SHOULD Daniel Bryan beat Roman Reigns at Fastlane?

[Everlong]

To add on to that post: as a fan, the match that I want to see is Bryan vs. Lesnar. And it's not even close. And WWE should have known better than to put themselves in this sort of situation.

But what's done is done, and they're in full on damage control mode for a second year in a row. It'll look really, really bad for them if they take a dump on the Rumble winner again, and if they have any belief in Reigns going forward, that's a HUGE affront to his credibility to have him take the loss.

It's really tough. It's almost impossible for WWE to put themselves in a situation like this, but they've managed to do it and now they need to figure out how to make the best of it.

[DBSoT]

This is one of those exceedingly rare situations where the WWE has booked themselves into such a corner that whoever wins, THEY LOSE.

And they could've had their proverbial cake and eaten it too if they had done one simple thing: switch Bryan with Ambrose in the Rumble. If Daniel Bryan is the one thrown out by Big Show and Kane at Final 4/5, then that makes so much more sense, and the crowd would've then cheered for Reigns by proxy! Then have Bryan and Reigns team up against Show and Kane at Fast Lane, that neatly continues Bryan vs. The Authority, while building Reigns as a formidable face. Have Reigns slam Big Show and Kane to show that he is indeed strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Lesnar. It's honestly that simple.

The problem was never "Daniel Bryan lost." The problem was that Bryan was one of TWO realistic options, and by being taken out so early, the WWE themselves made the Royal Rumble two things it should NEVER be: Predictable and Boring.

Pretty exactly this.

[SortaCreative]

This is a difficult situation. One that could have been prevented by just simple, logical listen-to-the-fans-booking. But, oh well. We're here now and this is how I see it:

Roman Reigns winning the Royal Rumble was simply the wrong move. As much as I like Reigns, he just isn't ready and people know that. More people know that now than they might have been back in the day. That's just the way things work these days. There's more “smart” marks and to bring up the Stone Cold podcast, that first line of kayfabe is dead. Everyone knows it's a work and we'll tend to just go with it for a while until it begins to insult our intelligence or goes egregiously against what we, the fans, want.

Couple this with the fact that the WWE has been increasingly more concerned with entertaining the fans, it's entertainment, we hope we entertained you, giving them app votes, the biggest brand of entertainment. It's all geared towards the fans – which it should be. The problem is the fans have become increasingly more intune with what happens behind the scenes and the once previous “evil Mr. McMahon” is now represented by the real Vince McMahon. Instead of the storyline Seth Rollins being hand picked to be champion, you have the very real Roman Reigns being “picked” for that spot. We're simply more vocal about what we like and don't like and the world is a much smaller place than it was in the 90's.

Should Daniel Bryan beat Roman Reigns at Fastlane? Yes.

I think that is what's best for business. Regardless of the fact that it diminishes the importance of the Royal Rumble or that it makes Reigns “look weak”. There's ways for that not to happen – namely a heel turn. A fresh feud for Bryan to engage in once he wins the championship. There's money to be made. This is a rare occurrence for WWE where the biggest money match is probably the one everyone wants to see. Rather than spot lighting Rock vs. Cena with half the crowd booing Cena or not really buying into it – this is David and Goliath on a scale we've not seen. This is the ultimate underdog vs. the most dominant champion we've seen in a while. Both men can perform to a high standard and both are extremely popular.

It's too good to pass up. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar is not a dream match up. It's a snorefest. It's Goldberg vs. Lesnar all over again. It's not a match people have fantasy booked about. It's not a match that inspires the audience. It's not a match that can capture the imagination of children. Bryan vs. Lesnar is all of those things.

As much as it might suck. As transparent it might be. Bryan vs. Lesnar is the only worthy main event at Wrestlemania. Anyone saying otherwise would be against WWE regardless of the situation imo.

[Hanley!]

It's a no win situation at this point. WWE have backed themselves into a corner. It's hard to figure out how they keep maneuvering themselves into this position, but there's basically no obviously good way of doing things now.

