Though it seems impossible for Daniel Bryan to top his work as a babyface, that’s exactly what the WWE Champion has been doing week in and week out as his new heel persona.
Bryan recently spoke with Newsweek about the psychology of his role as Eco Warrior/Social Reformer/WWE Universe antagonist. Here are some quotes of what he told them (h/t Cultaholic transcription): “…I want to be the most hated guy in the company. I want to be more hated than Brock Lesnar.
“Some people want to cheer for the bad guy. I don’t want them to cheer, I want to be hated. So far I’ve had two jumpers at live events [laughs] and that’s an old school kind of mentality. You don’t want those guys to jump but you want them to hate you. You want them to pay to see you get beat. Or pay to see you get beat up or at the very least enjoy seeing you get beat up. That’s my thing.
“I look at professional wrestling as a martial art, almost. But if you’re looking at martial arts, MMA is the most martial aspect of it, professional wrestling is the most artistic aspect of it. And so this is my performance art. When I do other martial arts I do them to be better at my performance art. Creating those kind of narratives is something I think about a lot. People think of wrestling they don’t see it as a performance art or something that is very nuance or have that kind of depth to it. It doesn’t have to, but I don’t mind having that depth.”
Bryan masterfully worked his Survivor Series match against Universal Champion Lesnar, keeping his heel heat despite the fact that most people would’ve loved to see Bryan beat Brock. Bryan will have a much easier time of doing his heel work this weekend when he defends his championship against everybody’s favorite face, AJ Styles. Bryan and Styles have created quite a build for their match at the Royal Rumble despite not doing much in-ring work over the past month.