Watching Smackdown and you can see Daniel Bryan is basically a star. The people want to see him. So the angle is working in that people want him to succeed and win over the odds.
Also, Dean Ambrose was great on commentary freaking out Michael Cole.
Bryan has that intangible spark that draws people to him. WWE must be shocked that if you push people that the crowd wants to see, they, gasp, get over big.
They've spent a long time now picking who they want to see as big stars instead and giving them nonstop megapushes as Super Faces, instead of pushing the people that show the most connection with the crowds. Compare the end results of Sheamus' megapush in all of 2012, to 2 months of a strong push for Daniel Bryan.