10 Best Wrestling Matches With The Worst Builds

7. Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns Vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan - WWE Hell In A Cell 2019

Daniel Bryan Luke Harper
WWE

2019 might well be the worst year in WWE history.

2004 was horrific - an absolute state of desperate creative and badmatches, in which WWE's arrogance and ineptitude caught up with them. 1995 was the anti-zeitgeist, but Bret Hart was still Bret Hart at least. 2020 was nightmarish, on every conceivable level, but 2019 was madness.

Madness best exemplified by the storyline in which Daniel Bryan's heater Erick Rowan attacked Roman Reigns backstage and fooled Bryan into thinking his doppelgänger just happened to be there. Roman Reigns entertained the notion in a cliffhanger, too. By this point, Vince McMahon had made his idiotic babyfaces impossible to root for with his extravagantly marshmallow-brained creative.

This was all paid off in a match, and what a match. At Hell In A Cell 2019, Rowan was joined by Luke Harper who, despite being incredible, was yet again binned off afterwards.

The resulting Tornado tag was unreal.

It took a while to get going, because the heels went into it with zero heat, but they got there. They got there by, cutting off an awesome comeback, Rowan body-slammed Harper on top of Roman on the outside. In an awesome major set-piece, Rowan and Harper attempted to power bomb Bryan through a table, but he slipped out, and Roman jumped from the other announce table to spear Rowan's guts out.

A thrilling maelstrom of destructive action, beautifully arranged, WWE in a wider sense had rarely felt colder in a box office sense - but this was a white knuckle blockbuster from out of nowhere.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!