How Bryan's Knee Shifted Reality

Last night it finally happened.

Since SummerSlam in August, John and I have been crafting an oddball canon that once Daniel Bryan hit John Cena with the flying knee and beat him clean that it caused us to divert off the main timeline into a dystopian reality. But with the events of Monday Night Raw last night, Bryan may have set things back on track by kneeing Bray Wyatt inside a steel cage. Let's look back at the journey we've taken during this visit to the dark timeline.

At SummerSlam, Bryan did the unthinkable when he introduced that flying knee of his. He defeated John Cena to win the WWE Championship. But something felt off, as suddenly Triple H attacked him and allowed Randy Orton to successfully cash in Money in the Bank. The Authority rose to power seemingly overnight, overtaking all the WWE's weekly programming. Hell, they even opened all the Pay-Per-Views. The quality of the shows began to decline after a long hot streak of good Pay-Per-Views, especially Battleground which we directly told people to avoid and for good reason.

Bryan continued to slip down the card and WWE started putting people like Big Show into the main event picture and giving Cena the World Title his first night back from injury. Cena and Orton were on the top of the company again, when people wanted people like Bryan, Ziggler, and Punk headlining the shows. Even NXT wasn't safe, as The Authority began having influence and the shows fluctuating between the normal high quality we expect and a few dud shows. Things were looking grim.

You may be saying, "You're just upset because the booking wasn't what you want." Then explain to me what happened during the Best of 2013 episode of NXT. They were showing clips that we've never seen before, featuring main roster superstars participating in segments where things were much better off than what we've been dealing with. Sandow and Cena having a debate in the ring while Cena is calling him SAWFT along with Enzo and Big Cass? Big Show sticking up for Dusty against JBL trying to take his job? This was a glimpse at the timeline we diverted from. They treated the clips as if we were supposed to remember them, but we never witnessed them in our timeline.

John and I knew the key to correcting our course and bringing us back to the main timeline - and it was the evil shaman Bray Wyatt. Of course the mystical maniac (who we are convinced can turn into a buzzard) was the Gatekeeper that guarded the portal back home. But here he could gain power and take things over. And he almost succeeded by taking away our last glimmer of hope in Daniel Bryan by absorbing him into his clan. That was, until Monday night when the power of the people helped snap Bryan out of the evil spell. It makes sense that he would confront the Gatekeeper within a locked cell and finally overcome the demon. And when Bryan hit him with the flying knee, he finally brought things full circle and unlocked the path back to our normal reality.

Things are now looking up. Bryan is back and on the road to WrestleMania. Batista is making his long-awaited return to inject some excitement into the upper card. And the WWE Network will be launching next month giving us everything we've ever wanted. The future is looking bright and things are finally back on track. For now.

Heel Turn Notebook is a wrestling column that serves as a supplement for the Zonecasts: Heel Turn podcast. To listen to the show, please check out http://www.ozoneent.com/zonecasts/heelturn/.