Opinion: The Miz vs Daniel Bryan should be the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 35

It's great that Daniel Bryan has had his dream return to the ring and once again, back to being a full-time performer in WWE. However, the honeymoon phase of it is over, and with Bryan seemingly set to re-sign with WWE once his contract expires in September, it's time to look at what lies ahead for the leader of the Yes! movement.

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The supposed confirmation of his re-signing is more speculation than anything at this point, but the fact that he's advertised for WWE Super Show-down on October 6th. There's no doubt that they'll need all hands on deck to sell tickets for the massive 100,000 seat stadium.

As of this writing, AJ Styles has been WWE Champion for over 225 days, which is the longest fully-babyface WWE title reign in a very long time. He's set to take on Rusev at Extreme Rules, and it's quite likely that he's going to go through The Bulgarian Brute.

It's great to see that AJ Styles has established himself as the top dog on the blue brand, with WWE seemingly feeling the same way. His current reign will go down as an extremely memorable one, with him successfully defending it at WrestleMania 34 against Shinsuke Nakamura. But that doesn't mean it should be the same case next year.

It's already well-established that Styles will have an important match at WrestleMania, regardless of whether he's in a title match or not. Daniel Bryan vs The Miz, however, is something that should be saved for a much bigger stage - the biggest of them all.

Daniel Bryan vs The Miz is a story that dates back to 2010 when Daniel Bryan was an NXT rookie and The Miz was his mentor. They would eventually become rivals, with Bryan defeating The Miz to win the United States Championship. While their paths didn't cross much after that, it was in 2016, under different circumstances that their rivalry had gotten more heated than ever.

In a segment on Talking Smack, Daniel Bryan criticised The Miz for wrestling like a coward. The Miz hit back with perhaps the most intense and rage-fuelled off-script promo in his entire career. With fans having no idea where the line between fiction and reality was. The Miz himself admitted that it was all in the spur of the moment and not part of the plan. However, not only was it perfectly executed, but it peaked the interest in a possible Miz-Daniel Bryan match.

There was one major obstacle at the time, however. It was the fact that Daniel Bryan was the SmackDown Live General Manager and was not cleared to compete in the ring after being forced to retire earlier that year. Their rivalry after the segment escalated and a huge feud between them was teased.

Unfortunately, fans were left disappointed at the fact, knowing well that there wouldn't be any pay off anytime soon, as Bryan was not going to be involved in anything physical while being retired. The Miz then moved to RAW, quietly putting a halt to the rivalry or any mention of it.

The next time it was really teased was all the way in early 2018 for RAW 25, where The Miz entered his Intercontinental title match against Roman Reigns and had a staredown with Daniel Bryan, once again teasing a possible feud. In retrospect, however, this was seemingly done with the intention of a future match. It would be less than two months after this staredown that Daniel Bryan was finally cleared for his in-ring return.

Kurt Angle told The Miz during the Superstar Shake-up in 2018 that Bryan still had pull of some sorts on SmackDown, because he requested Shane McMahon and newly-hired GM Paige to bring The Miz over to SmackDown Live again.

In nearly three months, WWE has been very smart with their way of separating The Miz and Daniel Bryan. Even in the #1 contenders Gauntlet match, Bryan was attacked by the Bludgeon Brothers, leaving him to be easy picking for The Miz. The A-Lister would hit a Skull-Crushing Finale and comfortably pin his arch nemesis with no effort. To think of it, WWE even cleverly made sure that Samoa Joe was counted out in the same match, so as to save the dream match between Bryan and Joe on PPV.

It's been two years since The Miz stepped up his game and took the Intercontinental Championship and himself to another level. Fans have fully accepted and embraced a possible Miz world title run. Being a 10+ year veteran in the WWE, it's time for WWE to pull the trigger on The Miz and make him WWE Champion again.

This would mark the first time in seven years that The Miz has been World Champion. Many would argue that it's long overdue, so perhaps winning it from Styles at SummerSlam would be a good option. And unlike Jinder Mahal's title reign, it's easy to be confident that The Miz would have a great heel world championship run.

This could set up Bryan to finally win the Royal Rumble match in 2019 and set up a date at the grandest stage of them all with The Miz, in a dream match years in the making.

There are two big obstacles that could prevent the match from happening. One, Bryan's health and if he's able to consistently perform without getting injured, and two, WWE's patience in keeping the two apart until next year. In this case, it's hard to blame them even if they don't keep them apart, but it would result in a great payoff.

It may not be a technical masterpiece, but it would be a story that fans are invested in, and it's simply the right match at the right time and the right place. Make it happen, WWE!

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