2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Bryan vs. Brock

2. Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar WWE Survivor Series 11/18

ER: Well. This completely owned. This is one that I imagine most wrestling fans have been interested in seeing for a long time now. I didn't think we'd ever get this match, and it feels weird that we finally get it. And they take things slow, circling, Bryan mocking Brock, and it feels like Brock is going to wreck him once they make contact with each other. Bryan throws a hard kick but Brock walks through it and wings a lariat at the side of Bryan's head. It's going to be that kind of match. Suplex City comes early, with Brock mocking the chants, and then throwing some ungodly suplexes to Bryan, really sending Bryan crashing in all sorts of ragdoll ways. This goes on for awhile, and the longer it goes the more it genuinely seems like Brock is going to completely steamroll Bryan. He's done that before, and it looked like he was doing it again. But just as the extended Brock thrashing was starting to feel a bit too long, the match gets flipped, when the match gets flipped things get great. Bryan gets F5'd into the ref, which slows it down and allows Bryan to land on his feet, then he punts Brock in the balls behind the fallen ref's back, and they turn a massive ballshot into a fantastic nearfall, like a elementary school playground version of David & Goliath. We get this awesome run of Bryan slipping out of Brock's grasp and Brock getting tricked into a bunch of big bumps (and Brock big bumps are unlike any other), and Bryan laces into Brock with an absolute BEATING. Bryan is throwing stiff kick to the ribs of the grounded Lesnar, then Bryan grabs Brock's arms and starts stomping the hell out of Brock's face. We get a moment I don't think I've EVER seen, as the cameras show BRYAN'S BOOT MARK imprinted on Brock's freaking face!!! This is next level. The stretch run is just killer. Brock gets his leg worked over, gets it wrapped around a ringpost, but is still capable of catching Bryan, and we get an awesome Lesnar moment where he catches a sprinting Bryan up on his shoulders and coming *this* close to an F5, but Lesnar's knee buckles and drops Bryan right down into an awesome Yes Lock. Brock's tap teasing was engaging as all hell throughout, totally looked like they could have given Bryan a plausible win over the beast, and Bryan looked like he was going to flat out knock Lesnar out once he started clonking him with the sickest crossface strikes. Holy shit. Bryan hung with Brock and it was glorious, but Brock eventually smashed him after Bryan looked as good against him than anyone ever has. I really loved this one, thought they knocked it out of the park.

PAS: This was really great, it was definitely in the mix for our #1 spot, virtually a perfect match, except I thought the Suplex city section maybe went a suplex too long. It was a pretty great Suplex city section though, with Bryan taking these monster flip bumps on each throw and the added fears about his CTE added to the danger. Everything after the transition was perfect professional wrestling, Bryan laid in a big enough beating that you totally buyed him going over a Moose like Lesnar, and Lesnar is a world class seller when he wants to be, his ability to turn his face multiple colors works great both when Bryan stomps sole prints into his face, and when he goes Eggplant Hulk in the LaBell lock. That knee collapse into the LaBell Lock was one of my favorite big match transitions ever and I totally bought that they would give Bryan the win especially when he started pasting him with crossfaces, I dig this trend of one amazing Brock match per year at Survivor Series. Brock vs Rey or Brock vs. Riddle would be great to line up for next year.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST