10 Gimmicks WWE Cancelled For Being TOO SUCCESSFUL

5. ‘B+ Player’ Daniel Bryan

Rusev Day Vince McMahon
WWE.com

OK, so this is a bit of a cheat.

WWE tried to cancel Daniel Bryan's rise between 2013-2014. That's why a returning Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble, and it's why D-Bry wasn't even involved in the 30-man match at all. Unfortunately for McMahon, the technical wizard's underdog's popularity with fans could not be denied.

Relentless support finally paid off and led to creative revising Bryan's unlikely success story. Looking back, it's fairly clear that the company hoped tagging Dan as "only a B+ player" on TV would help fans see that he didn't belong at the top of WWE cards; that insult actually had the opposite effect and rallied the troops.

The cheating bit here is that Bryan did eventually overcome WWE's disinterest to become World Champ. Everything worked out well, but don't let anybody tell you that Vince meant every single bit of it. He blatantly hadn't intended to turn Daniel into someone who succeeded in spite of the WWE machine.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.