What if Daniel Bryan becomes a Paul Heyman guy?

Daniel Bryan has played a heel in WWE. It was, in fact, his 2011-2012 run as a selfish, self-deluded villain, willing to do anything to hold onto the World Heavyweight Championship that paved the road for Team Hell No and the peak of his popularity as a WWE Championship contender.

Bryan is best known, though, for his infectious “Yes!” chant, fast-paced ring work, and playing the lovable underdog whom fans organically get behind over the superhero types the company is perceived to favour.

WWE shocked its fans on the SmackDown before Survivor Series, though, when Bryan apparently turned heel to capture the WWE Championship and steal AJ Styles' spot against Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series.

What if there’s even more at stake than a heel turn, though? What if Bryan is revealed to be a Paul Heyman guy? This article analyzes the intriguing possibility and five potential implications.

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#5 Brock Lesnar turns face

Daniel Bryan turned heel. Could Brock Lesnar turn face?

In a battle between Brock Lesnar and Daniel Bryan, it’s hard to imagine Lesnar playing the face and Bryan the heel. Such a scenario could emerge, though, given that Lesnar hasn’t done much that’s overtly heel of late (including, if anything, behaving like a face when he took out Jinder Mahal and the Singh Brothers on Raw), and given Bryan nailing AJ Styles with a low blow to take his WWE Championship.

Heyman was actually the inciting factor for getting Bryan his title match on Tuesday, and it could all be revealed to be part of a broader plan. In that scenario, he may be setting up Lesnar, not unlike when he sided with The Big Show against the Next Big Thing back in their original partnership. While Lesnar is enough of a physical spectacle that it’s tough for WWE to sell him as an underdog, especially against someone like Bryan, it could be a step in that direction if Heyman betrays him for Bryan.

#4 A new Dangerous Alliance on SmackDown

Could Paul Heyman's iconic stable make a comeback?

One of the appeals of Daniel Bryan and Paul Heyman working together is that they are both such well-established faces on the WWE landscape, and both so widely respected for what they bring the table as professional wrestling talents.

One of the more efficient ways of applying such a partnership to the current SmackDown scene would be to not stop at just a one to one, manager to client relationship, but rather allow these two to give other talents the rub via a heel stable with Heyman as the mastermind and chief talker, Bryan as the lead wrestler, and a cast of younger, less established, or otherwise less over talents working alongside them to get some heat by association.

The dynamic would parallel Heyman’s iconic Dangerous Alliance stable from WCW, and while it probably would bear the same name, it could accomplish a similar function of an elite group causing trouble for faces and capturing their share of championship gold.

#3 Paul Heyman straddles brands

Paul Heyman could be uniquely positioned to work Raw and SmackDown simultaneously.

Paul Heyman’s character deciding to work with Daniel Bryan would seem to signal that he would be breaking from Brock Lesnar—a sensible enough proposition given that Lesnar is only around part-time and may be disappearing altogether sooner than later, and WWE may get more mileage out of him backing a full-time talent.

Another possibility, however, would be Paul Heyman being that oddball character to work both brands. If he were to have been won over by Bryan’s cunning in cheating to beat AJ Styles or be impressed by the fight he puts up against Lesnar, there could be a scenario in which he becomes the advocate for both men, and winds up working Monday and Tuesday nights. The gimmick of managing both brands’ world champions would be a unique one and befitting a guy who is undeniably WWE’s top manager of this era.

#2 A face turn for The Miz

The Miz has been Daniel Bryan's opposite for a long time. That dynamic could continue.

The Miz plays a heck of a heel. His dynamic with Daniel Bryan has worked, on and off for over eight years, on the premise of him being an arrogant, self-centered jerk with delusions of grandeur in juxtaposition to Bryan as the humble, scrappy hard worker who won’t let Miz get away with putting him down.

Bryan and Miz arguably have unfinished business, given that their SummerSlam match concluded with Miz using brass knuckles to steal the pin and their Super Show-Down bout ended so abruptly with a flash pin for Bryan. Many pundits saw this feud carrying on, and possibly absorbing the WWE Championship for WrestleMania. If that were to happen, the general consensus was that Miz would take the title off of AJ Styles, and Bryan would be the challenger, possibly winning his way through the Royal Rumble.

Now that Bryan seems to be a heel, and if he solidifies that relationship by partnering with Paul Heyman, there is a possibility of his feud with Miz going on, but with Miz turning back to a face role to stay opposite his arch rival. While Miz tends to be a more natural heel, Bryan tends to be a more natural face, and it could be intriguing to see what happens if they do wage war from reversed polarities.

#1 A new heel power couple

Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella could be the biggest heel power couple this side of The Authority.

After Daniel Bryan regained the WWE Championship on SmackDown, Brie Bella didn’t hesitate to hop on Twitter to congratulate him, going so far as to acknowledge that you have to do whatever it takes to reach the top. It’s not surprising that Bryan’s real-life wife with praise her husband, and there’s less of a shade of gray than there might have otherwise been to her not objecting to him bending the rules. After all, it’s Bryan who seemed a little off kilter for not objecting when his wife turned heel in the build to Evolution. Now that they both seem to be on the dark side, there’s no reason for them not to be on the same page, and reunite that way on screen.

This power couple could be the anchor of a new stable managed by Paul Heyman, potentially crossing gender division lines with the group, or else with Bella as the lone female part of the entourage. In either case, there has been some dissonance among hardcore fans for a while about loving Bryan while not being too keen on either of the Bella Twins. Presenting them as a heel package, backed by a heel manager, makes everything a bit more straightforward in terms of fans booing the whole lot of them.