Daniel Bryan At Payback: Will He Or Won't He?

To me, there is only one really interesting thing to talk about for this year's Payback. And it's something that I feel should not even be happening at Payback.

Will Daniel Bryan surrender his title belts due to his injury to Stephanie McMahon? Or will Brie Bella be fired? Why do I not think this should even be happening at Payback? They could have done it this week on Raw. They could have had Stephanie McMahon just strip Daniel Bryan of the title the week before that. They could have taken it from him the week before that. They have dragged this all the way to the PPV. At this rate, they could pretty much keep dragging it on until Daniel Bryan is healed. That would be stupid. You usually talk about what matches will be the big draws for a PPV. How great have the feuds for those matches been developed and hyped to draw? A segment between Daniel Bryan and Stephanie McMahon looks to be one of the big selling points for this PPV.

Will Daniel Bryan give it up? It seems likely. You can have the heartwarming moment of Brie telling Daniel Bryan not to do it just for her. Brie stands up to Stephanie. In the end, Daniel Bryan will still give it up. It just makes storyline sense for The Authority to take advantage of this situation to get the title off Daniel Bryan. Outside of kayfabe, it would be nice to have an active wrestler hold the title for those few months Daniel Bryan is out. If they just keep on running a storyline where Stephanie McMahon is struggling to take a title away from a guy that can't even defend it right now, that would just end up looking stupid.

I do understand the WWE might be in a bit of a tough spot. Who gets the title? Cena, Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton are tied up in their own storylines. If they had stripped Daniel Bryan of the title before Payback, who gets it or who gets put in a match to decide a new Champion. I think they still had options. Award it to Kane. He was feuding with Daniel Bryan, he took Daniel Bryan out, and he is aligned with Stephanie McMahon. If they wanted a match to determine the new Champion, book some kind of battle royal with all former World Champions that are not already in a match at Payback. That would include guys like Kane, Big Show, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler, and Alberto Del Rio. Or just make it a triple-threat or four-way match. If they really wanted to, toss in Cena and those other former World Champions already booked on the card. Let them pull double duty. I think a match involving the World title would mean more than a segment involving the World title.