After Daniel Bryan announced his retirement last week, I went looking around for some old Bryan matches both on the WWE Network and the Highspots Network. As I was searching I came across Bryan vs. CM Punk from Over the Limit in 2012.
Anyone looking for a masterful piece of technical wrestling will appreciate what Bryan and Punk were able to do here. The straight-edge champion, in particular, proved to the world he could not only have outstanding professional wrestling matches with John Cena, Jeff Hardy, Alberto Del Rio and Triple H—he was also able to get on the mat and trade submissions with someone as adept at ground work as Bryan.
This match was all that is good about pro wrestling, two great athletes going toe-to-toe seeing who is the best. The exchanges are classic. The best thing about the match is that you could see the two of them having this match on some indy show.
After watching the match only one thing kept running through my mind. We will never see these two again in the ring. It's the end of an era in a way. These two paved the way for other indy stars like Owens and Finn to become WWE stars.
Sure some people love great entertainment but for me nothing beats a great match in the ring and with both of these guys gone I'm afraid we might not many more classics like this.