Was Daniel Bryan a commercial success?

**Mr. Nerfect** · 11-30-2017, 01:05 AM

This is a conversation I was roped into earlier, and it's one that I've never particularly considered, because it's the last time I remember being truly emotionally invested in a wrestling act, and a lot of my interest in the business side of things has developed out of trying to understand why I'm not as invested anymore.

We're all familiar with the Daniel Bryan story -- an independent darling that didn't exactly fit the WWE mold, who managed to somehow find a connection with the audience which became an almost memetic and cathartic release against the status quo programming of WWE. Critically, Daniel Bryan is regarded as one of the more technically gifted stars the WWE has ever had, and his success in the WWE was equal parts surreal and well-deserved.

But was the fan-driven rise of Daniel Bryan "worth it?" Although he did not get as much time as we would have liked on top, when you look at the rise of Bryan through 2012 and 2013, en route to his big WrestleMania win in 2014, is there an identifiable rise in interest towards the WWE product, or were we the only people paying attention?

Looking at the numbers, while Bryan didn't drastically boost ratings or PPV buys, I don't think you consider his run a disappointment at all. Some PPVs he was featured on did better than the year previous, and some better than many previous incarnations of that event for several years. Far from an Austin-like 1998 boost, where WrestleMania jumped 240% or something ridiculous like that, but numbers were holding.

Sometimes you have to be careful interpreting this data. Correlation is not causation, and you can make them fit your bias quite easily. Obviously some things are fairly obvious -- like attributing the rise of WWF in 1998 to Austin/Tyson/McMahon and the drop in WCW to the de-emphasis of Goldberg with Nash taking the book (sorry to sully the halls during Nashvember). But it's very easy to look at the Raw ratings for 2013 and 2014 and interpret them as the fans living and dying with Daniel Bryan. Not to any major extent, but interest in SummerSlam seemed to spike, but then when the screwjob happened, it was back to business as usual and no one cared.

But I'm curious as to what people on here think about business under Bryan. Do you consider him a success? Was he only slowing the decline? Is that even impressive? Personally, it's made me wish Triple H kept his nose out of things. Bryan gets hot so it becomes a routine "the office are heels" storyline and I'm not sure they have the appeal this decade that they think they do. I'd have like to have seen a WWE where Bryan was allowed to win the WWE Title at SummerSlam and actually run with it to see how he did, instead of bombarding people with angle, after angle, after angle in order to try and toy -- and not in the good pro-wrestling way -- with people's patience.

11-30-2017, 01:05 AM	#1
Mr. Nerfect Posts: 60,919	Was Daniel Bryan a commercial success? This is a conversation I was roped into earlier, and it's one that I've never particularly considered, because it's the last time I remember being truly emotionally invested in a wrestling act, and a lot of my interest in the business side of things has developed out of trying to understand why I'm not as invested anymore. We're all familiar with the Daniel Bryan story -- an independent darling that didn't exactly fit the WWE mold, who managed to somehow find a connection with the audience which became an almost memetic and cathartic release against the status quo programming of WWE. Critically, Daniel Bryan is regarded as one of the more technically gifted stars the WWE has ever had, and his success in the WWE was equal parts surreal and well-deserved. But was the fan-driven rise of Daniel Bryan "worth it?" Although he did not get as much time as we would have liked on top, when you look at the rise of Bryan through 2012 and 2013, en route to his big WrestleMania win in 2014, is there an identifiable rise in interest towards the WWE product, or were we the only people paying attention? Looking at the numbers, while Bryan didn't drastically boost ratings or PPV buys, I don't think you consider his run a disappointment at all. Some PPVs he was featured on did better than the year previous, and some better than many previous incarnations of that event for several years. Far from an Austin-like 1998 boost, where WrestleMania jumped 240% or something ridiculous like that, but numbers were holding. Sometimes you have to be careful interpreting this data. Correlation is not causation, and you can make them fit your bias quite easily. Obviously some things are fairly obvious -- like attributing the rise of WWF in 1998 to Austin/Tyson/McMahon and the drop in WCW to the de-emphasis of Goldberg with Nash taking the book (sorry to sully the halls during Nashvember). But it's very easy to look at the Raw ratings for 2013 and 2014 and interpret them as the fans living and dying with Daniel Bryan. Not to any major extent, but interest in SummerSlam seemed to spike, but then when the screwjob happened, it was back to business as usual and no one cared. But I'm curious as to what people on here think about business under Bryan. Do you consider him a success? Was he only slowing the decline? Is that even impressive? Personally, it's made me wish Triple H kept his nose out of things. Bryan gets hot so it becomes a routine "the office are heels" storyline and I'm not sure they have the appeal this decade that they think they do. I'd have like to have seen a WWE where Bryan was allowed to win the WWE Title at SummerSlam and actually run with it to see how he did, instead of bombarding people with angle, after angle, after angle in order to try and toy -- and not in the good pro-wrestling way -- with people's patience.