10 Most Heated Matches In WWE History
5. The Usos Vs. Daniel Bryan And Bray Wyatt - WWE RAW 13/01/2014
Even before the bout's beautifully cathartic coda, the preceding action was received rapturously.
It didn't matter one jot that Bryan looked a bit daft in his boiler suit, or that the Bryan-joins-the-Wyatt-Family storyline was an unearned and dispiriting demotion. Even in such inauspicious circumstances, when Bryan stepped into the ring, his performance level was so spectacular, his bond with the fans forged so strongly, that he was the hottest part of any show at his 2013-14 peak.
A match doesn't end when the bell rings. When Bryan, who had lost, refused to falter helplessly into Wyatt's Sister Abigail, fans rejoiced. Demonstrating that he'd mastered the art of audience manipulation, he stared with dead eyes at Wyatt's deranged visage - waiting for the clamour to reach fever pitch before Yes-kicking Wyatt's head off to an ear-splitting backdrop.
Ordinarily, such a sudden retcon - the likes of which illustrate that WWE has little to no ability to plan for the long-term - would set eyes rolling. Here, even if the company was left with no option, the truncated story was received as though the Providence, Rhode Island crowd had witnessed the end of a gripping, years-long blood feud.