Allowing Reigns to win the Rumble was a mistake. A colossal fucking mistake. But booking this match is a mistake too. WWE are just pursuing the most obvious solution and ignoring all the potential issues that this could throw up.

If Reigns wins, it further reduces Bryan's star power and turns more angry fans against the WWE for not giving them the guy the want. It also puts more heat on Reigns, killing off any chance he has of being a new popular main event babyface, which we could really use right now. Nobody wants another Cena.

If Bryan wins, the Royal Rumble loses all credibility. Bryan quite possibly loses some popularity, as he's now the guy who's keeping someone from their "deserved" Wrestlemania main event and there is a portion of the fan base that will care about that. It also destroys Reigns as a prospect. He's now had his chance at the main event and instantly been dismissed as a failure. How do fans take him seriously afterwards? He could turn heel at this point to give him renewed purpose, but against who? Bryan would be tied up with Lesnar.

Ultimately, Reigns should win. Less damage is done in this scenario. If they can't make him into a proper face when fighting Lesnar, they can heel turn him after Wrestlemania and he can still look like a star. The loss won't hurt Bryan, he'll still be as popular as ever. And they'd leave Wrestlemania with plenty of options of where to go. They'd just have to put in some real effort at building some great undercard matches for that show. Particularly Bryan's match.

* * * * *

They're trying to wrap this whole controversy up in a neat little package, but it was never going to work. Really what they're dealing with is two problems:

- Keeping Reigns over as a face
- Keeping Bryan's fans from killing the Road to Wrestlemania

These are two problems that should have been dealt with separately. To keep Reigns over as face, all that was needed was some exciting booking. Fans are largely pissed with the Reigns situation because we keep being told to love him, but we're not being given any reason to. That's easily fixed. I would have had him go on an absolute tear after the Rumble. Just being in a pissed off mood because people don't think he's the guy. Just unleashing pure hell on the Authority. Attacks from out of nowhere. Multiple assaults against the heels on one show. Hell, have the Authority suspend him from the building to gain him a little sympathy ... but then he starts invading arenas anyway.

Fans might be stubborn when it comes to who they cheer, but they're never stubborn when it comes to what they cheer. If Reigns shows up out of nowhere and hits someone with a big move, people will react to the move. Wrestling fans will always chant for a high spot. If he invaded the arena while a heel was celebrating at the top of the ramp and chucked that person off the stage, that's getting cheered. Big time. Getting Reigns over again wouldn't have been that hard. He'd just have to actually do stuff.

Then there's the separate problem of what to do with Bryan. And this is an even easier solution: something BIG. It doesn't even matter what it is. Fans just want big things for Bryan. If he's not working the main event, give him the biggest grudge match on the card. Have a legend come back to face him specifically. Have the year's biggest heel turn take place with someone turning on Bryan. It really wouldn't matter what the angle was, as long as everyone was talking about Bryan's new angle once Raw went off the air. That would have been enough to keep his fans happy. For some reason, even though this guy is popular enough to be in the main event, once they decided not to go with Bryan vs Brock, they started planning on lumping him into a nothing match against Ziggler or Sheamus. That's bullshit. He's one of the company's biggest faces. Give him something huge to do, and then title or not, the fans will be happy.

[KaiserGlider]

Yes, I think Bryan should beat Reigns at Fast Lane. Multiple times now I've seen the argument in this thread that Reigns beating Bryan would make the Royal Rumble match lose all credibility, and I disagree. The way I see it, all it would take to fix that is have a good Rumble next year. People will forget about this fiasco and go back to anticipating the match like they do every year. This is probably not the best example to use here, but does anyone remember the 2011 Rumble? Alberto Del Rio won that, but he didn't main event Wrestlemania, and he didn't win the World Heavyweight title either. I just think that in the grand scheme of things, one bad year, (even two if you count last year) will not ruin the credibility of the Rumble and make people not look forward to it every year.

