That's the image that closed the show at WWE Fastlane on Sunday night, Daniel Bryan congratulating Roman Reigns on his victory in the main event and his looming title match with Brock Lesnar. That match is taking place much to the chagrin of many fans, as they wanted Bryan to prevail and move on the face Lesnar. There are legit reasons beyond just being a fan of Bryan to want him in there instead of Reigns, but at this point barring some switchup in the next few weeks it looks like that's going to be the title match. Now I will be the first one to say that a Bryan-Lesnar match or a three-way with Bryan joining Reigns and Lesnar will be much better than what it appears we're going to get. I totally agree that Reigns is not ready to carry the load in the ring like Bryan, John Cena, Seth Rollins, or Dolph Ziggler can. The match between Reigns and Bryan was very good, and that was all Bryan's doing. Anyone who's been watching for a long time can tell when a real pro like Bryan is leading the way in a good match. Reigns and Lesnar are two guys who need to be led through a good match, so having them together in an one on one match probably won't result in a Match of the Year candidate. Do I think they can put together something decent? Yes. Neither man is Sid Vicious or Goldberg; you haven't seen bad until you've been subjected to a series of matches involving either of them. Vicious may have wrestled two very good matches in his entire career, both against Shawn Michaels, and Goldberg never had one, not even against Bret Hart. However this match turns out it won't be as that bad.
The real reason it seems that people are anti-Reigns is not any personal dislike towards him but because he's not ready. I get that, but Vince McMahon doesn't think that way. If you want to see what things look like with great workers who don't look like Supermen at the top of the company there's an era for you - the New Generation Era. That's when Hart and Michaels ruled the roost and worked against each other a lot when they weren't carrying Vicious, Kevin Nash, and others to good matches. It's also a time when the company didn't make as much money and became ripe for the beating they would get from rival WCW that necessitated the Attitude Era. If you're Vince McMahon you don't want to go back there, and Daniel Bryan probably reminds you more of that era than he does of the Hulkamania Era, the Attitude Era, or even the John Cena era. When it comes to picking someone as the face or co-face of the company Vince has always wanted someone who could transcend the wrestling business and cross over into movies, television, etc and while Roman Reigns may not be that guy he has a better chance of doing it than Bryan does. Nobody's casting Daniel Bryan in a movie or TV show.
Now you might think that's a bad way to do business, but Vince would likely point you to the evidence of history. The New Generation Era has more than it's share of good ring work, but it's the one period Vince would gladly give back if he could. The realty is that the ring work matters but it's only one aspect of things. On the same show where people bemoaned the Reigns victory there was a lot of Twitter anticipation of the Bray Wyatt-Undertaker match that's going to happen at WrestleMania 30. Now if you're complaining about workrate re: Reigns and Lesnar but are drooling over the prospect of Bray Wyatt getting in the ring with the Undertaker.....just stop already. Really, just stop. I hope Vince puts Bryan in the main event so we an have a better match, but even if that happens then what? You gonna have Bryan win again in the same fashion as last year? Doubt it. Bryan wins, and then Seth Rollins cashes in Money in the Bank the same night? Possible. Reigns goes over? Won't stop the booing from Bryan fans and then you sill have to do he Rollins cash-in by July. If I was writing it I would have kept Bryan out until after WrestleMania and then you could have had Reigns go over without someone around that a vocal group of fans prefer to poo poo it. But that ship has sailed. Bryan is back, and lots of people want him to win it again but I just don't see that happening.
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