But if you think Daniel Bryan is going to be the superhero who brings down the evil regime, you're wrong.

It'll be John Cena. The wrestler who was completely rejected by the fans last night. Again.

Credit to WWE though. They threw Daniel Bryan the dwarf - and all his fans - a bone, whilst getting to where they wanted to be all along: the Triple H/Vince McMahon/John Cena show.

Funnily enough, I agree with you and commented on the other thread saying the same thing before I'd even read this.

You could very well be right, it could be Cena, history tells us it likely will be Cena but I dont think you win the WWE Title cleanly and deservedly off John Cena and not become a major player, Dragon's had an amazing career but he's now at a level thats so far past any previous peak it'd be hard to convince him it's the same career.

I know what you're saying about if they were truly behind him the story would be all about him today, I dont necessarily agree with that, Vince McMahon has built his empire on holding off giving people what they want for as long as possible, but its the perfect storm in my minds eye.

If they do decide to go with Cena winning the war I won't like it but it'll make sense, whether we like Cena/Orton or not both have had a great storied history with one another, they've not met in 4 years and have never went 1 on 1 at WrestleMania, its been one of the majpr feuds in the last 10 years so if it was revisited at WrestleMania 30 I'd not like it but see the logic in it.

Back to Bryan though, I understand the cynicism but just can't see them not capitalising on Daniel Bryan, they made a legit Main Event face last night, I could be wrong but I just don't see them wasting a clean WWE Title win pver Jojm Cena

You make a compelling case, but so far we have no evidence that this won't be Bryan's feud, I'm not saying you're wrong, just that we have had no explication for what happened last night.

Has it really been 4 years since Cena last faced Orton? Dear god, it's still too soon.

It has to be said, no matter how backhand WWE's push of Bryan has been, he's in uncharted territory in terms of his position on the card, I agree with Kayfabe that it's a huge deal that he's been allowed a clean win over Cena, not even Punk has ever been given that, I think any predictions of Bryan to take over the WWE are premature but at the same time I don't see him plummeting too badly down the card, I think he's reached a position on the card, much like Punk did after MITB 11 that he's pretty much set there or there abouts in the main event scene and that's a remarkable achievement given where he's come from.