When Vince McMahon Decided Daniel Bryan Would Become WWE Champion Before Survivor Series

Daniel Bryan is now the WWE Champion rolling into Survivor Series which not only takes AJ Styles out of the big show, but Bryan will not take Styles’ previous spot against Brock Lesnar. This was a decision made by Vince McMahon as are any other decisions within WWE. But it turns out McMahon decided to go this way even before he knew Becky Lynch vs Ronda Rousey wasn’t happening.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that not only did Daniel Bryan make the decision a while ago that he wanted to turn heel, but Vince McMahon also came to the realization that he wanted Bryan vs Brock at Survivor Series. However, the two ideas didn’t merge into one until the afternoon of the show when McMahon ordered that Bryan would take the title and turn heel all at the same time.

“I don’t know the reason but it was over the weekend that Vince changed plans and wanted to know with Brock Lesnar against Daniel Bryan with a title change to Daniel Bryan — so this is before the Becky Lynch injury.”
“The heel turn was decided this afternoon. It was basically Vince saying, ‘Let’s do it all in one day and get the biggest impact.’ Now the weird part is they’ve spent how much time saying that Brock Lesnar is the ultimate heel, he never comes to work, blah, blah, blah. Now you’re going to put Daniel Bryan against Lesnar and for that match to work Daniel Bryan needs to be a babyface, but he’s a heel. So logically perhaps the heel turn should be in the re-match and not this match. [Bryan] goes into this match as a babyface, do the match, whatever they’re going to do.”
“Vince decided to do it all at once, let’s shake things up maybe the big audience drop — you know who knows what makes Vince make these moves. Maybe it was Becky Lynch being hurt? It’s like, ‘Well make a big move today that everybody talks about.”

Only time will tell what WWE has in store now because few fans would have seen this big surprise coming. But it certainly did a lot to bring attention to the Survivor Series event. Now the only question is how much punishment a heel Daniel Bryan is going to take at the hands of Brock Lesnar.
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