Daniel Bryan Pushed for a Heel Turn for Weeks + When Title Change/Turn Decisions Were Made

Daniel Bryan turned heel last night on SmackDown, using heel tactics to win the WWE Championship from AJ Styles, then repeatedly stomping on Styles’ head after the match.

Daniel Bryan had been pushing for a heel turn for several weeks, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, likely because his booking as a babyface has been so poor since he returned to the ring in March.

Vince McMahon finally decided to pull the trigger on the heel turn just yesterday afternoon along with the title change to “do it all in one day and get the biggest impact,” Meltzer added.

The decision to put the WWE title on Bryan was also only made this past weekend. That was before Becky Lynch was injured, so WWE had already planned on changing the Lesnar match and they ended up with a situation where the top two matches were changed.