WWE Over the Limit 2012: CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan
The meat of the match is Punk's attack on Bryan's leg vs. Bryan's brutalization of Punk's ribs. It's just absolutely fantastic stuff; both guys are extremely compelling doing damage to one another, and the selling is really great throughout. Early on I loved how 'cause of the damage Punk had done to his leg, Bryan was slower than usual with his classic comeback sequence, which allowed Punk to gain the control back. Really love the whole idea of Punk pretty much dominating the early going w/ his focused attack on a specific bodypart, too -- in the indies, The American Dragon made a name for himself off of that shit, and here he is getting schooled by Punk. Felt like that thought came to his head when Punk had him on that leglock too, as he very angrily forearm'd the absolute shit out of him to get out of the hold. When he finally fully gets back into the thing, he sees a target in Punk's mid-section, and oh boy did he go to town on that. Him just wearing Punk down with submissions & kneeing + kicking the wind out of him was terrific, and like I said, the selling was great. Punk sold brilliantly & it created for some superb moments like him essentially sacrificing himself w/ that Macho Man Elbow Drop, and him recovering slower than Bryan after he got himself out of Bryan's Dragon Sleeper. Some other great moments in this all-timer of a match include Punk going back to that leg w/ that Dragon Screw followed by the Figure-4, "I have till 5" w/ a cheeky little smile; mocking Bryan's old ROH shtick, Bryan pulling the kneepad on his bad knee down & going to town on Punk with them knee-attacks on the corner. I really could just say that everything about this is just great. The day it happened I recognized it as something special, and here, years later, it still holds up as something special. One of my absolute favorite matches to ever take place. *****
WWE No Way Out 2012: CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane
This is some very solid fun, even if it isn't anything very memorable or straight up 'great'. The highlights were Daniel Bryan going crazy on both of his opponents w/ them repeated kicks, and then I also surprisingly really enjoyed Kane's brief control segment on Punk. ***1/4
WWE Money In The Bank 2012: CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan
Everybody knows about the match these two had at Over the Limit, so this kind of goes somewhat forgotten at times, but I've always thought that it's brilliant. It's completely different from that said OTL bout of theirs, as it should've been; going into it, the feud between the two had been growing deeper & more heated, and the thing had a No DQ gimmick attached to it, so it only made sense that they beat the absolute shit out of one another here, to put it bluntly. There's lots strikes throughout & both guys deliver big time on the offense delivering those strikes -- all the chops & kicks look superb. Especially Bryan went really kick-heavy here, even more so than usual, and I loved it. They also take good care of that no dq gimmick w/ them hard chair, and especially kendo stick, shots. Now there's also that special guest referee gimmick with AJ Lee, but that doesn't take anything away from this, as they handled that in a way where it didn't come into the way of the actual match quality, I thought. Fantastic feud-ender. ****1/2
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