WWE: It’s time to praise Daniel Bryan for his role in helping KofiMania

The April 2 edition of WWE SmackDown was the go-home episode for the blue brand in anticipation for this Sunday night’s WrestleMania 35 pay-per-view and a night that saw Kofi Kingston get one step closer to his career-defining opportunity.

Last night’s WWE SmackDown was a solid way to head into WrestleMania on Sunday, but particularly for the highly-anticipated WWE Championship match between The New Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston, a match and movement that has taken the WWE by storm over the past few weeks.

He was labeled as a B-plus player, downright disrespected, and screwed over in recent weeks, but Kofi finally earned his rightful place into the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 35, which will mark the first-ever one-on-one WWE Championship opportunity in Kofi’s 11-year career.

The storyline has been wonderfully-done up to this point, but last night’s final encounter and subsequent contract signing between Bryan and Kingston was an excellent way to head into one of the most unexpected and sought-after matches in WWE history.  Bryan had a few life lessons to teach the WWE universe during this segment, the first being don’t be complacent.

He took shots at Kofi for being complacent over his career and not going after what he felt he deserves, a WWE Championship opportunity.  Bryan then said to not be a bystander in your own life, claiming Kofi had to rely on others to make his own breaks.  He took in even farther by saying this would be as good as Kofi will ever get in the WWE, which didn’t sit well with Kofi.

This caused Kofi to turn as intense as he has ever been in his career.  Kofi said Bryan thinks he knows him and what he’s feeling, but he doesn’t know anything about him.  Kingston then said Bryan is just scared because he knows his entire career has led to this moment where he will defeat Bryan and become the WWE Champion for the first time on the grandest stage of them all.

For as great as Kofi has been throughout this entire process, The New Daniel Bryan has been just as important to the buildup of KofiMania.  Who would have ever thought that Bryan would turn heel in the first place back in November?  And then, who would have ever thought it would be as great as it has been?  Bryan has proven he can pull off being a great heel in the past, but he will be forever remembered for his run as an all-time great babyface.

During that run as an all-time great babyface, he was in a very similar situation storyline wise as Kofi is right now, overlooked, not respected, and the deck stacked against him.  That’s what makes this angle so great, the fact that Bryan went from being labeled as a B-plus player back in 2014 to now being the one labeling Kofi as a B-plus player heading into WrestleMania 35.

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It takes two to tango and seeing the dynamic between Kingston and Bryan has been fantastic over the past couple of months.  This condescending and preachy version of Bryan’s character has brought out the best in Kofi’s current run.  He has tremendously helped the building of Kofi as a top babyface and he likely would not have quite reached this level if it wasn’t for Bryan providing a great heel counterpart.

The similarities between Bryan and Kingston’s respective runs toward a WrestleMania breakthrough are noticeable, there’s no denying that.  But with the similarities being that strong, it makes the work Bryan is doing as a heel this time around that much more important because he can relate to what Kofi is doing, and can say as much as we saw last night.  Last night was another example of how well Bryan can help get Kofi even more over than he already has been.

The WWE Champion subtly let the crowd chant for Kofi several lengthy times during their contract signing and made it look like an annoyance to his character.  He knows what he’s doing and it should be fantastic to see how Bryan works with Kofi on the grandest stage of them all.  It could even result in an all-time great WrestleMania moment.

It will be a role reversal for The New Daniel Bryan at this year’s WrestleMania, but as one of the most talented superstars in WWE history, he can make anything work including putting over one of the fastest babyface rises in WWE history.