10 Incredible WWE Moments Nobody Ever Talks About
1. Daniel Bryan Vs. AJ Styles From TLC 2018
Not that it's praised to this extent, but Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles worked one of the best matches in WWE history at TLC 2018.
Their programme is remembered most for the bizarrely pitched Royal Rumble '19 sequel, which was inexplicably tedious. The only good thing about it was the level of hard-hitting violence; structurally, it was little more than what people who can't stand grapplef*ck think an EVOLVE match looks like. Just a strange, almost self-indulgent match that asked too much of a stadium audience.
It was all the more inexplicable, since the TLC match was so incredible without sacrificing its sumptuous technical intricacy.
It was a phenomenal, breathless chess match. It was as immersive as a WWE match gets; in one of several deep, complex traps, AJ Styles attempted to counter Bryan's flying clothesline with a dragon suplex - only for Bryan to slip out and then anticipate and counter AJ's roll up with one of his own. When Styles reversed that, and failed with another quick-fire pin attempt, Bryan caught his subsequent charge with a drop-toe hold to the middle turnbuckle.
Bryan, at his best in WWE as the Planet's Champion, brilliantly conveyed the idea that he was so good at scouting an opponent that he could capitalise on what were barely marginal errors.
Wrestling very rarely looks realistic; this was at once easy to get lost within and absolutely blistering.