10 WWE Gimmicks that should have been given more time

#5 Daniel Bryan the Anarchist

A vegan anarchist?

Daniel Bryan’s Pro Wrestling career can be summed up in three parts. First, there was his sensational independent scene run where he would delight fans all over the world with his wrestling talent, claiming the ROH World Championship in the process.

The last part saw him achieve the very highest prize in WWE, a World Championship victory in the main event of Wrestlemania.

However, in between these two phases, Bryan’s career became rather stagnant. His time in NXT (the original, reality TV contest version) was underwhelming at best. He did have some decent feuds with The Miz and CM Punk, but ultimately seemed destined for perpetual mid-card hell.

One saving grace about being a mid-carder in the WWE is that you are at least afforded the time to think up some new concepts for your character. You get to a position where you’re more likely to move down the card if you don’t keep things fresh.

This is why, in a match with CM Punk at Over the Limit, Bryan thought he would try and get his new gimmick over. Bryan would essentially become an unhinged Anarchist and even wore a green military style jacket to the ring to give fans an idea of the direction he was headed.

For those who have watched his DVD ‘Just Say Yes’, Bryan explains that he wanted to give a boost to his character and was under the impression that the Anarchist character was good to go. Instead, Vince McMahon pulled him up after the match and told him never to wear the jacket again.

It’s hard to miss the gimmick, seeing as we never actually saw it in any promos, but one would imagine a talent like Daniel Bryan would have made it work. The guy is pretty anti-establishment in real life anyway, choosing to live a vegan lifestyle and not getting too involved in the glitz and glamour of celebrity life.

He could have used this in the same way Punk used to berate people for drinking alcohol, claiming to be better than most people because of the kind of life he leads. Nevertheless, it’s not as if things didn’t turn out ok for The American Dragon in the end.