1. John Cena (c) vs. Daniel Bryan (WWE Championship) - SummerSlam 2013
Sometimes a match can truly make a new star. Daniel Bryan was riding high as one-half of Team Hell No and had made a name for himself in singles competition leading up to SummerSlam last year. When John Cena chose Bryan as his opponent, fans knew they were going to see a really good match, but what they got in addition was the kickoff to a feud between The Authority and Bryan that persists to this day even with Bryan on the shelf. The match told an awesome story of Bryans ring prowess against Cenas brute force, ending with what would become DBs finishing move, the running knee smash (or Knee-to-Sleep or Busaiku Knee Kick). Bryans celebration was the kind of true underdog reaching the mountaintop moment you dont see often in a worked sport like pro wrestling, but in the midst of it, HHH would turn on Bryan. A quick Pedigree and MITB briefcase cash-in by Randy Orton and Bryans moment was ripped away. Bryans long journey back to winning the WWE Championship would take several twists and turns during the next eight months (Daniel Wyatt, anyone?), but that WrestleMania XXX moment was born right here, with Bryan winning a fantastic title match against WWEs poster child and then raging against the machine for the next half-year. Despite the detours, its a great example of long-term storytelling that WWE would be smart to employ more often. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RYBTP6JblE Heres hoping that theres another triumphant story to tell about Daniel Bryan when he returns to action in the future.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
