SummerSlam results: Daniel Bryan defeats John Cena! YES! YES! YES!
And the crowd goes wild! The beard is here!
Daniel Bryan is the new WWE Champion after an absolute classic of a match, in which he defied nearly a decade of history by managing to beat John Cena without any kind of assistance.
Bryan has been one of the best in-ring performers on earth for the better part of 10 years, but he only started to get a serious WWE push in 2010 and just recently creeped into the title picture. His overwhelming popularity with live audiences led Cena to pick Bryan as his opponent for this match, which he was allowed to do by Raw GM Brad Maddox.
Throughout the buildup to this match, Bryan has attacked Cena for being more of an entertainer than a wrestler, while Cena has hit back by saying that Bryan doesn’t have the same big match experience that he does. This feud has also had the wrinkle of a dispute between Vince McMahon and on-screen COO Triple-H, the latter of whom made himself the special guest referee for this match after Maddox -- who screwed over Bryan in favor of Wade Barrett while officiating a match on Raw -- asked Mr. McMahon if he could be the ref.
Both men had plenty of big spots for a normal match, but average for a main event over the first 10 minutes until Bryan put in the Yes Lock on a couple of occasions, as well as a guillotine choke, though Cena was able to break out. Not long after Bryan’s three submission attempts, Cena managed to get him up for an Attitude Adjustment, but the little indie darling kicked out.
Bryan came back with a superplex off the top rope followed by a flying headbutt, but Cena managed to kick out, then rolled out of the ring. That appeared to set up Bryan’s signature stage dive, but Cena saw it coming and countered, much to the dismay of the pro-Bryan crowd. That led into a submission attempt exchange, in which Cena put Bryan in the STF, Bryan countered to the Yes Lock and Cena got to the ropes.
More striking exchanges led into Cena going for the AA again, but Bryan stuffed it and got Cena down. He then went to the corner and led the crowd in a chorus of YES! YES! YES! before delivering a stunning flying knee to the chin of Cena and pinning him clean.
BUT WAIT! THAT’S RANDY ORTON’S MUSIC! TRIPLE-H HITS THE PEDIGREE ON DANIEL BRYAN AND ORTON CASHES IN HIS MONEY IN THE BANK CONTRACT FOR THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP!
