WWE: Daniel Bryan Needs To Retain the WWE Title at Royal Rumble

The Jan. 22 episode of SmackDown Live served as the go-home show for this Sunday’s Royal Rumble event. SmackDown was highlighted by one last face-to-face segment between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan before their WWE Championship match. The segment was moderated by Vince McMahon.

The segment in question saw the WWE Champion drop what audiences may describe as “truth bombs” directed at the challenger and The Chairman. The self-proclaimed Planet’s Champion would claim that Styles’s fan base only cheer him for making them laugh instead of think and not making them feel bad about themselves.

Mr. McMahon was not left unscathed as The New Daniel Bryan ranted on how baby boomers like Vince take what other people have earned without giving anything back; for “putting profits over both people and the planet.”

Judging from the general social media response to his rant, critics and fans alike seem to think Bryan is making valid points. Some are even starting to wonder if Bryan and Styles should switch heel/face roles. While that itself may be debatable, one thing we all know for certain is that Bryan should definitely retain his title this Sunday.

Going into this title match, it would appear less that AJ Styles has lost steam as a character, but more that audiences are gravitating more towards Bryan’s side in this feud. Since turning heel last November, the WWE Champion has adopted a character where he highlights what he deems to be social injustices in the world. Stuff like animal cruelty, greed, gluttony, etc.

In theory, we should all be booing him because he is criticizing us for committing such acts, but for the most part, we all agree with him. These are unquestionable bad things and it’s hard to disagree or boo Bryan for his words when he’s right. Every time Bryan opens his mouth, the cheers for him in the crowd just get a little bit louder and the general crowd reaction gets a little more divisive. It’s hard to boo a crazy hippie vegan when he’s making sense.

Styles, however, is a little harder to cheer. While Bryan spews hard truths backed up with facts, Styles has consistently downplayed Bryan’s stance with cheap insults. Maybe if Styles counterattacked Bryan’s stance with valid points of his own – perhaps defending the right of the people to have a choice, even if it’s not the best choice – then maybe Styles would be easier to cheer. But he hasn’t done such a thing one time during this feud.

Plus, we would be amiss if we didn’t address the big elephant in the room regarding Styles’s appearance on the Steven Crowder’s podcast, which espouses harmful views and promoted bigoted T-Shirts on that same episode (CW: homophobia, xenophobia, racism). Styles caught a lot of flak for his comments about “PC culture” and the Gillette commercial, which was simply aimed at encouraging men to hold other men accountable for their actions.

As we know in wrestling, fans tend to sour on a wrestler’s character as soon as they fall out of love with the person behind it (i.e. Hulk Hogan). There is potential for problems to occur if AJ Styles won back his WWE Championship mere days after running into his own stint with controversy.

Alternatively, while The Phenomenal One hasn’t looked so phenomenal as of late, Bryan has truly stepped his game up since his drastic character shift. There was once a time when some fans – honestly, myself included – thought that Bryan was destined to be a babyface for life and couldn’t possibly make a believable heel transition.

In just two months, Bryan has proved those doubters wrong and excelled both in the ring and on the mic. Prior to his November turn, Bryan hadn’t been heel in almost five years. Even then, that heel turn only lasted a couple weeks. Now, Bryan has rebranded himself entirely as a natural, textbook heel. His character change has helped make the WWE Champion one of the most captivating and entertaining acts that SmackDown has to offer.

With that said, Bryan has only been WWE Champion for as long as he’s been a heel. It would be a shame to see the legs cut off of his reign so early just as Bryan is starting to find his footing as a heel champion.

While it’s not impossible to think that Styles will regain the WWE Championship, it would be both bad timing and a disservice to Bryan’s current reign if he did so this Sunday. For now at least, The Planet’s Champion should remain our WWE Champion.