2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Bryan vs. Styles

12. Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles WWE Smackdown 6/12

ER: I thought this was tremendous. Two veterans that I have been watching nearly 20 years, going out and having their modern, middle aged, hard struggle version of the indy dream matches they had last decade. This was all of those ROH and IWA Mid-South matches with a veteran wisdom, and god willing they'll be putting on their version of this match in their 50s. It's cool getting to see wrestling feuds carry from early 20s to late 30s, seeing the beginning of that and the end of that, and wondering what's next. Bryan was a guy who could stake a claim as the best in the world in 2002, and Bryan is a guy who can stake a claim as the best in the world in 2020. Styles has also had years that far apart where he is in at least top 20 discussion, and I love that we're getting to see them work their thing. We have written this a lot in the past few months, but Bryan has been the very best wrestler to adapt to 2020, the weirdest era of wrestling in any of our lifetimes. He has embraced this odd era more in a way that few have, and has put on some of his career best matches. Since he's a guy specifically known for having a career filled with career best matches, that is even more impressive.

This gets a ton of time, as much or more than any of their indy matches, and they fill it well. Their standing exchanges are snug and take no shortcuts, and they don't cheat while working limbs or getting into submissions, always showing their work when they shift sequences. They both hit hard and keep close, not working a ton of breath into a near 30 minute match. Both were really showing off their gas tanks, and it made the physicality of this more impressive the longer it went. Styles started a golden brown and due to the pace and Bryan's stiff shots, kept getting redder the deeper we got. At one point he rolled across the ring to get to the floor away from Bryan, and he looked like a plump red hot dog on the rollers at 7-11. Bryan subtly sold knee work throughout the match, never making it the focus but always paying mind to it after hard landings or any move that required torque. He would rub it out, reposition it during standing lock ups, and adjust how he threw strikes without every resorting to any "ohhhh I can't go on with this bad kneeeee" selling.

They built through fought-over rope breaks, a standing strike exchange that didn't feel mechanical (both men throwing hard off rhythm kicks), and they kept managing to escalate the tone without things ever getting off track. It always felt like they were working to a satisfying end and it made things like Bryan's crossface come off big. Learned behavior moments like Bryan catching a Pele kick over his shoulder and turning it into a kneebar played like an Ishikawa/Ikeda feud moment, and Styles catching a running Bryan knee the way a luchador blocks a rana and turning it into a Styles Clash to set up the finish was an awesome exclamation point. I love how Styles hit it and polished him off with the flying forearm. Styles is used to Bryan's pluckiness at this point, he knew he needed something extra to make sure this guy stays down. A great match that would have played incredibly well with an actual audience, but stands on its own.

PAS: This was the last match of Bryan's awesome pandemic run, and he was one of the only wrestlers to adjust to the weird no-fans style. He embraced his inner Ishikawa and ramped up the violence and matwork, and the parts of this match that were focused on that were tremendous. Both guys viciously went after body parts, and really made the matwork portions of the match count. That is the secret to making a long match work: you are going to have matwork, and if you make that memorable, it is going to build to the final stretch well. There were a lot of nifty individual moments, I thought Styles reversing out of the LeBell lock into the calf slicer was nifty stuff and Bryan really sold the torn up ligaments. I also really liked the rana counter into the Styles Clash. I did think they abandoned the nasty violence to work a regular workrate finale, and while these guys are two of the best at that style, the first part of this match was so interesting and different that it was a little disappointing to see them work the last 7 minutes of a  Seth Rollins match.

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST