OK. Follow this logic. Daniel Bryan is better as a heel than as a babyface. Switching Daniel Bryan heel on Sami Zayn would be money. Sami's got a similar indy-to-mainstream wrestling story as Bryan, and arguably is far less banged up as Bryan is, too. As a heel, Bryan can change up his style and not depend as much on high-impact maneuvers. How can this happen? Well, the NXT Champion first can win the Royal Rumble. Sami enters the Rumble and is in the final three with Bryan and Reigns. Reigns spears Zayn, but just as he gets up, he takes a knee kick from Bryan. Bryan goes to toss out Reigns, which gives Zayn enough time to recover and toss out the entangled Bryan and Roman Reigns, too. This gets Sami on the main roster in a (deservedly) huge way. Of course, building this to a three-way at Fastlane for the championship match at Wrestlemania allows Sami to get speared while going for a desperation Helluva Kick, with Daniel Bryan stealing the pin. Eventually, Bryan loses at Wrestlemania, but uses his win over Sami Zayn as cheap solace in the face of recovering from a career threatening injury, yet losing in what he calls "the biggest match of his career (when many think that Wrestlemania 30 already was). A slow burning feud, heel Daniel Bryan being linked to Sami Zayn winning the Royal Rumble makes such a bold move worth making.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
