The last few weeks have seen Daniel Bryan admitted to the
neck troubles club. It doesn't come as a surprise. Bryan's in-ring style does
not mesh well with his personal safety. Whenever Bryan returns to the ring,
whether it's in a week, a month or a year, it's clear certain moves are going
to have to be dropped. Or at least become less frequent.
The most obvious is probably the diving headbutt. It's a
move synonymous with Chris Benoit (which has made me uncomfortable with Bryan
using it regularly for entirely different reasons) and was almost certainly a
contributing factor to his neck troubles. The suicide dives will probably have
to go too. The running drop kicks may be on the list too. D-Bry has less
control over his landings when performing the move at the speed he does.
 |
| DROP KICK!! |
Personally I'd like to see him drop the headbutts
altogether. It's uncomfortable to watch him perform a move that's noted for
having such an effect on the neck (and the Benoit thing really doesn't help:
Bryan's style is not dissimilar and he shouldn't be doing anything to invite
further comparisons). I'd be fine seeing the suicide dives scaled back to
special occasions only. Pay-per-views and major television matches specifically,
although how often do we get the letter these days? The running drop kicks I
like but if they're endangering the man doing them I'm happy not seeing them,
or seeing them used rarely.
Eliminating moves from a repertoire necessitates the
introduction of new moves. That's true of any wrestler but it's particularly
true for high profile WWE stars (which D-Bry is, obvs). The average WWE match
is so short that a wrestler needs a handful of signature moves to structure the
match around and a finisher to end with to stand the best possible chance of
ensuring consistent reactions. There's no room for variety in the average bout.
Being a well-travelled and versatile performer Bryan has
plenty of options open to him. A secondary submission move could be established
as a wear down hold for the Yes Lock. One that could be applied to a standing
opponent would be pretty interesting as it's not something seen often in WWE
(even AJ Lee's Black Widow hold usually ends up with the opponents sagging down
to the ground). The octopus abdominal stretch would be good and most wrestlers
in WWE are sturdy enough to allow Bryan to completely leave the ground while
applying it.
No direct replacement for the diving headbutt springs to
mind but to be honest I don't think one's needed. Bryan is not, by any
reasonable standards, a flyer. If it's something that's deemed an integral part
of his act then a splash would work well enough. Better would be a cross body
block rolled through into a small package-like pin. That would fit with Bryan's
use of the flash pin gimmick and be safer than the headbutt. The only major
change would be that the person taking the move would be standing rather than
lying down, which isn’t particularly significant.
My guess is Bryan will swipe a couple of fresh moves from
Japan. KENTA's probably been (proverbially) bled dry by this point but I'm sure
there are plenty of other guys who could be cribbed from. Whatever solution he
goes with I think a change is coming for Bryan. And I also think he's easily
talented and popular enough to pull it off seamlessly.
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