10 PPV Quality Matches WWE Gave Away For Free On Weekly TV In 2021

1. Roman Reigns Vs. Daniel Bryan - April 30

Daniel Bryan Roman Reigns WWE SmackDown 30 April 2021
WWE.com

And just like that, it was all over.

Daniel Bryan’s storied WWE career came to an end in a thrilling match against WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Was it the best match of Bryan’s WWE career? No, it wasn’t, but the man is capable of things inside the ring that mere mortals can only dream of. We’ve seen plenty of that since his move to AEW, in stunning matches against Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Dustin Rhodes and the rest.

Despite Bryan’s glittering WWE career, it remains somewhat sad that his final match was given away for free on an episode of SmackDown. Sure, not everyone gets the big event send-off, but Daniel Bryan isn’t just anyone. He’s one of the most influential wrestlers of the modern era, the only big-time babyface that WWE has created in the Network era and a true wrestling pioneer. Despite all that, WWE felt that giving his last company match away for free on TV was the way forward.

It was a great match. Reigns and Bryan have fantastic chemistry, after all. A hard-hitting classic ended with Bryan passing out in the Guillotine choke, and that was that. A post-match conchairto was the final nail in the coffin of an iconic WWE career.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.