Bang for Your Buck PPV Review: The 2013 TLC PPV

1-on-3 Handicap Match

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4548jn

DANIEL BRYAN vs. THE WYATT FAMILY

Best Case Scenario: Daniel Bryan ascends to Rey Mysterio “Ultimate Underdog” status by defeating all three members of The Family with a single Running Knee Strike, like so much 619.
Worst Case Scenario: The Wyatts winning, if only because it means that Daniel Bryan’s run as the Little Engine (Filled with Goats) That Could would likely be over, or turned down to a trickle of Awesome as opposed to the deluge we’ve seen the past 5 months.
What Nick Wants to Happen: Daniel dispatches Bray’s Dueling Banjo Band in a grueling 15-minute 2-on-1 affair before Wyatt wrestles him one-on-one in a separate ten-minute match.

Being all things to all people is hard, but between the Wyatts and Daniel Bryan this was pretty much the Platonic ideal of a WWE match: a storyline-based match where the most over guy in the company turns the workrate up to 11.5, nearly overcomes insurmountable odds, and because of it, manages to look better after losing than nearly anyone else that night looked winning. That it was all the first signature “Bray Wyatt” match in what will likely be a lengthy career filled with them is the icing on one of the more delicious cakes I’ve eaten in years.

I understand that the Worst Case Scenario came true, and I should therefore give this a lower rating, but this match is perhaps the best example of the problems with reviewing things, even on a sliding scale with pre-set expectations: feelings change and evolve, sometimes quickly. That match was everything it should have been, everything it needed to be, and most importantly, a thing that I should be getting when I pay for things. I watch WWE with more passion than almost any other single thing on earth (outside of Wimbledon and the NBA) for moments like Bray  Wyatt screaming at Daniel Bryan “WE COULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS” while trying to beat him to a pulp, so needless to say, this is definitely a match I’ll be watching over and over again.

Match +1.0 | PPV 3.6

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