Daniel Bryan Heel Turn: Reported Reason Revealed Ahead Of WWE Survivor Series

Daniel Bryan's heel turn before going on to win the WWE championship against AJ Styles on Smackdown this week continues to be a major talking point.

Bryan low-blowed Styles before performing his running knee finisher move to shock the world and become heavyweight champion for the fourth time in his career. He would cement his heel turn by attacking Styles after the match.

It means he will be facing WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar at WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view event this weekend in what has long been a dream match for fans.

But why did WWE turn Bryan, who has notoriously been a good guy for the best part of the last six years?

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Bryan had been pitching to turn heel for over a month with WWE chairman Vince McMahon finally complying on Tuesday.

“The heel turn was decided this afternoon," Meltzer said, as quoted on ComicBook.com. "It was basically Vince saying, ‘Let’s do it all in one day and get the biggest impact.’ Now the weird part is they’ve spent how much time saying that Brock Lesnar is the ultimate heel, he never comes to work, blah, blah, blah. Now you’re going to put Daniel Bryan against Lesnar and for that match to work Daniel Bryan needs to be a babyface, but he’s a heel."

The dynamic of the match will certainly be interesting. For years, fans have made their fantasy booking of Bryan facing Lesnar and winning as the likeable underdog. But with him as a heel now, it definitely makes things awkward.

Regardless, McMahon wanted to shake things up, presumably with Becky Lynch being hurt and no longer being able to face Ronda Rousey in their brand supremacy match this weekend.

“Vince decided to do it all at once, let’s shake things up maybe the big audience drop — you know, who knows what makes Vince make these moves," Meltzer added. "Maybe it was Becky Lynch being hurt? It’s like, ‘We'll make a big move today that everybody talks about.'"

In the end, a heel turn was needed for Bryan. While he will always be one of the best faces in the WWE, his character desperately needed a change of scene and will make things at Smackdown extremely interesting now.

It will also be interesting to see how this affects his rivalry with The Miz, who many expect him to feud with heading into Wrestlemania 35 next year.

With The Miz being one of the best heels in the business, it would make sense for him to face a good guy Bryan so ideally, the latter would turn heading into Wrestlemania season.

Whether Bryan goes into Wrestlemania as the WWE champion is another question, however. But given how things have shaken up this week, many are unsure what will happen in the next few months and that's always a good thing when it comes to the WWE.