Was Daniel Bryan a commercial success?

[Emperor Smeat]

I'd argue no but not because he was a failure as a top star but more because his time at the top was really short to bear long term fruit for the WWE. Some of that is WWE's fault for being really stubborn on pulling the trigger for his top stardom rise and supposedly still not wanting him as a top star afterwards.

Cena is probably the only recent big star that could be considered as a big commercial success in the WWE. Mainly because WWE spent over a decade only caring about him and making almost everything important revolve around him. If anyone else was starting to get too hot, WWE either cooled them down or made sure Cena got to leech some of it away.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Emperor Smeat I'd argue no but not because he was a failure as a top star but more because his time at the top was really short to bear long term fruit for the WWE. Some of that is WWE's fault for being really stubborn on pulling the trigger for his top stardom rise and supposedly still not wanting him as a top star afterwards. Cena is probably the only recent big star that could be considered as a big commercial success in the WWE. Mainly because WWE spent over a decade only caring about him and making almost everything important revolve around him. If anyone else was starting to get too hot, WWE either cooled them down or made sure Cena got to leech some of it away.

Cena chased away a large part of the audience. He moves the needle now, but that's largely because of that conditioning. They've tried to do the same thing with Triple H, but it hasn't worked nearly as well.