Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena and Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk at SummerSlam 2013. Which is best?

[The Natural]

I woke up to watch SummerSlam 2013 live, 1am-4am in the morning UK time and it was worth it for the whole show. I’ve always thought Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena was the best match from it and my 2013 Match of the Year. A terrific match with memorable moments: Bryan putting Cena in his own STF, Bryan escaping the STF turning Cena into the Yes Lock. The callback to the wrestler (Bryan) vs. entertainer (Cena) promo with how you slap one another in Japan to fire each other up but Bryan couldn’t. Here he did. THAT finish. Bryan fucking nails John Cena with the running knee for the clean win and WWE Championship. What a way to debut a finisher. What a match. *****.

Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk was a great match with CM Punk flying into Brock with the suicide dive/clothesline from the announcers table and Brock working on Punk’s back in the match such as throwing Punk onto the announcers table. The submission exchange as Lesnar countered the GTS with the Kimura, Punk turned it into an armbar then a triangle choke before Brock broke out of it with two running powerbombs. Heyman repeatedly interfered which led to Lesnar regaining the advantage with the winning F5 on the steel chair.

I see opinion ranging from 50-50 tie to 60-40% in favour of Lesnar vs. Punk. I meant to ask this a while ago. What say you?

[The Natural]

As a bonus, the original SummerSlam 2013 thread:

 

[The Natural]

I was sat open mouthed to the Cena/Bryan finish, clean pin with a brutal running knee strike.

[tbarrie]

I don't even remember Punk vs Lesnar being a good match. So Cena vs Bryan all the way for me.

[(BP)]

Punk/Lesnar was fine other than Brock giving way too much of the match to Punk and needing Paul to win. I recall Bryan/Cena being a career highlight for both guys and easily smoking everything else on the show.  

[Matt D]

I'll say this; I freaked out the (then) 1 year old by shouting out at a near fall in Punk vs Brock while I was watching downstairs and she was upstairs, because she thought that I was calling for her. I don't rarely get that into a match, so that thing was doing SOMETHING right.

[tbarrie]

41 minutes ago, (BP) said:

Punk/Lesnar was fine other than Brock giving way too much of the match to Punk and needing Paul to win.

Those seem like pretty big flaws, though.

[nate]

12 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I'll say this; I freaked out the (then) 1 year old by shouting out at a near fall in Punk vs Brock while I was watching downstairs and she was upstairs, because she thought that I was calling for her. I don't rarely get that into a match, so that thing was doing SOMETHING right.

You named your kid "Thank God That's Over?"  That's a boy's name!

(I couldn't resist.)

[Kyuubi]

Yeah, Daniel Bryan and Cena was probably one of Cena's best matches because for once, he was trying to prove something to himself that he is good enough to be in any wrestling scene and definitely wanted Bryan to slap him Puro style. It had a story and incorporated the meta.

I don't remember much about Lesnar and Punk.

[Brian Fowler]

God I'll never get past how the commentary team totally missed the story around the slap, despite it having been spelled out for them on Raw a week or two earlier.

[Cristobal]

People are selling Punk/Lesnar short here. One thing that a lot of people early on were saying was "Man I dunno if I buy Punk as a threat to Lesnar". They did a very subtle thing on the day of the event, (one that proved too subtle for the announcers as they almost completely failed to sell it.) On the pre-show it was mentioned that Punk/Lesnar was now no-DQ, and that it had been Punk that had proposed the stipulation, which was accepted by Heyman. The talk on the pre-show was "Brock Lesnar is so dangerous as-is. Imagine him with a chair in his hand!" which was fine, but the story of the match was that while Punk wasn't a physical match for Lesnar, the no-DQ stip gave him an equalizer. This should have been sold as "there's no such thing as a no-DQ NCAA match. There's no such thing as a no-DQ UFC match. Punk has had no-DQ matches his whole life" etc.

Which isn't to say it's better than Cena/Bryan.

[Brian Fowler]

As far as that show goes, and it was a great show, I'd rank Lesnar/Punk third best of the night. I really like that match, but there's a more or less forgotten absolute classic between Christian and Del Rio that's better than Punk/Lesnar.

[Marty Sugar]

Punk/Lesnar annoyed me because they tried to make you believe that Punk could go 25 minutes with Lesnar. That's ridiculous.

I get wanting to make Punk look valiant in the face of certain death...but 25 fucking minutes? Get real. 11 minutes, tops. Let him hit the GTS and maybe even get a lucky submission applied, but taking a beating from Lesnar for 25 minutes is ridiculous for 99% of the WWE roster...then, now and forever.

