Despite being an on-air personality as the General Manager of SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan has never shied away from sharing his thoughts on the current WWE product and where he believes it could be going wrong. The former WWE Champion returns tonight but in a recent interview with NBC Sports, he weighed in on what the company needs to change in order to stay relevant.
"I think a change of presentation is absolutely necessary. I think the way that we present our superstars probably needs to change. Years ago they went through with this idea of having as much live stuff as possible on the shows, but I think when you watch say UFC for example, some of the things that are the most endearing, that make you care the most about the fighters are these backstage vignettes that get to show their real personality. You'll see great fights that people will cheer maybe because they're great fights, but the fights that have the most impact are the ones with fighters who people actually care about.
"I think one of the things that really endeared me to people was that people got to view more aspects of my personality than most because of the different things that I did within WWE. Seeing performers frustrated and being able to show that on TV and being able to show their experiences, their reactions to what's happening to them on the show and doing backstage vignettes. I think one of our failings on SmackDown Live was American Alpha. They're great and on NXT they did all of these fun little interview segments with the two of them that got to show the people behind American Alpha. (They saw) who Chad Gable is, who Jason Jordan is. I'd like to do more of that kind of stuff."
Bryan makes a great point and American Alpha are a very good example of WWE letting down its talent. Talking Smack has also emphasised how much wrestlers benefit when they're not being scripted to death and it's been clear for a while now that something needs to be done in order to freshen things up and help the company with those plummeting ratings!
Will anyone in WWE take note? It seems doubtful, but Triple H does seem to have moved towards this sort of thing in NXT so there could be a shake-up when we get an inevitable changing of the guard and Vince McMahon is no longer in charge. What do you guys think? As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts on Bryan's remarks in the comments section down below.