5 Great Uses Of Strategy In Modern WWE Matches

There was no other template Bayley and Jax could believably draw from other than the basic David Vs. Goliath - but this was a gripping and believable variation of it.

They key to performing the David role effectively is balance: Bayley couldn't compromise the credibility of her comebacks by selling with too much conviction. Of equal importance was the need to mount conceivable offence against her much larger opponent.

In many matches of this ilk, the face will focus their attack entirely on the heel's legs in order to compromise their power game. Here, Bayley instead opted, having learned the need for ruthlessness in her series with Sasha Banks, to damage Jax's neck and throat in order to asphyxiate the monster and stay true to her trusted repertoire of back elbows and headscissors armbars.

Bayley's MMA-inspired update was a refreshingly progressive ammendment on the type of match Bret Hart wrestled with Diesel to considerable critical acclaim - but it arguably bettered that 1995 series. Bayley's approach was more savage, more compelling, and it also allowed Jax the perfect platform on which to display her own devastating arsenal. She twice reversed the ubiquitous guillotine choke into her bearhug release spinebuster in the match's most arresting sequences.

The performance was a masterclass of both strategy and character development; by playing possum and drawing Jax into the final, match-winning guillotine, Bayley was shown to have reached the true echelon of champions.