10 Best WWE Matches Of 2019
2. WWE Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match - Elimination Chamber
A tremendously-paced Chamber match - a true classic of the genre - the flow of the action was dictated by character, not by spots, which made for a believable and wholly gripping epic.
Samoa Joe's thudding, methodical assault looked so legitimate that instant doubt was cast over Daniel Bryan's WWE Heavyweight Tile reign which, given the show's proximity to WrestleMania, was very impressive. An instant expectation and hope for Kofi Kingston being the man to bring it to an end was also created when Bryan scurried to the top of the pod. This was masterful space-between-moves stuff, which of course, because Daniel Bryan is a pro wrestling genius, made for a superb transition into a big, crowd-popping move: Kofi's trust fall from atop it.
AJ Styles flew himself around the structure with the old TNA energy, which of course Randy Orton punished him for with his elimination, informing the theme of their imminent WrestleMania storyline. Bryan punished Jeff Hardy immediately after he took a risk. Everything served the characters - look who eliminated Randy Orton, who needed to eliminate Randy Orton - and thus, this was the perfect WWE multi-man gimmick match.
Daniel Bryan conspired to improve on his bravura performance seven years later in an all-timer of a match-within-a-match. This finale was as dramatic and special as Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker's Royal Rumble '07 masterclass.
The power of the near-fall isn't so much in the timing as how much you want to see it, and those people were desperate to see Kofi pop up after that running knee.