What if Bryan had quit at Royal Rumble?
 

What do you think the "original plan" was exactly for Wrestlemania before Bryan hijacked the whole thing?

What would have happened had he not been in the company after Rumble?

Orton vs. Batista.

Orton would have won and cemented himself as the face of the WWE.

That's it? No Triple H involvement?

I could maybe see that if it didn't go on last.

They were looking to do Bryan/Sheamus, and Punk/HHH. Assuming that Punk still left and then was followed out the door by Bryan, they'd maybe do HHH/Sheamus.

They couldn't do Orton vs. Batista at WM. No way fans would have bought that shit.

In this scenario, are we not considering that CM Punk quit? I feel like Punk and Bryan would have been interchangeable. Punk would have done more punk/anti-establishment promos, while Bryan did the populist thing.

If both would have quit, I would not have been watching. They would probably just shoved Batista down our throats as a face. They were trying to do that after the Rumble with his feud with Alberto del Rio, but it failed hard and fast.

Even if the fans hadn't booed the hell out of Batista after his Rumble win and he was a mildly popular face I couldn't imagine them going with that as the main event of WMXXX. Mid-card match at best.

Although, Orton quite possibly could have gone full face, working off Batista's heel status.

I bet that it would have been a triple-threat no matter what. Probably with Triple H.

I imagine Punk would have quit unless he got offered the Bryan gimmick of beating Triple H and then both Batista and Orton in the same night.

Heath Slater gets a monster push.

I haven't seen any real proof as to a lot of the conjecture about the "original plan". It seems like it was made from whole-cloth.

I imagine Triple H would have been involved one way or another in the title match, but that's just conjecture on my part as well.

Here's what we know. Batista won the rumble, Orton was still champ going into Extreme Rules, they obviously planned for the Andre Memorial Battle royal and Cena VS. Wyatt and Undertaker VS. Lesnar.

It wouldn't be the first time the Royal Rumble winner didn't pan out come Mania, or the champ at Rumble lost the title before it.

I wonder if we can find any hints from this promotional poster:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...014_poster.jpg

I really think they were naive enough to think Batista would get the Rock treatment upon his comeback and they would have another massively over part-timer to win the title and bring in the attention. Once it dawned on them that Batista wasn't as beloved as they though and they would be having a heel vs heel main event, without Punk or Bryan they would have just had to throw the most smark-friendly option to put in the main event so the crowd didn't riot. I'm not sure who that would have been.

Or maybe they would have just put Cena and Wyatt in it to make it a fatal fourway with the idea that Wyatt and Cena would cause the crowd to actually be invested in the match in some way as opposed to just plain shitting on the whole thing.

Orton vs Batista for the WWE World title. Bryan would face Sheamus if the dirtsheets ended up being correct. Punk's abrupt departure and the fans verbally shitting on Batista's push were the two biggest factors for the assumed post-Rumble changes.

WWE would have done everything to get Punk back had Bryan actually left.

Cena would have been put into the main event with the D-Bry route, his angle with Bray quashed and forgotten after Cena beats him up on RAW or something (not necessarily even in a match).

Wyatt Family would face The Shield.

Either Brock or Cesaro take Bryan's place. If it's Brock, Cesaro takes his spot in the streak win. Bad News Barrett wins the Andre Battle Royal instead.

Nope. Cena would have been in a main event type of match though instead of the mid card. Probably would have went with Cena v. Taker and Brock v. Ryback and maybe Axel. Would have built Ryback up of course for the match but it has strings already attached because of Heyman.

This seems the most likely way things would have turned out.

I don't think anybody but Brock was a choice for Undertaker. It was time for him to go and he chose Brock to finish it.

I predict stuff would have happened.

Bryan wouldn't have quit because he is a man who handles his business and doesn't bitch and moan at everything. There is a reason why Daniel Bryan got the ultimate WrestleMania moment and CM Punk never did.

He may not have dropped it to Cena but is Mania needed that big match to save it he would have done it.

Truth

Spot on.

Are you asking this question on grounds of receiving legit answers are you asking this question to generate another ridiculous convo about nothing in particular as I often see on this forum? lol

If legit, I don't really think Bryan "hijacked" anything. Bryan becoming over with the crowd had to do with the bullshit booking/finish at NOC, which then continued on for months after that. It was clear that they trumped the Bryan push when he was taken out of the title picture because of Cena/Orton Match #982 (tag match with Punk, 3 on 1 with Wyatts, becoming a member of the Wyatts). Bryan not winning the Rumble (and hell, not even being in it) clearly showed that he was not in the title picture heading into WM. In fact, with the booking the way it was done, I could easily see them bringing it full circle all the way back to Summerslam where it all started for him to get his ultimate redemption. If Bryan left the night after Rumble & not Punk, it would have changed nothing for Wrestlemania. Bryan was not and would not have been put into a title match. They caved & catered to the fans when Punk left. It's that simple.

My gut feeling is that the Punk/HHH match was suppose to end with HHH going over in a screw-job/half-assed way so that Vince came back the following night to shift the balance of power. Remember the concept of Vince vs. HHH for the control of the company!?! Batista/Orton was clearly the title match from the start when they unified the belts and was probably the main factor in Batista returning. He for sure was going to win the belt at Mania.

IF AND ONLY IF they caved to the fact that Batista/Orton might not be strong enough, I would have expected Punk to be involved, not Bryan. Though, even that triple threat concept still would have had Batista winning.

ROCKMAN SPEAKS OUT!

Reigns takes his place.