The top executives in WWE are adamant that Daniel Bryan is not suitable as the face of the company. Insider reports at f4wonline.com indicate that no matter how loud fans cheer for Bryan, Vince McMahon is determined to stick with a WrestleMania 31 main event pitting Roman Reigns against Brock Lesnar. The justification is that business numbers tell a different story to crowd reactions. Bryan failed to significantly move TV ratings and pay per view buys in his Spring 2013 to Winter 2013 push. His merchandise sales were also considered below standards of the typical number one and number two performers (usually Cena and Punk); so there's the view in WWE that Bryan isn't really a guy to build the company on. Now bear in mind that WWE's booking of Bryan in that 2013 period was fairly horrible. You could argue that WWE set him up to fail and his run ended up being more about getting Randy Orton over as the top heel. Business picked up around Bryan's WrestleMania 30 push, but WWE could attribute that to the usual trend in the Mania period. Following Mania, Bryan came across as a lame Champion, and there were internal doubts over his ability to perform in anything but the underdog role. All of this plays into why the WWE see him as unfit to be their franchise star. Roman Reigns in contrast is a fit looking guy who resembles a superhero. The Samoan is viewed as someone who can be a long term face of the company. The vocal crowd at the Royal Rumble made their dissatisfied feelings clear when Bryan was eliminated from WrestleMania main event contention. When Reigns later won the Rumble, the internet wrestling community started the #CancelWWENetwork trend. However, business actually went up and WWE two days later announced they had increased to a million subscribers for WWE Network. To Vince McMahon, this is vindication that he's on the right course with Roman Reigns. Crowd noise is superficial, whereas business numbers are proof of success. Raw and Smackdown ratings also went up for the week. Despite the internal reports of WWE sticking with Reigns vs Lesnar, Triple H has teased an announcement for Raw that will address the controversy. Could things still change? Yes. Although if something does change it is more likely to be a loss of faith in Reigns than an increase in faith for Bryan. It is thought that WWE's alternative for Bryan is a match with Dolph Ziggler as the WrestleMania opener. That could go some way to pacifying fans, as Bryan vs Ziggler is sure to be an instant match of the year contender.
