WWE
Izod Center (East Rutherford, New Jersey)
WWE World Championship
Bryan and Kane wrestled a “Kane match” here, which would be fine if not for the fact that having Bryan wrestle such a gimmicked match marginalizes his value.
By a “Kane match” I mean this was heavy on brawling, changes of scenery and fire (always lots and lots of fire). To the credit of both guys the match was perfectly fine within that style. Kane has wrestled variations of this match throughout his career with different guys and far less talented guys than Bryan. He has it down. The wonderfulness of Daniel Bryan is that he can adapt to pretty much anything thrown his way – he is a professional, look it up – so even though this style of match is not the ideal use of him, he still adapts to it just fine.
The backstage stuff avoided coming off as hokey as it could have. Even the visual of Bryan driving a forklift with Kane on it back to the ring was far less groan worthy than it by all rights should have been. He just has a way – maybe it is his complete sincerity in everything he does – that makes things that really shouldn’t work, somehow work. The fire spot was handled well, there were some big bumps by both guys, and they worked relatively tight. It was a fine match inside of a lousy structure.
If Bryan can work as enjoyable of an Inferno match or Buried Alive match versus Kane at the beginning of June (one of those stipulations is almost inevitable for the re-match) that will be an even more impressive feat as those styles might be even more confining than the style wrestled at Extreme Rules.
Diagnostics
WWE Singles | Common | Title Match & Quality
