Hijacking Attempts at Commodification

The Daniel Bryan storyline epitomized the Reality Era’s narrative invitation to the audience to exert influence over the creative direction of the narrative through participatory behavior. Much like they had with the pipe bomb promo, WWE attempted to co-opt the fan response to Daniel Bryan and commodify it by directing fans to purchase merchandise in order to prove The Authority wrong. As previously mentioned, The Authority antagonized the

narrative audience by claiming that they did not know what was best for business. This narrative move makes sense as WWE had successfully used similar tactics with the indy-wrestling

subculture in the pipe bomb promo. There, Punk made his promo primarily about consumption practices, intimating that the fans should buy his merchandise to show that indy-wrestlers could be top draws in WWE.

Due to the success of the commodification of the indy-wrestling subculture, WWE again attempted to direct fans toward consumption as a means to support Daniel Bryan. The storyline held that Bryan could not be the star of the company because he did not fit the image of a true superstar. A true star, like Randy Orton, was said within the storyline to be more marketable for a wrestling company. The Authority knew that holding Bryan back was “best for business” because Daniel Bryan could not be financially lucrative despite fans’ appreciation for the

performer. Of course, the logical way to prove the heel characters wrong was to show that Daniel Bryan could be marketable as the face of the company, which could be accomplished by

its goal of increasing merchandise sales for Daniel Bryan during the period. However, while Punk briefly overtook John Cena as the top merchandise seller in the company, Bryan never did. Partially in response to lackluster increases in consumption, WWE took Daniel Bryan out of the main event picture once John Cena returned to action. When this occurred, the fans exerted pressure on the implied authors to change their creative direction through other participatory behaviors.

The fans exerted pressure on WWE to alter its narrative plans by “hijacking” shows and segments. This behavior inspired the eventual “Occupy RAW” segment, which was a narrative

representation of the actual behavior that pressured the producers to change their WrestleMania

plans. The fans first used their voice to hijack WWE’s planned narrative on the December 9, 2013 edition of RAW! At this point, WWE had shuffled Bryan back into the midcard in favor of pushing John Cena as the top face superstar working against Randy Orton and The Authority. WWE used this feud to unify the top two championships into one title, since Orton and Cena each held one of the two belts. To promote the unification match, WWE held a ceremony in the ring in which all the former WWE Heavyweight and World Heavyweight Champions stood in the background as John Cena and Randy Orton verbally sparred with one another about their upcoming match. Daniel Bryan stood among the other sixteen former champions as The

Authority talked about the importance of the championship unification. At this point, the crowd loudly started chanting “Daniel Bryan!” until Triple H stopped his monologue. When they successfully disrupted the ceremony, the crowd erupted in “Yes!” chants. Later in the ceremony John Cena brought Bryan front and center to acknowledge the fans’ support for him, an

unscripted moment spurred on by the crowd “hijacking” the segment to make it about Bryan rather than the superstars WWE was attempting to push at the time.

Even more indicative of the ability of the fans to “hijack” the narrative direction of WWE was the fan response to the 2014 Royal Rumble pay-per-view. The main fixture of this event is a match of the same name38 in which thirty superstars compete in a “battle royal,” eliminating each other by throwing opponents over the ropes and out of the ring until one man remains as the victor. Since 1993, the winner of the Royal Rumble match also earns a shot at the top title at

WrestleMania. In 2014, many fans were hopeful WWE would use the Royal Rumble match to

elevate Daniel Bryan back into the main event picture for a title shot at WrestleMania. However, Vince McMahon and the rest of WWE Creative had other plans. Namely, former main event superstar Batista, who had left the company in 2010, returned on January 20, 2014 vowing to win the rumble match. In his time off from WWE, Batista embarked on an acting career and WWE saw the potential for mainstream crossover appeal in pushing Batista to the main event at

WrestleMania. WWE attempted to push Batista as the top face character who would defeat the villainous Randy Orton and The Authority at WrestleMania.

Fans voiced their disapproval in an unprecedented fashion at the Royal Rumble pay-per- view. Daniel Bryan was never publically scheduled to be in the Royal Rumble match, but fans hoped that he would still be pushed to win the event.39 The royal rumble match is also notable in that it starts with two wrestlers and other competitors enter at regular intervals until all thirty have entered the match. As the match wore on and Daniel Bryan had still not entered, fans began to chant his name in advance of each entrant. Batista entered the match as the 28th wrestler and at first got a fairly positive reaction from the audience. However, minutes later the crowd actively turned on the match when Daniel Bryan did not enter. During the countdown to the final

38 _{For clarity, I refer to the whole event as the Royal Rumble (italicized) and the match itself as the Royal Rumble} match (without italics).

39 _{Daniel Bryan actually opened the show in a losing effort against Bray Wyatt. But throughout the years, wrestlers} had often competed in an undercard match at the event and also competed in the main event battle royal match.

entrance, the crowd was chanting “Yes!” in anticipation that Bryan would be the final wrestler. Instead, Rey Mysterio entered the match as the 30th _{and final competitor to a chorus of boos from}

the live crowd in Philadelphia. Mysterio, a longtime popular face wrestler, received the negative reaction simply because he was not Daniel Bryan.

From the point the crowd realized WWE did not include Daniel Bryan in the Royal Rumble match, they loudly voiced their displeasure at the creative decision. The crowd booed whenever Batista was on offense and repeatedly chanted Daniel Bryan’s name. When Batista eventually emerged victorious, he was met with the loudest boos of the night and more chants for Daniel Bryan. The fans rejected the proposed conquering face character. Batista himself

appeared visibly shaken by the crowd reaction. After the show ended, Batista visually mocked Daniel Bryan’s poses and extended his middle finger at the crowd. The biggest story on wrestling-related websites following the event focused on the crowd “hijacking” the event and rejecting WWE’s handpicked top star. Even the BBC covered the crowd’s overwhelmingly negative reaction in an extremely rare instance of the news organization covering anything wrestling related.40 A petition on the White House website to include Bryan in the main event at

WrestleMania gained nearly 100,000 signatures before being taken down in the week following the Royal Rumble.41

WWE initially attempted to stick with Batista as the top face character, but fans continued to voice their displeasure with the creative direction. In fact, the hashtag #Bootista trended on Twitter during the weeks following the rumble match in reference to the taunts Batista received from the live audiences. After two consecutive months of overwhelming

40 _{Amelia Butterly, “Royal Rumble: Daniel Bryan Blames WWE for Exclusion,” BBC Newsbeat, January 27, 2014,} http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/25911039/royal-rumble-daniel-bryan-blames-wwe-for-exclusion.

negative fan reaction, WWE showed signs of changing plans for the main event at

WrestleMania.42_{WWE crafted the “Occupy RAW!” segment as a narrative representation of the}

actual audience’s participatory behavior exerting pressure on the implied authors to change their plans. In both cases, those in charge creatively acquiesced to the fans’ desires, giving the fans a level of creative authority in the narrative production process. Thus, while WWE managed to commodify the “Yes! Movement” through things like t-shirt sales, the movement also shows the limit of WWE’s ability to oppress fans and legitimate freedom of action and influence over the production of narrative on the part of the fans.