10 Best Matches From B-Level WWE Pay Per Views

10. CM Punk Vs. Daniel Bryan - Over The Limit 2012

2011 was an abysmal year for WWE, and CM Punk wanted to symbolise and effect change. In the end, he was emblematic only of the company's turgid and muddled creative process. Daniel Bryan, meanwhile, was sacrificed to Sheamus at WrestleMania XXVIII.

Neither man was meant to become the Ace. To underscore that, their WWE Championship match at Over The Limit 2012 was positioned below doyen John Cena's comedy headliner opposite John Laurinaitis.

Whether or not that provided added incentive isn't clear, but they wrestled as if it did. Their match was a simmering technical festival notable for what didn't happen in it as much for what did. Punk, babyface, didn't play underdog. Bryan, heel, didn't beg off or use the referee as a shield. It was essentially a classic Ring of Honor match in a WWE ring, an ultra-stiff mat classic so indebted to the more realistic Indy scene that Super Dragon's innovated curb stomp was used in reverent tribute.

This match was superb, in and of itself, but it was all the better because it effectively atoned for the bullsh*t and chicanery flung at the feet of both men. They finally had a platform - nearly twenty five minutes, high stakes, the top prize - on which to demonstrate that WWE was in dire, dire need of change.

And they killed it.