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Daniel Bryan and the YES! Movement

I’m sure most wrestling fans can agree that “Yes!” Daniel Bryan is special, “Yes!” Daniel Bryan is popular, “Yes!” Daniel Bryan is THE fan favorite with the crowd behind him, and “Yes!” Daniel Bryan is a fantastic in-ring wrestler. Hell, even his detractors can acknowledge that these statements all have some truth to them in one way or another. No matter if you think Bryan is a “vanilla midget” or a “bearded vegan nerd” or whatever everyone is calling him. No matter if you think that Bryan doesn’t have “It” or doesn’t have the size or the “look” or the marketability to be the main face of the WWE. You know that he’s popular, he’s special and most of all, he’s good.

But, one thing that wasn’t “special” or good in any way was the segment last RAW (3/10/14) where Daniel Bryan had the so-called ‘Yes! Movement’ to….”Occupy” RAW. Now, not only did the original “Occupy Wall Street” not do much (read: anything) as far as bringing change, but the idea that all of those fans would be able to somehow get special Daniel Bryan shirts and hop the barricade without anyone stopping them was just…asinine.
Even worse was what followed: Daniel Bryan sitting on the turnbuckle, threatening to hijack RAW with a group of normal fans against the heel (villain) Authority. So, there they were, chanting “Yes!” and “No!” to various little statements and questions asked by the Beard himself, Daniel Bryan. So it was already pretty corny to begin with, and then it became about 10times cornier when the Authority (HHH and Stephanie McMahon) made their appearance. Now them just showing up and addressing this wasn’t bad, but what followed was horrendous. Seeing a super heel like HHH and the queen heel herself Stephanie McMahon be strong-armed by a bunch of no-name fans merely occupying the ring just seemed…wrong. Even if you applied reality to the situation, they would merely have the fans peacefully removed from the ring, one by one and thrown out of the arena. But this is wrestling, where everything is over the top. Sometimes it even gets downright cartoony. And while that’s what it was in a way, it went the complete opposite way than it should’ve.

HHH and Stephanie should’ve laughed at Bryan’s demands and let him know that this wasn’t going to work. Stephanie could’ve still done her evil “losing her temper” part and HHH still could’ve said the pretty genius “I’m just trying to protect you” shtick to Bryan, but the outcome should’ve been the complete opposite. Instead of the fans taking over and the Superstars and HHH being helpless, the FANS should’ve been ruthlessly discarded by the likes of Kane, The Shield, The Real Americans, Titus O’Neil and some security. It could’ve even led to some faces coming down to Bryan’s defense (Big E, Cena, whoever you want to push as a face at the time) and shown Bryan to be a sort of ‘Leader’ backstage. It also would’ve established the Authority as no nonsense and truly villainous characters that deserve to be booed 100% percent.

Instead, they gave us a cringe worthy segment that made Bryan lose some of my support (as a fan) and it came off as corny and accomplished nothing. It was shoe-horning at its worst and they simply forced the effect they wanted, without regard for what could’ve led to character or feud development.

But I suppose they got what they wanted, a spectacle they can show for future times about how “influential” the Yes! Movement was. Hopefully they don’t mess it up like they almost did ‘Fandango-ing’, but only time will tell and we can only hope for the best.