WWEWHC Match

 DANIEL BRYAN (C) VS. KANE

 There was much consternation before this show that Daniel Bryan would be relegated to the CM Punk memorial “champion unable to end the show” role by people as tuned into the goings on of the wrestling world as Wade Keller. Ignoring the immense stupidity of claiming that Daniel Bryan not finishing the show would signal that the company had no faith in him as a performer going forward by citing the fact that the previous year nine of the twelve shows ended with the champion defending his title, this was all washed away simply by having Daniel Bryan finish last night’s show. Right? PLEASE SAY RIGHT.

But, even with all that, this match merely ended somewhere between “not terrible” and “thing that made Daniel Bryan look like a credible champion who can beat nearly anyone simply by being better at ‘professional wrestling’ than they are”. That doesn’t mean it was good, as much as it got the job done by showcasing Daniel Bryan as a “smart” wrestler willing to use whatever he can to win a match, while also being talented enough to win on sheer ability alone when necessary. That’s why instead of ending the match with him beating Kane to death with a rubber crowbar then hitting him with the swandive headbutt off of a forklift, they had him win with his finisher.

Daniel Bryan is the best “professional wrestler” in the world, no matter what the circumstances, and while there are may be bigger “superstars”, the goal of this match was to prove that as fact.

He is in an existential fight with the idea of what people perceive professional wrestling should be.  The odds he is overcoming aren’t just tough matches and opponents, they’re things like long held beliefs about what constitutes a superstar, the nostalgia draw of garbage wrestling to many fans currently watching the product and relics of eras gone by. The goal of this match was to show his ability to overcome those things and he did, at least long enough to count to three.

Match +.7

The Bottom Line

As a standalone show, this was much closer to fun but forgettable than either classic or crap, though that changes depending on how much you hated John Cena. Er, sorry, John Cena and Bray Wyatt’s match. WeeLC may have also been offensive to some, but considering the work that everyone else did to make El Torito and Hornswoggle look like good, skilled professional performers it is defintely worth a rewatch. As was the brilliant work by the Shield.

But this wasn’t just a standalone show, it was the first true “special event” in the history of the company, their own version of Clash of Champions. And in that context, it was a very enjoyable introduction to a new universe where the stakes aren’t as high but they will try their darnedest to make sure the quality of the matches doesn’t lose anything.

Relative to other shows we’ve looked at, it was towards the middle of the pack on a per match basis and also had to deal with Rob Van Dam bringing down a Cesaro match and Xavier Woods relative terribleness making Rusev’s crush not live up to its full potential. There will be better shows, and there will be worse shows, but if you have three hours to kill you could do a lot worse than the 2014 edition of Extreme Rules.

Overall PPV 3.85 | Match Avg .48125 (.4813 if you’re nasty)

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