People liked Cena until he started putting out rap albums and he became too politically correct.  It was like he was being forced on us.  Fans don't like being told who to like.  We choose our own guy.  Back when the Rock and Stone Cold were "The Guy" we wanted them to have the belts and they got 'em.  When the WWE realized how big the Rock was and made him start producing music (what the hell is up with WWE and music!?) and over exposing him, people turned on The Rock, too.  It's a fine balance and I'm still not 100% the WWE can pull it off properly, even with Daniel Bryan gift wrapped with a bow on top.  After the Royal Rumble, with fans behind Daniel Bryan, Triple H and Stephanie came out and gave him their endorsement....and it just felt wrong.  We'll see where it goes. 

The World Championship was always a second class title when the WWE got it from ECW.  Everybody knows the WWE Title was the real one.  They put it on Bryan at Summerslam but, per some report, ratings went down after Cena was gone for rehab.  They quickly took the belt away from DB.  When Cena returned, ratings went back up.  Bryan, as much as I love him (In the pro wrestling thread, I said he was my Wrestler of the Year maybe two years ago!) he's gonna be a hard sell.  He's like Bret Hart in the 90's.  Spectacular but not mainstream.  The WWE likes mainstream and they like ratings.

That's a complicated thing... It's hard to determine if it is bad booking or a solid plan. WWE booking usually is terrible and they can bury guys pretty quick (like HHH buried Sheamus at Mania. If he wasn't a main eventer then he would be probably out. Even with his status, his career staled a lot and is just now recovering).

Bryan doesn't have the look WWE wants in their top stars. Reigns would be more like that. The big problem is that he still is pretty green and a push done too quick could do some irreparable damage to him. Bryan already was top face during some time when Cena was out. And Cena won't be top face by a long time. He started having hip issues and that is pretty much the first sign of end for a wrestler career (in other sports, it would be the end). The top face has to be a guy that can get on the road, appear on every Raw, fight on house shows and so on. Cena will start to move to a part timer role, goig for the same path as Taker and others.

That's Bryan chance, if the "Yes" movement just keeps going, that's its chance to be the top star. The WWE booking started taking him more seriously in the last weeks (all that ridiculous goat jokes vanished) and his "Yes" merchandising started selling. He will get the ME in some PPVs. If he sells merchandising, PPVs and tickets, then he will become the top guy. It's all about money.

Del Rio is there for another reasons. First, he is a solid worker that can do good matches with anyone (that's why we got the last matches against Batista, it was a test). But the main reason is that WWE pushes him is because they need Mexican stars to sell their product to Latin America. They had Eddie Guerrero, then Rey Mysterio and both were amazing draws in LA. Rey is basically out, too much knee problems. His contract expires in 3 months and from what I've heard he could not sign a new one and just retire. Sin Cara was pushed to be the new Mexican guy, but things derailed pretty fast and it's a big doubt if Hunico can recover the character. That's why they turned Del Rio face, even if he is a much better heel, he will be their main Mexican draw.

To be fair, they put the belt on Bryan for about 3 minutes at Summerslam before Triple H hit a pedigree on him and Orton cashed in his MITB briefcase and became WWE champion. Then he beat Orton for the title at the next PPV (forget which it was) but they took the belt off him again the very next night on Raw.

They haven't actually tried to give him a decent title run yet to see if he can keep ratings steady or improve them. If anything, the ratings fell because people were upset about how things were heading. A lot of people actually managed to get refunds for all of the PPV's that WWE kept screwing Bryan over on.

OP: I don't mind that they're taking the slow burn approach with Bryan. It makes it more memorable when he finally reaches the top. The problem I have is that they haven't given him a compelling and steady angle to work with during that slow burn period. He went from raging against the WWE machine for a month or two, fighting/joining the Wyatt family for about a month (not enough time to really build a good feud) to just kind of barely getting into PPV main events and now back to raging against the machine. It's like they don't know what to do with him while they keep him away from the title.

I think they will try to push Bryan as main face more times. That PPVs buy rate wasn't great, but there were a lot of other factors to that. Bryan's booking was being terrible as usual and he wasn't being booked as a menace to Orton or Cena. He was booked as the joke with a goat beard that simply got lucky to get a world title. They need to do a proper booking for him and put him in the title scene. Just that way he will have his real trial.

I think it has been said thousands of times, the chase is better then the catch

I hope Bryan has his day in the sun. He's been able to get himself over like CM Punk. They just have "it". When I think of so many times when the WWE had something special going with the fans and blew it (Ziggler, Zack Ryder, Ryback, Santino, Fandango) all of these guys that the audience was strongly behind and they just didn't know which way to go causing them to lose all of their heat...It's just hard for me to have faith in them.

We could have another attitude era with a dozen guys the audience loves to see at once (Dudleys, Edge and Christian, Rock, HHH, Taker, Mick Foley, Benoit, Guerero, etc.) if they would just push more than a couple of guys. The guys they tried to push, like Curtis Axle, the audience just isn't buying what they're selling.

Well speaking of unused potential.
Byback really could have been the guy inbetween Cena and Bryan he has the look off a powerhouse.
Sandoh is kinda like edge, the smart opportunist.
That new bulgarian looks like another kozlov or whatever his name was
Rhodes being the generic guy
NAO just suck, get the belts on the usos and do a nation of domination thing lol

If he survives Wrestlemania without getting buried by HHH, it will mean that they finally learned that Cena won't wrestle forever. Let's hope Hunter forgets his shovel at WM or...

I'm probably still being too hopeful or naive but I have to believe that WWE learned something from the Royal Rumble and will have Bryan go over Triple H at Mania. If he was to lose midway through the card then that whole arena will derail any match that comes after it. Even a perennial favorite like Rey Mysterio got booed out of the arena once the people at RR realized Bryan wasn't even going to be in the match. A match between Orton and Batista would be a slaugther after another signature WWE Bryan burial.

I wonder if the fans would start throwing garbage into the arena like the NWO days.