Holy crap, now THAT was a match! You know what really set it apart? It wasn't just the insane, hard-hitting action, the sense that these two were legit kicking the snot out of each other... though there was plenty of that, to be sure. But what really set it apart was the STORYTELLING. This match had a gripping narrative behind it, and it had an arc. The first part of the match was all about CM Punk wrestling smart, going for the big moves, but it just not being enough to overcome Brock Lesnar's gargantuan strength. And Brock Lesnar has never looked more like a monster, he was just feral tonight: scarlet red, slabber running from his moth like a faucet.... dude's head looked like it was twice the size of Punk's! And I loved the increased desperation of Punk trying every approach under the sun, from striking, to high-flying, to dirty tricks, to even recreating the famed MMA sequence with the armbar that led to Frank Mir handing Brock Lesnar his first UFC defeat. And then the narrative took a shift as Punk's desperation became determination, and he started chipping away at Lesnar, and suddenly the beast started looking beatable. Some great reversals, and some moments where I thought it was done. And then they brought Paul Heyman into the mix in an effective way, giving us a rewarding resolution while also leaving the story open for future rematches. If we don't get another good match on the card, that match would have made the PPV purchase worthwhile.
