Say Yes to The Man: The Parallels Between Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan’s Rise to WrestleMania

Becky Lynch was removed from the main event of WrestleMania 35 and replaced by Charlotte Flair. The shocking moment happened on the February 11 edition of Monday Night Raw and now the WWE faithful are left to try and make sense of it all.

There’s outrage from many and understandably so. After all, Becky is the hottest Superstar in the company today and she has been for quite some time. So any time that she’s pushed backward, the fans make their voices heard. They’ve supported her from the very begging but they especially have her back now. She’s not only “The Man,” she’s their man. She is what they want.

But on the other hand, Vince McMahon’s company is attempting to tell a story. WrestleMania is getting closer everyday, which means that the company must prep the top storylines going into April 7. The major storyline right now centers on Becky Lynch. However the story that WWE is telling, has already been told. In fact, it was told as recently as 2013.

Daniel Bryan was the target of The McMahon Family during that time. The “Yes” Man was white hot and everything he touched turned to gold. He had captivated the audience and started the Yes Movement, which ultimately transcended professional wrestling. Bryan’s chants were heard at sporting events all around the country and people just could not get enough of him.

Watch Triple H and Stephanie deliver and ultimatum to Becky Lynch!

Becky Lynch will be cleared to face Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania: Raw, Feb. 11, 2019

But more importantly, the Yes chants were heard during moments on Raw and SmackDown when Bryan wasn’t in the ring. Sometimes, he wasn’t even in the building. That’s how popular he became. He was over despite not even being in the same zip code as the show. 

Of course when he was in the building, he was often being destroyed in the ring. Fans sat on the edge of their seats every week as Bryan tried to fight his way out of the box that WWE shoved him into. Indeed, it’s as if Daniel was trapped and no matter what he did, he couldn’t make any substantial forward progress. The Authority was always there to stop him. To make matters worse, they even blamed Daniel for his own shortcomings. 

If any part of this angle sounds familiar, it should. This is exactly what WWE is doing with Becky Lynch. Just like Bryan, Becky is hot. She has the full support of the crowd and her star is on the rise. She’s getting more popular every week and it’s clear that Vince has a star on his hands. But it’s also clear that she is the one that WWE is going to ride all the way to WrestleMania. 

The company has found its primary focus and Becky Lynch is it. So now that Becky is supposedly “suspended” for 60 days, it’s only a matter of time until she finds a way to get back to the fold in WWE. That move may actually happen long before WrestleMania. But when it does, then it will be apparent that WWE wanted Becky in that featured spot all along. The only question is, does the average fan watching Lynch’s story have any idea what happened with Daniel Bryan in 2013?

Watch Vince McMahon rob Becky Lynch of her WrestleMania moment!

Charlotte Flair replaces Becky Lynch in anticipated WrestleMania match: Raw, Feb. 11, 2019

Bryan was broken down to his core. His resolve was tested so many times it almost became comical. The company believes that in order to get someone over that’s on the way up, that Superstar must be torn down first. Only by having it taken away does a babyface know to appreciate it more the second time around. Adversity is the key to building character and getting a protagonist over. WWE is not the only pro wrestling company to follow this blueprint.

But in Bryan’s case, there was serious doubt as to whether or not he would actually be given the main event at WrestleMania. It had less to do with fans believing that WWE was considering it and more to do with fans having no faith in WWE doing the right thing by a guy that earned it. Daniel was the crowd’s favorite. He wasn’t the company’s favorite and the company used every resource imaginable to relay that fact. Reality became storyline, storyline became reality and reality became storyline once again.

The biggest issue with WWE building WrestleMania this early is that there’s a lot of time left to fill. The company wants to tell the story, but telling the story takes time. It cannot happen overnight and if it did, fans would immediately turn on it. Becky Lynch is in this position because just like Daniel Bryan before her, she got hot and WWE didn’t have a plan for her. So instead, the company was forced to react and rewrite. 

Now Becky has been retrofitted into the main event of WrestleMania. The fans want her there and she will be there. WWE, for all of its faults and bizarre booking throughout this situation specifically, is indeed going to give the fans a Becky Lynch championship win on The Grandest Stage of Them All. The audience will leave happy and fans watching around the world will be satisfied as well. But what happens then?

What happens after Becky finally beats the odds and gets her WrestleMania moment? Will she then begin to slide back down, or will the company continue to book her on top? Therein lays the real test for The Man and for the company. Getting her to WrestleMania seems like an extremely frustrating series of cliched angles. But keeping her on top after WrestleMania may be an entirely new struggle that no one is prepared for. Despite what happens, it’s clear that Becky will get her moment to shine at WrestleMania. Everyone can say Yes to that.

 

Tom Clark can regularly be seen on Wrestling Rumors. His podcast, Tom Clark’s Main Event, is available on iTunes,YouTube, iHeart Radio, boinkstudios.com and live every Friday at 12pm EST on Wrestling Rumors Facebook Live