WWE Vs. The Fans: Daniel Bryan & The YES! Movement

Bryan Danielson is one of the most beloved and revered professional wrestlers of all time, with fans left spellbound by his exemplary technical wrestling skills when he stepped inside the squared circle over his multi-decade career.

Such was the fan support for the man who wrestled as Daniel Bryan in WWE that in 2014, the company’s audience were prepared to move heaven and earth to ensure The American Dragon reached the top of WWE, even though the company itself very much considered him to be a B+ player. 

When it became wholly evident that World Wrestling Entertainment were overlooking the most popular star on their shows, wrestling fans made their voices heard and founded the YES! Movement. 

Daniel Bryan Garners Fan Support During His Early Years In WWE

It was on the premiere broadcast of the NXT game show that clean-shaven 28-year-old Daniel Bryan faced newly-crowned World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho in what would probably be the best match of the season by a wide margin. Though they never worked together before, Jericho knew what Bryan was capable of, and the two put together an ambitious TV outing.

Reflecting later on his first thoughts of Bryan, Jericho wrote, "I knew he would get over big as he'd done it many times before in Ring of Honor and New Japan ... Once you learned how to get over, you could do it anywhere."

Jericho wasn't wrong. Despite going 0-for-forever on NXT, Bryan endeared himself to the WWE audience - both the fans previously aware of his rare greatness, as well as the viewers whose only wrestling intake was WWE.

When Bryan was temporarily let go over the Justin Roberts strangling incident, fans were outraged. When his match with Sheamus was bumped from WrestleMania 27's main card, they expressed annoyance. When he became World Heavyweight Champion through a Money in the Bank cash-in there was a widespread feeling of ecstasy. And when a heel-turned Bryan lost the belt in 18 seconds to Sheamus at WrestleMania XXVIII there was outrage. 

In the year that followed that confounding bit of booking, Bryan made the best of a curious partnership with Kane that centred on each man's anger issues as they cultivated a grudging love-hate relationship. Their interactions were often very funny, and provided some necessary character quirks to the well-rounded technician.

While fans had come to appreciate Bryan's comic sensibilities, many caught on to his quirkiness earlier, as they had already taken to performing his signature gesture along with him.

After winning the World Heavyweight Title in late 2011, Bryan was encouraged to be as over-the-top and cheerful as possible, and let fan reaction determine the direction of his character from there.

The YES! Gesture Is Born

To achieve this directive, Bryan co-opted a habit of one of his favourite MMA fighters, then-UFC welterweight Diego Sanchez. Sanchez would make his entrance by repeatedly pumping his fist and shouting the word "YES!" to enforce a positive mindset for himself.

Bryan took that emphatic “YES!” and added an over-the-top sideways gallop, which he would perform down the entrance ramp, all the while spiking his index fingers skyward with each affirmative.

While it seemed like the taunt was designed to make Bryan as unlikeable as possible, fans quickly caught on and there was an infectious energy that would manifest whenever the opening bars of Flight of the Valkyries (a modified version of Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries) would fill the WWE arena for Daniel Bryan’s entrance.

Soon, crowds were YESing along with Bryan, even after he was turned heel. Once a heel, when an increasingly-unhinged Bryan tried to get crowds to stop with the YES! chants, countering with a diametrically-opposed NO! gesture, the YES! chants continued anyway, and played a part in his character's mental spiral.

Despite this attempt to inorganically make the YES! chants something they weren't, Bryan still had his following, and a vocal contingent continued supporting him through rivalries and issues with Sheamus, CM Punk, AJ Lee, Kane, or whoever stepped up to the plate to face he and Kane when they teamed up.

B+ Player

During the summer months of 2013, after Team Hell No ran its course, Bryan began earning the loudest crowd responses on any given show. Fan faith was rewarded as The American Dragon stood toe-to-toe with the likes of The Shield, Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus, and others, oftentimes winning in featured bouts.

That July, when WWE Champion John Cena hand-selected Bryan to be his SummerSlam opponent, there was a very real sense that he was being "made." The rock-star responses to Bryan had only increased in volume, and it felt like WWE were acknowledging that. "YES!" had become the affirmative of choice for a fanbase that was used to trolling lukewarm WWE fare with a droning "Whaaaat?", so 2013 Daniel Bryan felt like a revelation.

Bryan did go on to defeat Cena in an instant classic at the 2013 SummerSlam to win the WWE Championship. However, his reign was short-lived, as guest referee Triple H and Money in the Bank briefcase-toting Randy Orton ambushed the exhausted victor, facilitating his immediate title loss.

The storyline mirrored what many perceived to be the maddening reality that normal-sized, modestly human Daniel Bryan was internally viewed as *far* too human to represent WWE as the face of the company, as WWE liked to promote mesomorphs with million dollar smiles that were ripped from the pages of the latest graphic novel.