And to go off that train of thought: Here's the question I would ask myself if I was in charge of these things. Do I sacrifice the Royal Rumble to have a good Wrestlemania 31 card? Or do I maintain the credibility of this year's Rumble, only to have a Wrestlemania main event that the majority of people don't want to see? The way I see it, if you're WWE, you gotta do everything you can to make Wrestlemania 31 the best PPV of the year. Regardless of what controversies led up to it, you gotta end up with a good show. They did that last year and everyone was happy in the end.

I do like Roman Reigns, and I do think Lesnar vs Reigns can still be salvaged with good booking for both Reigns and Bryan. But honestly, I don't see WWE coming up with that good booking. The evidence for that is WWE flat out doing Reigns vs Bryan at Fast Lane, when they could have come up with something more creative. Like a one-night tournament that wouldn't hurt Bryan or Reigns so much when one of them ended up losing.

So based on where things stand right now with the fans, I think Bryan is the better choice. However, there's a couple weeks till Fast Lane and things might change by then.

Hanley said Bryan can easily be saved if they just book him to do something BIG at Wrestlemania, but I think the same thing can be done for Roman Reigns. Play it so that The Authority "screwed him out of his Wrestlemania title shot", have Reigns go berserk against Authority members like Hanley said, book him based on his strengths, and I think he might come out of this situation looking much better than people thought he would.

[Kyle]

I'm not quite sure what will happen but I'd much rather see Bryan than Reigns in the main event. I wouldn't be unhappy with Reigns winning so long as he gets built right the next few weeks and becomes the popular badass face again. It won't be a clean finish either way.

[Everlong]

It would appear we now have more people saying "yes" than "no," but I honestly expected it to be a runaway "yes."

[Locke]

I voted yes but I almost voted no. I voted yes for selfish reasons. My 30th birthday party is goin' down and I'm having the first Wrestlemania party I've ever had, so you damn right I want to see Bryan vs Brock, DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH, and not Reigns vs Brock, BROCK VERSUS.. GREEN PLANT THING FOR HIM TO EAT BUT SOMEHOW IS EATEN BY SQUISHY GREEN PLANT (*read caps in Bork's caveman voice).

Royal Rumble is going to have to make a major recovery next year if it hasn't already been ruined forever. Why why why why why oh why if they were so set on Brock winning did they put Bryan in the Rumble? For a few extra sales? That's great for today "BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY" (*read HHHeel promo voice) it's destroyed possibly the best PPV's main purpose, and honestly there were many times I found Royal Rumble better than Wrestlemania but that's -never- going to happen now if they don't quit with this sufferin' succotash.

If Brock is on his way out, put the belt back on Bryan and give the fans what they want for a least a few months for cryin' out loud.

[Locke]

Suggestion for new header if Roman loses to Bryan:


Caption: "I can't balee dat!"

[Everlong]

^ "Sufferin' succotash!"

[Enygma]

Ive been a fan of wwe for over 30 years, but i have never ever been as pissed off as i am today. The fastlane main event is a spit in the face of all roman reign fans, a big f u to reigns himself and if he loses that match they officially killed the royal rumble. Reigns won gair n square and should go to main event wrestlemania. If they aint happy with the crowds response they should mke lesnar drop that belt against that overrated midget bryan. I tought the rules were that a champion should defend his title at least once every 30 days? ...its complet and utter bullsjit ...and i mean it from the bottom of my heart..if roman reigns isnt the main event in wm and bryan is..i will stop watching wwe. Im sick and tired of beeing scrwed over by them as a fan

god

[Locke]

^Meth is a helluva drug.

[VaderBomb]

My opinion on the issue has been expressed, but as far as what I think will happen?

Bryan and Reigns work a draw and the main event of Mania is a triple threat. I don't want this match (I'd rather see Bryan vs Lesnar, obviously), but it would be infinitely better than Reigns vs Lesnar.