5 theories on why WWE booked Daniel Bryan on the Money In The Bank kickoff show
WWE announced during SmackDown Live that Daniel Bryan & Rowan will defend the SmackDown Tag Team titles against The Usos during the Money In The Bank kickoff show on Sunday, May 19.
Rowan and The Usos are no strangers to competing on PPV kickoff shows, but the decision to book Bryan in a match on a pre-show broadcast has surprised many fans, especially considering that his WWE Championship encounter with Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania 35 was widely viewed as the best match of the night.
The former WWE champion teamed with Rowan to defeat The Usos for the vacant tag titles on last week’s SmackDown Live, and he mentioned following the show that he wants to create a tag team evolution in WWE, culminating in a main-event match involving the tag division at WrestleMania.
One week later, it was announced that the upcoming SmackDown Tag Team Championship rematch will take place on the MITB kickoff show, so it appears as though “The Planet’s Champion” is going to need to work extra hard in order to convince WWE’s decision-makers to give the tag division the spotlight that he wants.
In this article, let’s take a look at five theories on why WWE has decided that a Superstar of Bryan’s calibre should be involved in a kickoff show match.
#5 Increase viewers
PPV kickoff shows are not exactly must-see events. The majority of video packages during the broadcast are the same as the pre-match videos that are shown during the main PPV, while the kickoff show matches are usually relatively meaningless.
This was not always the case, though. In fact, back in 2013, Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins faced The Usos in a tag match on the Money In The Bank pre-show which is still considered one of the best matches that all four men have competed in.
In recent months, however, kickoff show matches have had very little meaning, with the most notable example coming at Fastlane in March when The New Day fought Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura with hardly any storyline explanation attached to the match.
Now that Daniel Bryan will be involved on Sunday’s kickoff show, there is bound to be an increase in interest from WWE fans.