Instead, Bryan was a "B+ Player", a label Stephanie McMahon placed upon him at the onset of the angle against The Authority. Fans rallied behind Bryan in what became a man vs. the machine story.

At three consecutive pay-per-views, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton faced off for the WWE Title, with screwiness playing a part in all three finishes. Bryan won the belt back at Night of Champions, but had to forfeit it the next night due to crooked referee Scott Armstrong administering a fast count. Neither Orton nor Bryan won the vacated title at the horrifically-booked Battleground due to a Big Show double KO. Finally, Orton won the belt at Hell in a Cell via more official chicanery on the part of guest referee Shawn Michaels.

This seemed to conclude Bryan's rendezvous with the main event, as The Big Show was slotted in as Orton's next challenger, with the seven-footer now co-opting the "YES!" taunt for himself. Apparently, someone in WWE believed that it wasn't Bryan that was over, but rather the "YES!" chant that was over, regardless of who did it, which quickly was proven to be a load of nonsense. 

The "B+ Player" angle hit a little too close to the nerve for fans that had grown tired of the machinations of the one legitimate mainstream American wrestling promotion. Despite the office viewpoint, many fans saw Bryan as more than just a face in the crowd.

One Night In Seattle

This was apparent in Seattle, two hours from Bryan's stated hometown of Aberdeen, Washington when a Raw taping in the Emerald City concluded with a symbolic belt-raising ahead of John Cena and Randy Orton’s WWE Title/World Heavyweight Championship unification match six nights later at TLC. The ring was filled with many ex-world champions for the ceremony and Bryan outshined them all, earning a deafening response that briefly derailed the intended flow of the segment. For his part, humble Bryan could only laugh as it was all going down while Mark Henry raised The American Dragon’s arm in an unplanned moment in the hopes of getting the segment back on track.

The following day in San Jose, WWE held a press conference to announce 2015's WrestleMania 31 for Levi's Stadium in nearby Santa Clara, California. Though a great many WWE luminaries were on hand for the presser, Bryan was conspicuously not among them, a fact noted by some of the question-askers in attendance.

John Cena took the occasion to acknowledge Bryan's absence, as well as the uniqueness of the previous night's crowd love-in for the popular wrestler. While Cena seemingly had no problem discussing Bryan's popularity, there were apparently some higher-ups in WWE that didn't like being dictated to by the crowd.

The Wyatt Family & Royal Rumble 2014

The Big Show's main event run faded quickly, but as that push subsided, Bryan found himself feuding with The Wyatt Family. The feud had promise but it galled many fans when a battered and beaten Bryan submitted his reluctant loyalty to the group, in exchange for them not pummelling him any more. It sadly seemed apropos to end 2013 with one last debasement of an organic fan favourite.

While Bryan did later write that his willingness to join the group was intended to be him plotting to tear the group apart from within, fans at the time groaned at the setup. After all, they had learned not to trust WWE's storytelling methods.

Rather than have the subterfuge take place over time, Bryan was turned back babyface very quickly. Two weeks after pledging himself to the group, Bryan turned on the Wyatts at the end of the January 13, 2014 episode of Raw, attacking the bearded triumvirate after a Steel Cage Match gone awry. The response from the Providence, Rhode Island crowd for the sudden turn was foundation-shaking, and the in-unison-YESing made for an unforgettable sight.

The hastened split may have been facilitated by something that happened at a college basketball game one week earlier. The Michigan State Spartans football team was being honoured at halftime of the Spartans' basketball game on their home court at the Breslin Center when basketball player Travis Jackson led the crowd in a collective "YESing" for their brethren. The unbelievable scene made it onto ESPN's SportsCenter, while other media outlets picked up on the moment, explicitly crediting Daniel Bryan as the inspiration.

It quickly became hard to justify having Bryan mope around as a lackey in a grey jumpsuit. This was free publicity in the mainstream, and a clear indication that Bryan's influence extended beyond the arena. Not that any of that helped him much in the short-term.

Though his immense popularity was more than clear, Bryan went on to lose to Bray Wyatt in a very good opening match at the 2014 Royal Rumble in Pittsburgh.

Later that night was Randy Orton and John Cena's WWE Title bout, the latest match in what seemed to be their never-ending rivalry, and it was a very by-the-numbers affair to the point an irritated Pittsburgh crowd completely turned on the match. They wouldn’t get any happier once the Royal Rumble match got underway. 

As there were several open slots for surprise entrants, many fans hoped that Daniel Bryan, who had not been announced for the Royal Rumble, would pop up in the match as well due to his status as the most popular star in the company at the time. One by one, the entrants hit the ring, some more serious contenders than others, none of which were a bearded man with maroon tights and kick pads over his boots.

When Rey Mysterio entered at #30 as the final entrant, all hell broke loose. Daniel Bryan was not in the Royal Rumble and the crowd in Pittsburgh responded with a sustained torrent of boos and completely turned on the remainder of the field, turning the final minutes of the match into a surreal experience.

