Why Daniel Bryan Turned Heel & Won The WWE Championship: The Best Theories

It was a busy night on SmackDown Live but nothing shocked more than Daniel Bryan winning the WWE Championship and turning heel on AJ Styles, replacing The Phenomenal One mere days before the Survivor Series main event was set to take place. Most will wonder why WWE would seemingly choose to turn one of the most popular stars in the company against the biggest babyface on the blue brand, but if you look at the decision from a few different points of view, there is some logic to the decision.

Could it be that WWE needed a new heel? Did the company need to change up Survivor Series with the news Becky Lynch was all of a sudden off the card? Did the company need a challenger to Brock Lesnar fans would believe could win the match? Was this always the plan?

If we take a look at some of the options, perhaps we can predict why WWE would completely throw a wrench at a Survivor Series card that was mere days away.

This Was Always The Plan

Often times, we assume WWE doesn't always think much farther ahead than the moment staring them in the face, but every once and a while, it's wise to give WWE some credit and imagine they had a plan laid out well in advance. If that's the case, we're assuming WWE wanted Bryan versus Lesnar over Styles versus Lesnar II.

Perhaps there's a good reason for that. If the WWE was going to give another victory to Lesnar (and it would be silly to assume they wouldn't be based on their history with the Beast Incarnate), it would have made Styles look weak and as the champion, that's not always a good plan.

It could be WWE wanted to build to a feud between Bryan and Styles and one of them needed to turn heel. A Bryan turn has a much bigger impact than a Styles turn and making an impact is important.

Dominoes From Becky Lynch Announcement

While we try to give credit to the biggest sports entertainment company in the world, the WWE Universe knows well that not everything is fully planned in advance. This may have been the case when it was learned Becky Lynch's broken face and concussion was going to keep her from performing at Survivor Series. If her match with Ronda Rousey was meant to be the main event, all of a sudden, WWE was faced with a problem. How was WWE going to move from Lynch vs. Rousey as the headliner into a match that was not near the same level, regardless of who Lynch chose as her replacement? The answer might be to dramatically shake up the entire card.

On Tuesday, that's exactly what happened. The men's team changed, the women's team changed and all of it was highlighted by a title change that gave the now Lesnar vs. Bryan match a ton of momentum.

Bryan Had Lost A Little Buzz

Not everyone will agree with this sentiment, but there's an argument Bryan's shtick was growing a tad stale. Sure, fans were still Yes! chanting when he came in, but Bryan had been barely floating around the main event scene on SmackDown Live for a few weeks in a row. He'd lost to Styles a few weeks earlier and that seemed to signify Styles was the man WWE was moving forward with. Bryan also pulled himself from Crown Jewel which took him out of the title picture and he wasn't really in a heated exchange with anyone.

The great thing about Bryan is that he loves wrestling. To say he loves wrestling is to say he loves the in-ring performances, the psychology and the drama. Perhaps there's no better person to let take a run as a heel than someone with that kind of passion for the industry. Who else will dedicate himself to making a heel turn work?

What This All Means

WWE decide to make a major change just days before a big pay-per-view. Styles will no longer be in the conversation for longest-running WWE Champion, Bryan is getting another run as the champ and SmackDown looks to have its new primary heel.

A rematch will definitely be in the works considering it took a low blow to beat Styles and he's well within his right to demand another shot. That match will likely tell us if this was a last-minute panic move or something WWE was always going to do.

NEXT: Becky Lynch’s Injury Solidified Her As The Literal Face Of WWE