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At Extreme Rules 2019, Daniel Bryan and Rowan defended their SmackDown Live Tag Team titles in a Tag Team Triple Threat Match, against The New Day and Heavy Machinery. Bryan and Rowan lost the titles to The New Day, and this resulted in Bryan going on a rant during a backstage interview. He stated that he failed in his quest to elevate the SmackDown Live Tag Team titles, and added that he knows what he needs to do in the near future. It's worth noting that Bryan had once stated that he wants to see the Tag Team titles headline WrestleMania.
Bryan teased a "career-altering" announcement soon after, but nothing was delivered on the following SmackDown Live episode. The WWE Universe waited with bated breath, but Bryan didn't make the announcement. Now, Dave Meltzer has reported that WWE has scrapped the "career-altering" announcement storyline, after not delivering on it for weeks on end.
Let's look at the five possible reasons why WWE went ahead and scrapped the whole "career-altering" announcement angle.
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#5 WWE had no plans at hand since the very beginning
Sometimes, the creative team writes down plans for an angle without completely making sure that they have an end penciled in, that would act as a satisfying conclusion to the angle they are planning to present on weekly TV. Remember the "Anonymous Raw GM" storyline, that just went on and on with no end in sight? In a reveal that felt terribly forced, Hornswoggle was announced as the Raw GM on the July 9, 2012 episode of Monday Night Raw.
It could be possible that the creative team simply went ahead with the story without planning for an actual payoff, thinking that they would come up with something eventually.
#4 WWE must have stumbled upon something better
The "career-altering" announcement seemed intriguing when it was first introduced, so why didn't WWE go ahead with it and come up with something to act as a payoff, after making the fans wait for weeks on end? Could it be that WWE suddenly stumbled upon something else, something that seemed much better?
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According to Meltzer, WWE might not even feature Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns at SummerSlam (possibly the 2nd biggest show of the year after WrestleMania), but they may do a reveal at the PPV, kicking off a storyline that would culminate somewhere down the line at a future PPV. We don't know what WWE has in store for us now that the previous storyline has been supposedly scrapped, but it could surely be something better than what they probably had penciled in for the "career-altering" announcement. Thankfully, SummerSlam is just around the corner and we won't have to wait for long to see where this angle goes.
#3 The storyline had lost steam
No matter how big of a story WWE manages to present on TV, it won't matter much if the fans don't see a payoff and the angle goes on and on for weeks on end. A good storyline doesn't just consist of a well-written beginning and a story, but it should also have a satisfying end that doesn't get stretched to oblivion.
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WWE announced the "career-altering" angle soon after Bryan hinted at it at Extreme Rules. The announcement was promised for the following episode of SmackDown Live, but WWE didn't deliver on it. It was teased again for another episode, but WWE didn't deliver on the same, again. The company can't expect the fans to have long attention spans at this day and age. The story soon lost all steam and the fans stopped caring about it altogether.
#2 The Reigns attack angle completely overshadowed it
In light of Bryan not delivering on the promised announcement, WWE kicked off an angle with The Big Dog Roman Reigns. The angle saw a mystery attacker attempting to fatally injure him on an episode of SmackDown Live. On the following episode of Monday Night Raw, Reigns was almost hit by a car in the parking lot. Thankfully, he got inside an SUV just in the nick of time, and a tragedy was averted.
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The fans were already tired of waiting for Bryan's announcement. When rumors began floating around regarding Bryan and Rowan being behind the attack, the WWE Universe forgot about the announcement angle and instead now focused on Bryan being revealed as the mastermind behind the attacks. Now that it's being reported that these two Superstars will probably collide in the near future, starting this Sunday, the "career-altering" announcement has become a thing of the past.
#1 There just wasn't enough time left
This point seems like the most logical reason as to why WWE went ahead and scrapped the entire storyline concerning Bryan's big announcement. Dave Meltzer reported the same on Wrestling Observer Radio, stating that a possible reason why WWE canceled the angle was that there just wasn't enough time left, and SummerSlam was approaching fast.
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They are not going to wrestle but they may do the reveal or something like that on the show or something. Some angle. Obviously, they are going to continue the angle that will lead to something on the following PPV. That angle was going, I guess they lost their timing on it and now it's not ready for the PPV.
Hopefully, we get to see a feud between Reigns and Bryan kick-off at The Biggest Party of the Summer. It would be interesting to see these two square off, now that Bryan is a full-fledged heel.
