10 Times WWE Was Totally Better Than Your Fantasy Booking

2. Daniel Bryan's Road To WrestleMania 35

Lesnar Kennedy
WWE.com

Your Fantasy Booking:

Though it's been established that WWE monumentally botched a storyline that wrote itself, it was never going all the way to MetLife. Daniel Bryan literally laughed in the face of that suggestion, and he was right to do it. There remains scope for Daniel Bryan to win the Royal Rumble one day, granting performer and public the euphoria of closure and atonement, but 2019 was not the time. Bryan was a typically cold WWE babyface in the late summer of 2018 because his proper run began too far removed from WrestleMania 35. A Rumble win wouldn't have resonated without the momentum that mirrored the events of 2014.

WWE's Real Booking:

Bryan more or less demanded he turn heel because he knew, too. Bryan at SummerSlam drew clear inspiration from the Young Bucks in his post-kicking spot, and it was almost sad: this was the guy who had reinvented technical wrestling in the U.S. taking notes. Bryan rediscovered his genius to such awesome effect that his work made sense of his lack of originality in retrospect: he was too busy pandering to the people to focus on himself and his craft. Bryan turned, and dove into his self-mapped arc with a stupendous creativity of the sort that renders fantasy booking itself redundant.

On the too few occasions it's left to the performers, they are exponentially better at it than you or I.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!