A new report has given some insight into Daniel Bryan’s WWE Title win and heel turn!

To say that the WWE Universe was shocked when Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles for the WWE Championship might be an understatement, but Bryan’s actions following the match where he attacked ‘The Phenomenal One’ certainly surprised everybody (see the full results with Mitchell’s Live Report here).

With AJ Styles scheduled to face Universal Champion Brock Lesnar this Sunday at Survivor Series, many didn’t expect we would see a title change this close to the event like we had last November when AJ won the championship from Jinder Mahal in a similar situation. Bryan is however a multi-time titleholder, so for one of the company’s top babyfaces to suddenly turn heel on a dime has left the WWE Universe stunned. Of course, there are always those who blame the company for decisions like this that seem drastic from the outside, but one report claims it was not WWE’s idea.

According to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, the decision to put the WWE Championship on Bryan was indeed WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s call and was actually decided upon “a while ago”. Additionally, Meltzer reports that Bryan is the one who pushed to turn heel.

As for having the title change and heel turn all occur last night on SmackDown Live, it’s been noted that the choice to put the title on Bryan was made over the weekend, then Vince ultimately decided yesterday afternoon to pull the trigger on that and the heel turn at the same time. There’s been speculation that the moves were made at the same time due to the injury to Becky Lynch, the company reportedly wanting to give the WWE Universe a different talking point heading into Survivor Series. Of course, that is just speculation at this time.

EA’s Take: While I’m an AJ fan and I don’t particularly care for the title change solely based off that reason alone, the objective side of me thinks it’s a great change of pace and I always like different. I mean, who saw that heel turn coming? I think this could be great for Bryan, he lost a lot of steam and while it was evident to me, it looks like it was evident to him as well. The best Superstars are the ones who can change or alter themselves to reflect the times and we’ve seen Bryan do it before. So who’s to say he can’t do it again? While I don’t think it makes much sense to have a heel vs. heel match at Survivor Series, it makes things much more interesting once we’re past Sunday.

What did you think of Daniel Bryan’s heel turn? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!