Batista ended up winning the contest. The WWE legend had only returned one week earlier as a babyface, but he was met with another torrent of boos for his victory as the fans expressed their displeasure at the prospect of Randy Orton vs. Batista for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXX.

Even WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley himself blistered WWE's tone-deafness in his own written rant. WWE had completely misread the room, overlooking the clear fan favourite in Daniel Bryan. In fact, Daniel Bryan wasn’t even originally scheduled for a headline match at WrestleMania XXX.

Beneath Batista vs. Orton, matches pencilled in for the Showcase of the Immortals included The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, Triple H vs. CM Punk, and John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt. Daniel Bryan was scheduled to face Sheamus at WrestleMania two years on from their 18-second contest at WrestleMania XXVIII.

WWE Changes Plans 

Then, as they do, plans changed. The day after the Royal Rumble, CM Punk walked out of WWE, due to many simmering issues accumulated over time. This upset the balance of WrestleMania, with the scheduled CM Punk vs. Triple H match now off. 

The remedy seemed to be slotting Bryan into the match with Triple H, to pay off the feud that kicked off at SummerSlam with the rise of the cumbersome Authority. While the idea of Bryan brutalising the avatar of the WWE office may have sated some fans, there was still the issue of the Orton/Batista main event - chiefly the possibility that the fans would treat it like Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar from 10 years earlier and spend half the match cheering for the referee. 

Fans had booed top babyfaces before, and negative responses to John Cena became an ironic pseudo-sport unto itself. There was nothing at all playful to this, however. This was fans believing they were being messed around, and the tone of their response reflected that. WWE fans identified with Daniel Bryan, and wouldn't accept anything less than the man they believed deserved the spotlight most getting to enjoy those spoils.

The outrage over the main event persisted following the Royal Rumble. In the weeks ahead, crowds aired their vocal displeasure at live Raws, cheering Bryan loudly, while booing Batista and openly crapping on everything else associated with the WWE World Heavyweight Title storyline. It appeared that the final nail in Batista's babyface coffin was the negative response he got during his match with Alberto Del Rio at Elimination Chamber as he was booed out of the building, while Del Rio received huge cheers from the Minneapolis crowd. 

As February turned to March, WWE looked to be pivoting. The supposedly-virtuous Batista helped lay Bryan out in one instance. Then, on the March 10 episode of Raw in Memphis, Daniel Bryan staged a protest of sorts by having a sea of supporters gatecrash the ringside area, filling the squared circle in an act of defiance.

Bryan made it clear that the show was being held up until he got his demand, a match with Triple H at WrestleMania XXX. This brought out The Authority and HHH and Stephanie McMahon tried and failed to put an end to demonstration. With his anger increasing, a furious Triple H was goaded into not only accepting Bryan's challenge, but also his additional challenge; the right to be added to the WrestleMania world title match should he beat Triple H earlier in the night.

From there, even a pessimistic fan could see the happy ending coming. WWE's hand was forced, and they were caving to popular demand. After all, it was the first WrestleMania (and main roster PPV) that would air on the brand-new WWE Network. The last thing the company needed at a moment like this was to do something that would infuriate their prospective customer base.

The Miracle On Bourbon Street & The Legacy Of The YES! Moment

Alas, Bryan did win his two matches at WrestleMania 30 inside the New Orleans Superdome, defeating Triple H in a highly-scientific opening match, before overcoming the odds to beat Orton and Batista in a wild main event.

Unfortunately, Daniel Bryan’s WWE World Heavyweight Title reign didn't pan out, thanks to a significant neck injury. He was forced to abdicate the gold in June, and didn't return to the ring until the following January. He came back just in time for another debacle involving a Royal Rumble, a hostile Pennsylvania crowd, and an undesirable winner.

Still, Bryan's triumph on the Bayou has been cemented as a heartwarming WrestleMania memory. For many fans, its significance rings louder because they know that they had a part in making it happen, to some extent.

Since then, similar fan "hijackings" haven't been as successful. With the exception of the ending to WrestleMania 31 a year later, Roman Reigns' unabated babyface push throughout the latter half of the decade resulted in a prolonged standoff where WWE still pushed their hand-picked guy, while the fans (while booing heavily) kind of just accepted the way things were, since there was no other national competitor until the very end of the 2010s.

The circumstances that led Daniel Bryan to the WWE Title at WrestleMania 30 are wholly unique. Lightning-in-a-bottle fan support, full-scale audience rejection of creative direction, further rejection of the hand-picked hero, and the exodus of a rabble-rousing anti-authoritarian all helped configure the realignment of the WrestleMania picture, and its storybook ending.

To the fans who got what they wanted on April 6, 2014, if you were to ask them if all the mind-numbing twists and turns leading to that moment were worth it, they might answer with just one specific word. YES!