WWE: Why WrestleMania 30 Will Prove If Triple H Knows What He's Doing

Triple H Vs Daniel Bryan

Monday April 7th will be the most important day of Daniel Bryan€™s storied 15 year wrestling career. That will be the day that the dust settles from WrestleMania XXX, where Bryan will be taking on Triple H. No titles are at stake. It won€™t be the main event of the show, but it will be the single most significant match of his 15 year career.

For the past year or more, Bryan has been the archetypal people€™s champion. Everyone loves an underdog, and Bryan has been the ultimate, faced with seemingly insurmountable odds every step of the way. Every time he looks like he can climb to the top of the ladder, along comes another snake to slide him back down again. Just when we thought he€™d finally become the WWE Champion at SummerSlam, Triple H and Randy Orton colluded to snatch the belt away from him after a reign that lasted mere seconds.

The following month, it looked like he€™d done it again, pinning Orton at Night of Champions, only to be stripped of the title due to an apparent refereeing controversy. And then, when it looked like the Hell in a Cell structure would prevent anyone from interfering in the title match in October, special referee Shawn Michaels turned on his former pupil to cost him the match. Immediately after that show, Bryan was shifted into a program with the Wyatt Family and has been kept away from the title picture.

In December, the fans (sorry, the WWE Universe) demonstrated that they still have Bryan in their hearts by voting him Superstar of the Year in an absolute landslide. As his feud with the Wyatts drew to a conclusion and the fans got the outcome they wanted as they got €œtheir€ Daniel Bryan back, their reactions to him were monstrous. The image of Bryan sitting astride the top of a steel cage as every person in the audience at Raw chanted €œYes!€ gave me goose bumps. Daniel Bryan was, to use WWE parlance, a true superstar in every way. The €œYes!€ chants were spreading far and wide, beyond wrestling, as videos emerged on YouTube of crowds at various sporting events around America emulating the WWE and joining together in mass €œYes!€ chants.

Vince Mcmahon Daniel Bryan

The fans have shown that they are a patient bunch, but, like a spring, there is a limit to how far they can be stretched. The best storylines in wrestling have two major factors: firstly, they take fans on an emotional rollercoaster, and secondly, they pan out over time. Time is the single greatest thing that can be given to a wrestling storyline to make it mean something to the fans. It makes them emotionally invest in the storyline, and the people involved in it. They stuck with Bryan throughout his turbulent autumn as he battled against authority (well, The Authority) and need to have their pay-off of seeing Bryan triumph against Triple H at WrestleMania XXX. Any other result will turn people away from supporting him. There are only so many times you can be let down before you decide to walk away and not bother any more.

And this is where the potential problem lies. Bryan€™s opponent is Triple H. While Paul Levesque€™s vision as a force in creative and developmental cannot be denied, he has a terrible habit of allowing ego to triumph over common sense when it comes to booking his own programs. In 2003, when Triple H was scheduled to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Booker T, the build-up to the match on the episodes of Raw leading up to the show saw the heel Triple H continually get the upper hand over his rival.

Ordinarily, wrestling logic dictates that if the heel is getting the better of the face in the build up to the match, then the face wins the match to ensure that the fans have been taken on that emotional rollercoaster. However, Triple H won cleanly and Booker T€™s career as a main eventer was over for all intents and purposes. At WrestleMania X-8, Triple H took on Chris Jericho, challenging for the Undisputed WWF Championship. He insisted on the match going on last, as he stated that the Championship match should always go on last.

Unfortunately for him, he had to follow the classic Hogan v Rock match (with a women€™s€™ match as a buffer admittedly) and the crowd were dead. I was there live and you could hear a pin drop at times, but the crowd had already exhausted all their emotions on the real main event of that show. At WrestleMania XXVI, he took on his real-life protégé, Sheamus, but stopped short of putting him over. While Sheamus is a popular member of the roster, he€™s never been accepted by fans as a bona fide main eventer. How differently would he be viewed if he had won that match?

Daniel Bryan

Wrestling logic dictates that Bryan should go over cleanly against Triple H. Bryan has got years ahead of him as a main eventer, whereas Triple H€™s career is in its twilight years. Again, it€™s ego that commands that Triple H has a match at WrestleMania - he€™s got to justify that $1 million a year wrestler€™s contract on top of his corporate contract, after all. This match is perfectly positioned to be the career defining moment when Bryan finally gets his big win and can start a new mission to become WWE World Champion off the back of the momentum of a win over Triple H on the grandest stage of all. He doesn€™t want to become another Sheamus. But if Bryan loses, the fans will lose faith in him after another disappointment, and his full potential as a mainstream face of the WWE may be gone forever.

Contributor
Contributor

Dean Ayass is a well known name to British wrestling fans. A commentator, manager, booker and ring announcer who has been involved in the business since 1993, Dean's insight into the business is second to none.