Mark Henry On How Daniel Bryan Should Evolve As A Babyface
Daniel Bryan seems ready to once again change in the WWE, and as he does, Mark Henry and Ryan McKinnell have some thoughts on how they’d like to see Bryan evolve as a character going forward. During a segment on SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio, the duo discussed Bryan, and challenged Bryan to no longer live in the past.
“If Daniel Bryan is coming back as a babyface, I don’t want to see the ‘Yes!’ movement continue,” McKinnell said. “Let him chant, but I don’t want to see Daniel Bryan rely on it…because he’s just too good for that.”
Henry took it one step further, noting that you don’t want to see Bryan being used by the fans. “You don’t want to see him be a puppet,” he said. “You don’t want to see him be coerced by the crowd into doing their bidding. Let them be the ones that chant, but don’t let him milk it, and do the ‘Yes, yes,’ and point to the sky.” Henry went on to discuss how not only will the fans look at Bryan different, but wrestling purists will look at him differently if he just goes back to his old persona, before looking to some of WWE’s greatest as examples.
“You know what babyface heels strike me the most? Stone Cold Steve Austin,” he said. “Steve Austin did his own thing, they cheered him more than they booed him. CM Punk, did they boo him? No, they cheered him. That’s what Daniel Bryan is treading, he’s treading that same category of being a badass, but ‘I’m going to do it the way I wanna do it, you’re not going tell me what to do. And not only are you not going to tell me what to do, but fans…if I want to shake his hand, I’m going to shake his hand, I’m just going to kick him in the gut and give him one of these stunners.’”
Henry went on to say that Bryan could go on to becoming one of those babyface heels, and could do what he wants, so long as he doesn’t go back to the old ways. “Daniel Bryan can shake Sami Zayn’s hand, and then as soon as he gets remotely giddy with himself, and he raises his hand, he’s gonna kick him in the gut, jerk him on the ground, and put him in a Yes Lock, that’s what he can be, and I’m hoping that that happens,” he said. “Because if it don’t happen like that, then he’s going to be a puppet, and people are going to judge him, and that run will be short.”
On #FridayNightSmackDown, @SamiZayn challenged @WWEDanielBryan to make a choice – live in the past or look towards the future.@TheMarkHenry & @RyanMcKinnell on the Daniel Bryan they want to see in the @WWE right now 🙌 pic.twitter.com/aGhS2s20in
— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) October 26, 2019