WWE Rumors: ‘Friday Night Superstar’ Reportedly Has Creative Freedom
WWE is often criticized for micro-managing the product and not affording creative freedom to the superstars. While superstars are welcome to pitch ideas to the team of writers and the boss, everything must be approved by Vince McMahon, and he has a reputation for not allowing the roster to develop their own ideas without some significant input from him. However, according to Sportskeeda‘s Tom Colohue on the latest edition of the outlet’s Dropkick DiSKussions podcast, one Friday Night SmackDown superstar has been given more control over his character and booking, in addition to propelling other talents.
“Daniel Bryan is really involved in the planning of this feud and in fact in the planning for a lot of his feuds recently. You find it popular and often when someone wins the championship they’ll get asked, who do you want to work with, whereas with Daniel Bryan there is no Championship involved, he’s still going out and saying, I want to work with this person, I want to work with this person and Drew Gulak looked amazing throughout this whole match.”
Bryan and Gulak fought each other at last weekend’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. While the match seemed to appear out of the blue at the show, it appears as if Bryan has requested to work with the Cruiserweight performer because he wants to help him ascend the WWE ladder.
Both superstars are set to team up going forward, which will likely see them compete for the Tag Team Championships. According to the Sportskeeda report, Bryan has been actively lobbying to work with several underused talents, so it’s highly possible that fans will see him compete against more superstars from 205 Live, NXT, and the lower echelons of the main roster going forward.
EXCLUSIVE: @WWEDanielBryan thanks @DrewGulak for helping him feel "alive" after their brutal battle at #WWEChamber. pic.twitter.com/bjU4absINV
— WWE (@WWE) March 9, 2020
During Bryan’s last heel run, he also teamed with Erick Rowan, who was very underutilized at the time. Their pairing eventually led to Rowan turning on Bryan and entering into a hit-and-run storyline with Roman Reigns. Rowan even got a victory over “The Big Dog,” which is no small feat.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Bryan is believed to be one of three superstars who the creative team listens to, with the others being Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon. However, the recent elevation of superstars like Gulak suggests that Bryan has more influence than anyone else on the roster at the moment.
Paul Heyman has reportedly been encouraging Monday Night Raw superstars to experiment with their characters as well, which is supposedly what resulted in Drew McIntyre receiving a major push this year.
