Daniel Bryan WM 30 What if…??? (for blog discussion)

Hey Scott,

Long-time reader, first time writer from tiny Luxembourg here. Been a silent fan of your work since the early 2000s and your blog has become one of my favourite daily reading spots. Keep up the good work!

Anyway, on to my question. I was re-watching Wrestlemania 30 in preparation for this year’s epic booking fustercluck and it made me wonder: What if Daniel Bryan had gotten injured just before Wrestlemania? That actually opened up 4 different scenarios, which I thought might make for a good blog discussion. What do you think WWE would have done in these cases? What would you have done?

A) Bryan injures himself the day of Wrestlemania. Let’s say he slips in the shower on Sunday morning, breaks his leg and can’t compete at WM. What do they do? Does HHH automatically get added to the Triple Threat match? Do you put him over in the end? Do you improvise and add the winner of the Andre Battle Royale as a surprise? Do you substitute Bryan with an “in storyline friend”, fighting on his behalf and proceed with the plan as we saw it? Do you do something completely different?

B) Bryan gets injured during the first match to the point where he can’t continue to compete and HHH wins the opener. Do you put HHH in the main event? Who do you put over to send the fans home happy? Or, HHH having proven his point that Bryan is B+, do you proceed with Vince’s wet dream of Batista – Randy Orton? And who goes over?

C) Bryan wins the opener, but before the main event, it is discovered that he has suffered a concussion and can’t be in the match to end the night with YES! chants. How do you proceed?

D) Bryan wins the opener against HHH, but suffers an injury during the main event where he can’t continue. Do you go with Batista or Orton? Or do you figure out a way à la Austin/Owen Summerslam 1997, where an injured Bryan somehow gets the pin and the title…and then forfeits it the next night on RAW? And where do we go from there?

What do you think the WWE would have done in these scenarios? What would you have done?

Discuss! 🙂

I feel like Bryan would have crawled to the ring and worked a four star match unless he was dead and thus unable to move.

Thanks for writing from Luxembourg!