Best match of the night - WWE RAW 21/10/13

Dean Ambrose vs Daniel Bryan

On this episode of RAW, there were a couple of good matches that involved performers who have been dishing out quality matches of late. The show opened with Daniel Bryan, the most over guy in the company, taking on Dean Ambrose of the Shield. Later on, the other competitor in the main-event match at this Sunday’s pay-per-view, Randy Orton took on ‘The Show off’ Dolph Ziggler. Towards the end of the show, the team of Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns took on The Usos to determine the no.1 contenders for the tag-team belts, with the current champs The Rhodes on commentary.

All the 3 matches were very competitive and even though the tag match was marred by an inconclusive ending, the match in itself featured great spots and told a convincing story to lead into the decision to have a 3-way elimination match at the pay-per-view. However, among the three, the Bryan vs Ambrose contest was the most exciting and featured fantastic spots highlighting the potential of both the talented performers. Had it not been the star-studded contract signing to close out the show, it could have easily been the main-event and the crowd would have gone happy.

The match itself started on a high note after Bryan made his way into the ring, when Triple H was clearly expecting Ambrose to show up and even personally introduced him. Once the match begun, it was hard-hitting action typical to Bryan as he landed his hard kicks and applied many painful holds, including my favourite The Surfboard. Daniel was particularly severe on the left arm and shoulder of Ambrose as he wrenched, stomped and twisted on it as it looked like the shoulder joint might just get unscrewed.

Ambrose fought back with a thudding clothesline outside the ring and once in the ring, produced the spot of the night when he delivered a double underhook suplex off the top rope on Bryan! What would we do without the Rollins, Bryans, Zigglers and the likes willing to take the risks that they do for our entertainment? Just the thought makes me want to switch the channel….

Back to the match, Bryan comes back into the game with his offense and delivers the ‘Air Goat’ on Ambrose, which is a wow sight everytime because of the risk & excitement involved. Ambrose sells it like a million bucks and once the action comes back into the ring regains control via a spinebuster. I love it how he keeps talking to himself all the time while the action is on and trash-talks his opponent non-stop even when he’s the one taking the beating! Hilarious stuff this…

Bryan makes his babyface comeback and hits Ambrose with a missile dropkick and sets up for the running knee, which is a great finisher that he has come up with by the way. Ambrose sees it coming and tries a rollup for the pin but is only reversed into the Yes Lock by Bryan, who forces him to tap out for a submission victory for Bryan.

I loved the match because Bryan is as good as anybody in the world when it comes to submission wrestling and it’s been a while since he has been able to showcase that side of his. Dean Ambrose played a great foil for him and while their chemistry isn’t as great as the one between Rollins & Bryan, it maybe only a notch lower. Overall a good solid match that makes the goatface look strong heading into his main-event match against Orton at Hell-in-a-Cell while Ambrose doesn’t look weak in defeat at all.