SmackDown: BRYAN vs. CORBIN

WWE SmackDown 05/01/20

Daniel Bryan vs. King Corbin

Daniel Bryan continues his Wrestler of the Year 2020 campaign with a yet another TV banger. I've always wanted to see a lengthy singles match between him & Corbin, and here they get a nice amount of time, and it was indeed pretty great. Bryan does what has worked against bigger men for him in the past -- he starts targeting Baron's leg right away, and his attack lasts through the entire match-up. These days nobody brings the kind of focus he does when it comes to gameplans & executing them, and it's truly a joy to watch. His work over that leg is great throughout with brutal sounding kicks & submissions. Corbin's selling is rock solid; he doesn't sell it in a very dramatic way or anything like that, but he doesn't do anything to imply that he ISN'T in extreme pain. Him scrapping his way out of Bryan's control periods by using his size advantage felt natural & was awesome -- his extended control segment certainly wasn't the highlight of the match, but I thought it was solid enough & didn't go on for too long, and the sequence that lead to Bryan mounting a comeback w/ that suicide dive n' all was fantastic. The DQ finish is what it is, but I loved the way we got there. The match was awesome, and the sequence leading to Corbin throwing that ladder was great; he grabbed Bryan by the throat in his suicide dive attempt, but Bryan immediately started kicking that worked over leg to get out of his hands. Like I said, I feel like there really isn't anyone wrestling with the kind of focus that Bryan has, and it's just one of the many things that make him the best in the world, in my eyes. ***3/4