Royal Rumble 2021: Is it finally Daniel Bryan’s time to win?

It feels like almost another lifetime ago when fans practically begged to see Daniel Bryan win the 2014 and 2015 WWE Royal Rumble.

If you watched any WWE television around that time — and it’s completely understandable if you didn’t because…….well, the product wasn’t very good during that period — then you very much know why fans were so eager for it. It was during that stretch where Bryan became the most popular wrestler in the company.

Everyone with a semblance of common sense knew Bryan was the babyface to build the company around, at least in the short term. Unfortunately, no one informed those in charge of WWE Creative of this.

By now, WWE should be clued in on the fallacy of a meritocracy in pro wrestling. It’s fun to talk about how many years a wrestler has put in to fine-tune their craft or to bring up all the countries they have wrestled in, but at the end of the day, their place on the card is determined by the people booking the promotion and their own set of ever-changing prerequisites.

In Bryan’s case, it didn’t matter how over he got or how good his matches or promos were; Vince McMahon had decided that the former WWE Champion wasn’t right for the top babyface spot (unless the fans forced their hand).

Fast forward about a half-decade and a brief retirement later, and the parameters have changed for Bryan again, but this time, they might be in his favor. If you look at the most recent betting odds for the 2021 men’s Royal Rumble match, you’ll see Daniel Bryan’s name at the top of the list for the men’s Rumble.

These odds mean little if anything at all — the same site that gives Bryan the best odds to win also gave Ronda Rousey the fourth-best odds in the women’s Rumble, for example — but it does provide some evidence of a somewhat renewed belief in Bryan as a headline attraction for the company’s biggest show of the year: WrestleMania.

But in 2021, it’s fair to ask whether the moment for Bryan to win the Rumble has passed. While no one, myself included, would outright dismiss a Bryan win the same way fans did Batista’s win in 2014 or Roman Reigns’ win the next year, plenty of fans are also as hopeful for a Big E win, a heartfelt triumph for the returning Edge, or even Keith Lee. Bryan is no longer the only name to turn to in WWE for feel-good wins.

He also doesn’t have a lot of momentum, either, as he has spent most of his time since returning from a hiatus in October. To be clear, he hasn’t become a jobber or anything, but he also hasn’t felt like someone who’s on the precipice of a big Rumble win. And with Bryan taking on a bigger creative role behind the scenes and intimating he doesn’t plan on doing this full-time wrestling thing much longer, is it wise to forego some of the names mentioned and pick Bryan for such a spot?

Seemingly, the answer should be no, but all of those factors should give WWE all the more reason to book Bryan to win.

With Bryan approaching the twilight of his wrestling career, he probably won’t have many more chances to win the Rumble. And despite a few losses that served to elevate the wrestlers he put over, he still has more than enough credibility built up to where him winning doesn’t feel like a stretch.

Plus, assuming Roman Reigns retains his Universal Championship over Kevin Owens, WWE has a built-in story to tell with Bryan and him, which they planted the seeds for on the Dec. 26 episode of Talking Smack. A feud that plays off of fans largely rejecting Reigns as a babyface for the last five years because, among other reasons, he wasn’t Daniel Bryan is likely too tantalizing to pass up for the build to WrestleMania and having Bryan win the Rumble to get there would make it all the better.

If there was ever a time for WWE to pull the trigger, it would be now. Hopefully, they do so while they still have the chance.