Predicting The Quality Of All 15 WWE WrestleMania 35 Matches

2. Daniel Bryan Vs. Kofi Kingston - WWE Championship Match

WrestleMania 35 Daniel Bryan Kofi Kingston
WWE.com

Daniel Bryan is a professional wrestling genius.

This is a man who, in the span of three minutes, convinced everybody that Santino Marella was bound for a WrestleMania XXVIII World Heavyweight Championship defence in an astonishingly dramatic match-within-a-match. In this year's Elimination Chamber finale, Bryan improved upon that performance further; the sequence with Kofi Kingston was executed so perfectly, and packed so much emotion and heft, that it paved Kofi's Road to WrestleMania 35. Even if this goes 15 minutes, a duration fans have been conditioned to receive as somehow unworthy of a Championship match in this era of excess, Bryan's craft and Kingston's hard-earned story effectively guarantee something special.

Bryan is a sequencing master capable of channeling his multiple finisher aura into a flash near-fall situation, while Kofi's high-flying offence isn't the technical fare that often fails to ignite the open-air stadium environment. His stuff is vivid and eye-catching enough to unseat the cheap seats, which, as much as the mass show of respect, accounts for those deafening chants.

This doesn't need to be self-consciously epic to earn that description.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!