11 Best WWE PPV Matches Of 2012

8. World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Match

The World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match in 2012 had an… interesting lineup we’ll say.

It included clear-cut favorites like Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes. Makes sense. The veteran presence of Christian. Right, I’m with you. An underpushed underdog in Tyson Kidd. Hell yeah, we’re rolling. And also Santino Marello, Damien Sandow, and Lord Tensai. Okay, you lost me.

The match was a bit sloppy but sometimes that can help make a match like this feel more chaotic. There were great moments like Kidd sunset-flip powerbombing Ziggler off a ladder and Tensai throwing Ziggler over his head onto an announcer’s chair.

All good story made that much better by Ziggler getting his long-awaited win. If only his title reign was this good.

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7. CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan – Money in the Bank

This is a match that got by on the talent of the wrestlers in the ring despite a distracting story.

It is rather funny that WWE couldn’t think of a way to make CM Punk and Daniel Bryan interesting despite them being the two best workers in WWE at the time. Rather than focus on their immense history or who was the best in the world, they were in a weird love triangle with AJ Lee.

At one point it was even a love-square with Kane also in the mix. Nah, a square is lame. A love diamond? A love rhombus perhaps?

AJ Lee was the guest referee for this match and mostly just got in the way of the pacing. She never made a great impact on the match, doing things like throwing a stick in between both men and smiling as they beat each other up.

The work was good enough that the distractions didn’t matter much but c’mon y’all it’s Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. You don’t need wackiness for them to tell a great story.

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6. Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan – Extreme Rules

One month after Sheamus infamously beat Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds at WrestleMania XXVIII, they proved why they should have been given as much time as necessary.

At Extreme Rules, they had a Best of Three Falls match and did a fantastic job of working the match to highlight the stipulation. Often in WWE, the formula for this match is to do a quick heel segment ending with a pin, then a comeback ending with a pin, then the finish with the third fall.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s usually a basic match with two extra falls. This match was different. Bryan sacrificed the first fall, getting himself disqualified but damaging Sheamus’ arm. He then quickly applied the Yes Lock to score the second fall with Sheamus now hurt.

The third fall was Sheamus’ comeback, battling through the pain to eventually hit a Brogue Kick and win. A tremendous match that could only happen in a stipulation of this nature.

• PPV
• 2012
• Brock Lesnar
• wwe

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