10 Collector’s Items Of Modern WWE Brilliance
6. Daniel Bryan Vs. AJ Styles
WWE can't do empty arena wrestling particularly well.
The staunch refusal/inability to not to do their tropes even though it's really, really weird for them to keep doing them indicates total creative bankruptcy - as does their inability to depart from those tropes to do anything of worth.
Somewhere in between lies this thing called "professional wrestling," and Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles mastered that sh*t in the incredible Intercontinental Championship tournament final. This was the second best match any company has promoted post-lockdown. It was better than anything New Japan Pro Wrestling has managed. It was absolutely blinding.
It was a match so damn good that WWE Creative Writers can spend the next 25 years banging on about "bringing the prestige back" to the title and refer only to this match.
It was deeply immersive. They struggled for everything. Every physical movement aimed to create an advantage or defend from every hold. Some of these movements were imperceptible, but they were there, in plain sight, to reward those who care the most in a match for a title that people used to care for the most.
They saved the most stunning bursts of athleticism after the slow burn - the running knee into the Styles Clash was seamless, where so many of those feints exist only for the counter - and in the process worked a better match than...