When I look at a match I don't look at just in ring wrestling ability. Those 2 feuds have nothing on the storyline that built into the match for Lesnar/Cena, the story being told during the match, and the crowd reaction. Sure technically they might be better matches wrestling wise than what Brock/Cena offered, but for me, so much more goes into being a MOTY than just in ring wrestling.
What are you talking about? Did you even watch ER or the past 3 months of WWE programming before ER?
Sheamus/Bryan had a great build up by the point when they reached ER, do I even have to explain all the factors involved during the build up, I'm going to assume that you actually watched. Lesnar and Cena had almost no build up, good reasons behind Lesnar motif to go after Cena and Lesnar's punch was great, but the fucking slap by Cena, come on.
Now onto the matches themselves, when I talk about in-ring storytelling I'm not talking about wrestling ability, why you of all people would confuse those two things? Lesnar destroying Cena during 15 minutes was fantastic, but the finish blew it off, that right there stops it from being better than the other 2 matches I mentioned from the same PPV.
Going back to Sheamus/Bryan, the match was so meaningful because it showed how dominant Bryan is in the ring, while Lesnar destroyed Cena by sheer power, Bryan destroyed Sheamus with intensity and wrestling ability, it proved that Bryan 18s loss was a fluke, that he could stand up to Sheamus and take him down, but in the last fall he just got cocky, wanted to show off how better than Sheamus he was, and instead of getting the last fall straight away he went up for a flying headbutt, ****** style, and that's how he lost, not because Sheamus was better, but because in the end Bryan did more than what he should have and let it go onto his head. That's in-ring storytelling at its best, hats-off to whoever was in charge of booking that match.
The pay offs.
- Lesnar/Cena:
- Sheamus/Bryan: Sheamus is on his way to become a huge face for the company, even if Lawler talks shit, but even if it's another Cena clon, it's better to have variety than just Cena.
While Bryan looked strong as hell and him becoming the #1 contender to the WWE title (even if it was by winning a joke match), meant being a serious threat to Punk.
So yeah, Sheamus/Bryan from ER was the match of the PPV and way better than Lesnar/Cena.