Of course Daniel Bryan found a way.
1. WWE Intercontinental Title Tournament – Semi Final: Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus (SmackDown 5/29/20)
These two have had great chemistry for nearly a decade but I didn’t expect them to have a match this good in COVID WWE. They brought it to each other with little dead space while always selling the David/Goliath dynamic, and the back-and-forth at the end was extra physical and genuinely dramatic.
2. WWE Intercontinental Title Tournament – Round 1: Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak (SmackDown 5/15/20)
Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak got 15 minutes on WWE TV to do some of the coolest, trickiest matwork you’ll ever see on WWE TV. There are wrestlers who are just good at this and know how to make all this silly stuff serious, and Bryan and Gulak are two of the best to ever do it. They traded wristlocks and waistlocks, then escalated into something near violence. A rare gem in this weird era.
3. Cage Fight: Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher (Special Guest Ref: Kurt Angle) (NXT 5/27/20)
Witness Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher credibly introduce a new match type for WWE while also putting over this new guy Timothy Thatcher. This had nasty strikes, sweet suplexes, and a sense of legitimacy even as they climbed platforms. Three of Thatcher’s teeth got knocked out too, and that happened in the first minute of the match.
4. WWE Title: Drew McIntyre [c] vs. Seth Rollins (Money in the Bank 5/10/20)
This worked on a lot of levels: McIntyre and Rollins always have chemistry, they ran a good old-fashioned competitive championship match, they added in some quirks like McIntyre overpowering Rollins and kicking out at one on stuff, and it actually didn’t seem like the lack of crowd held them back. The fellas just looked ahead and had their kickass match.
5. Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher (NXT 5/13/20)
A hastily setup grudge match resulted in a really great 7-minute match. Good old-fashioned tough guy grappling is one of the only wrestling styles that really works with no audience. No matter what they were doing, somebody was always grabbing some thigh meat.
6. NXT Women’s Title: Charlotte Flair [c] vs. Io Shirai (NXT 5/6/20)
Charlotte Flair treats her title matches seriously and found an opponent who could very credibly run circles around her and hit her real hard. They were working towards a real crescendo before the DQ finish.
7. Money in the Bank: Daniel Bryan vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Aleister Black vs. Otis vs. AJ Styles vs. King Corbin and Asuka vs. Carmella vs. Dana Brooke vs. Lacey Evans vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Nia Jax (Money in the Bank 5/10/20)
For a match that was twelve wrestlers having two simultaneous brawls throughout WWE’s Corporate Headquarters in order to get to the roof and climb a ladder to obtain a Money in the Bank briefcase, I thought this was as good as it could be. When WWE feels like there’s something riding on them having fun, they usually have fun. There were a lot of great moments here that were probably a lot easier on the body than a ladder bump.
8. Interim NXT Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Group B: Akira Tozawa vs. Jack Gallagher (NXT 5/6/20)
This wasn’t as great as their Cruiserweight Classic Match but it did fit a lot of what was great about that in a 5-minute package. These two have different styles but always match up well in a way that’s fun and also really gets over how different those styles are.
9. Street Profits vs. The Viking Raiders (RAW 5/4/20)
Before these guys started golfing and bowling together, they wrestled. The match had bits of real good stuff, though it had some other stuff too. That other stuff wasn’t much, but that real good stuff was real good.
10. Sheamus vs. Leon Ruff (SmackDown 5/1/20)
Cannot ask for a lot more from a squash match. Both guys ruled.
Honorable Mentions: No DQ Match: Humberto Carrillo vs. Bobby Lashley (RAW 5/11/20), Finn Balor vs. Kenny Williams (NXT UK 5/28/20), Shorty G vs. Cesaro (SmackDown 5/29/20), NXT Tag Team Title: Matt Riddle & Timothy Thatcher [c] vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel (NXT 5/13/20), Triple Threat Match – Interim Cruiserweight Title Tournament – Group A Final: KUSHIDA vs. Drake Maverick vs. Jake Atlas (NXT 5/27/20)
