WWE 5 Best Segments This Week: Ember Moon Shines In Fatal Four-Way

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Daniel Bryan and Shelton Benjamin put on a Technical Masterpiece

Going into Daniel Bryan’s rematch with Big Cass Money in the Bank this Sunday, it was announced that for the first time ever in WWE, we’d see Daniel Bryan vs. Shelton Benjamin. The moment I saw this was going to take place, I was quite sure it would end up being on this list. Shelton Benjamin showed here why he is still a great hand to have in any wrestling promotion. He might not win many championships in this run, but he’s still very capable of having matches just like this on a regular basis if given the chance.

These two just worked with each other so well, and what I loved most about this match is that everything was a struggle. In the world of wrestling today, we sometimes forget that sometimes things aren’t supposed to look pretty. It’s supposed to look like two competitors struggling to get the advantage over the other, and this match did exactly that.

Benjamin showed off his amateur wrestling background a lot in this match, with the focus of his work being on Daniel Bryan’s knee. Bryan’s selling of this throughout the match was great, never did it look like anything Bryan was doing came easy. Later in the match Bryan would focus his attack on the knee of Shelton Benjamin, which would play into the finish of this match well.

Bryan would attempt to lock in the YES lock on Benjamin, but because of the damage done to Bryan’s knee, couldn’t lock it in fully. Benjamin would counter out of this by putting Bryan in a single leg Boston crab, a move he had used throughout the match to focus his work on Bryan’s knee. However, the work Bryan had done on Shelton’s knee also made it so Benjamin couldn’t give his all into the submission. Bryan would counter out of the submission, putting Benjamin in the heel hook to finally get the tap out victory.

I loved everything about this match. It’s really such a joy to see Daniel Bryan back and having these technical masterpieces. One of the big things I remember hearing a lot about Bryan as he tried to make his return is if he would come back and not be the same Daniel Bryan. Would not being able to throw caution to the wind and doing some of the crazy things he did hinder how we would enjoy his matches? This match showed that he doesn’t need to rely on those sort of things, and that he can be every bit as entertaining wrestling technically and utilizing the submission holds that he does.

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This also was a great showing for Shelton Benjamin, who I can easily say had his best match since his return to WWE in this match. Another great thing about this match is how well paced it was, making it very back and forth. With plenty of these sorts of matches, we’ll see the heel take most of the offense and keep the baby face grounded to build to his eventual come back. Instead of doing that, this match was back and forth the whole way and never had a dull moment. Excellent match, and easily for me the best match on TV this week.