WWE World Championship Match.   AJ Styles defends against Daniel Bryan

My love for both these guys has been made clear on this forum and I particularly enjoyed their TV match from earlier in the year. This paid off the potential of that match and thank God we got this outside of that horrid Saudi debacle. AJ Styles is the hometown boy which means he is solidly cheered throughout the match. It's interesting how both guys played slightly different roles from what their used to in this match. For AJ, he rarely works with people smaller than him so this match allowed him to show off his talents in the offensive Ace role as opposed to the bumping underdog he's used to. Bryan, meanwhile, has to play the de facto heel against the hometown boy. So much goodness in this match from the early limbwork paying off for both guys to Bryan slightly adjusting his aggression and offense to work as more of a heel. Loved Bryan fishhooking AJ to try and get out of the leg bar. Also loved Bryan turning the Moonsault Reverse DDT into a cravat knee attack. AJ was on his game here though with the brutal knee offense paying off with that final Dragon Screw at the end which led straight into the finish of Bryan going for the arm but AJ reversing into the Calf Crusher. I mean, what's there to say? Two of the best in the world wrestling. It's gonna be awesome.

****1/4

It's like their 04/10 match, but this time there's no interference endings & they get to tell their story fully. It's two masters of the graps doing the dueling limb work thang w/ excellent selling & excellent work on the offense by both. Exactly my kind of rasslin. Tells something about them when the whole crowd is going nuts from start to finish, and there's ZERO finisher nearfalls. ****1/2