All ratings out of a possible score of five.
Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt || ****
Man, what an incredible match. Bryan and Wyatt work incredibly well together – correction: Bryan works incredibly well with anybody. But the story between these two could have been the main event at any B-level PPV of the year. They worked for over 20 minutes, which is pretty long for a title match, let alone the opener. Bray took some brutal spots including a knee off the steps that crossed a line between "make believe" and "holy shit, that guy just broke his leg". Bryan played up the concussion and the match was booked around their injuries appropriately, moving at a slow but perfect pace. Very personal. They seemed to lose the crowd somewhere in the middle, but that will happen in lengthy matches, and they found momentum building into an incredible finish. I'm honestly surprised they proved me wrong here, but Bray Wyatt picked up a huge win that will propel him into a feud with John Cena in the coming months.
Brock Lesnar vs. Big SHow || ***
I might get a little negative feedback for this one, but I loved how they handled Big Show and Brock Lesnar. I don't know why anybody would expect a good, lengthy wrestling contest between these two. It's not 2004. Brock is a fighter with a killer instinct. Big Show's a legitimate giant with a right hand that puts down anybody who gets in his way. If they would have tried to put together some sort of slow, drawn-out match, the crowd would have chewed them up and spit them out. So instead, Brock got to beat the hell out of Show for ten minutes with a steel chair. Brock got to look like gold when he took a KO Punch, and then got back up to hit the F5. And Brock got to look like a monster when he continued the assault post-match, literally breaking a chair over Show's back. I loved it. Nobody had any interest in this match going in, so nobody should have an issue with the way it was handled.
Where they go next is intriguing. I would have thought Mark Henry would make the save for Big Show after the 45th chair shot. Look for that to happen on Monday Night Raw tonight, or in the next few weeks. Brock will do to Mark Henry, or Big E. Langston, or whoever at the Elimination Chamber. And then once all the available super heavyweights in the WWE have been disposed of and all hope seems lost, that's when you bring out The Undertaker. No use rushing their feud when Brock won't be on TV every week.