[Matt D]

I'd believe that Tiny Tom could go twenty minutes with Lesnar if they built him up well enough. It's a work. 

[Phantom Lord]

It's not even a contest. Cena/Bryan had so much emotion in it while Brock/Punk was just some match. Current Brock lets you know "I'm not working with anyone, I'm only here for the big pay check and I'm do whatever" so how someone is supposed to have a compelling match with him I don't know. I don't even remember what the jist of the feud between him and Punk (I know it was something about Heyman) was over.

[Michael Sweetser]

Cena-Bryan basically led to the next year of WWE booking: 

* Creation of the Authority
* Daniel Bryan, perennial main eventer and eventual World champion (eventually)
* In a roundabout way, leading to Cena questioning his own skills and ending up as US champion and reinvigorating his own career

Lesnar-Punk didn't matter one bit the day after SummerSlam.

[OSJ]

How about: Cena-Bryan was an epic that led to a year of booking. Punk-Lesnar was a RAW match that lasted far too long. It was sorta okay, but nothing that I'd watch again. The big trouble with a guy the size of Lesnar is that once you build the unbeatable monster, average-size guys like Punk look completely out-of-place.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I didn't think Brock and Punk looked believable when Punk was on offense. It looked kind of silly to me for Punk to be getting that much offense in the way that he did.  Some will say "yeah but he was using weapons" but here's the thing about that. Punk doesn't wield weapons with any real force. I think the match would have benefited much more from Punk working over a specific body part OR if it was simply booked to have Punk in survival mode and Brock in control. Then Heyman is involved, has to save Brock basically and Punk looks so dumb losing focus as he did.  

 

[Go2Sleep]

I watched this show a couple months back, and I'll break the streak and vote Punk/Lesnar. Punk/Lesnar was the only thing that stood out years later. It wasn't the best second run Brock match, but he definitely worked like he gave a damn and it was probably only match that Punk looked like he cared about between his title run and retirement. Punk was the scrappy underdog blinded by revenge, and Brock was the dominant monster with a little chip on his shoulder from too much Punk/Heyman narrative. This was a good pro wrestling match and forgive me if I roll my eyes and make an "air wank" gesture at realism complaints from people who would never dare say the same thing about any Rey Jr match.

Cena/Bryan was your standard late-career Cena epic with the added disadvantages of Cena being injured and the looming specter of HHH and Randy Orton hanging over the whole thing. It had absolutely nothing on WM 30 as far as emotion goes, and wasn't a particularly memorable match by either guy's standards.

[Matt D]

Cena vs Bryan was the start of super Indy Cena, the worst Cena.

Some of guys just have crummy imaginations. I want to see Kemonito vs Brock with Kemonito winning. That's the magic of pro wrestling. 

Also, I love the "set up a year of stories" bit. It set up a year of terrible repetitive, illogical storytelling that we all bitched about week in and week out for good reason. WWE was dragged kicking and screaming into giving us a happy ending. You guys just ended up with Stockholm Syndrome. Again.

[Marty Sugar]

3 hours ago, Matt D said:

I'd believe that Tiny Tom could go twenty minutes with Lesnar if they built him up well enough. It's a work. 

Thanks, tips. Not really the point.

[Matt D]

I think Bobo Johnson could have gone twenty minutes with most wrestlers if that's any help.

[jaedmc]

3 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

As far as that show goes, and it was a great show, I'd rank Lesnar/Punk third best of the night. I really like that match, but there's a more or less forgotten absolute classic between Christian and Del Rio that's better than Punk/Lesnar.

Yep. Christian/Del Rio didn't have the story or the build and the fans were already seeing both guys as people not to get invested in - but it might be the smartest wrestled match on the card. It's hard to say no to Bryan climbing to the top of the mountain, but I remember Del Rio/Christian being almost perfect from psychological stand point. I certainly recommend going back and watching it for anyone who forgot it.

[Eivion]

Thought both matches were great at the time though I also thought Punk was given too much offense and Cena/Bryan had both clearly holding back because of Cena's injury. I would give it to Cena/Bryan though I think the match is somewhat overrated.

[The Unholy Dragon]

I liked both a lot at the time but Punk/Brock was...weird. Too many repeats of Punk having Brock on the ropes so Paul runs in and Punk chases him down before getting hit with something. Doesn't help that Brock serving as a wall for Heyman ended up leading to Ryback-Punk mk. II somehow thus putting the biggest match first and having it mean nothing much.

 

Bryan-Cena launched the hottest pure babyface run the company has had in years and was a great match with less stuff that bugged me. I think both are great but my heart goes with Bryan/Cena.