2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Bryan vs. Kofi II

31. Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston WWE Raw 5/6

ER: This is the surprise rematch to their classic Mania match, and while there was no chance it was going to approach the peaks of that match due to the original's circumstances, nobody told Bryan it wasn't a big deal. Bryan's work in the match looked on another level, intense enough that Kofi wasn't going to be able to look that good during his comebacks. Bryan can tailor a match around an opponent's strengths, but he's not going to dumb everything down. I loved Bryan posting Kofi and going after the arm, thought the tiger driver into an armbar was a cool moment, and I dig how Bryan is still going to attack the rest of the body and not focus on one part, still laying in body shots. There are a couple big moments here, namely Kofi taking a particularly wicked bump to the floor that saw him fly past the ropes and land flat on the floor (but he's lucky because his coccyx and back of head appeared to take the brunt of it!), and I was genuinely worried for him...but then cackled when Bryan attacked him and threw him into the barricade. The struggle around the Yes Lock was cool, loved Bryan really imposing his will on Kofi by not using a clever reversal to apply it, just grab the weakened arm and muscle him to the mat. Bryan's dropkicks to cut off looked good, and I thought he set up Kingston really well, but wish Kingston had driven it home a little more on the shots that were supposed to look good. The finish felt like it should have been another nearfall, but this was another excellent Bryan carry.

PAS: This may be the best Bryan. He is just such a focused killer, while still putting over his opponent huge, it feels like he just shaved away everything extraneous from his game, and he is a sharpened knife. Loved all of the arm work in this, when Kofi countered the armbreaker, I loved the glint in Bryan's eye as he twisted right into the LaBell lock. Kofi took a big bump and I loved his bounce up the stairs into a dive, outside of that he looked a little out of his depth. I especially didn't like how weak the finisher looked, you got to hit a guy to put him down.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST