10 Fascinating Facts About WWE In 2014
7. DB’s Win Was Only The 7th WWE Title Change Since 2011
This flies in the face of suggestions that the top titles change hands too much in the modern era.
WWE only switched the WWE Title seven times between late-2011 and early-2014. Daniel Bryan's popular win at 'Mania XXX marked just the seventh top title change since CM Punk's lengthy reign started at Survivor Series 2011. After that, the title order went Punk > The Rock > John Cena > Bryan > Randy Orton > Bryan > Orton > Bryan.
Yes, DB enjoyed no less than three of those seven switches. To put that into perspective, there’d been nine WWE Title changes in 2011 alone. Obviously, there were none in 2012 because Punk reigned supreme for the entire year. Critics used that against CM when he told WWE he was leaving after the 2014 Rumble.
It's staggering to think that Vince McMahon showed such restraint when he was desperately trying to find fresh stars. He resisted the urge to bung the title on anyone and everyone just to see if they'd catch fire, but it's arguably even more surprising that the seemingly-underrated Bryan lived three different title successes between 2013-2014.