WWE's Storyline of the Week: Booking Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk at over the Limit

On last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw, the WWE held a “Beat the Clock Challenge” to determine the new No. 1 contender for CM Punk’s WWE Championship. 

As the show went on, I kept running the names of possible winners through my head. 

The two that kept popping up? Lord Tensai and Chris Jericho. 

I just thought that since Tensai is getting a substantial push and the upcoming Over the Limit pay-per-view is in just three weeks, the WWE would give him a chance to wrestle in the main event of what is generally considered to be a throwaway pay-per-view. 

But it wasn’t Tensai who won the Beat the Clock tournament (in fact, he wasn’t even in it), and it wasn’t Jericho (though, I don’t necessarily think his feud with Punk is over). 

Much to my surprise, the winner of the Beat the Clock challenge was…Daniel Bryan. 

My initial reaction, though cliché, was, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” 

Given that Bryan had just lost his World Heavyweight Championship rematch to Sheamus at Extreme Rules—in a fantastic 2/3 Falls match, I might add—I had my doubts about where he would be headed next. 

It looks like Sheamus is going to kick off with Alberto Del Rio, so that could have left Bryan out in the cold. 

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, though. 

In a shocking twist, Bryan defeated Jerry Lawler to win the Beat the Clock Challenge and become the new No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship. 

When this first happened, I had to rub my eyes for a second and make sure I was seeing things correctly. 

Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk? For the WWE Championship? On pay-per-view? 

I know we have seen Bryan vs. Punk a number of times in recent months, but those matches were not part of an actual feud. Now, however, we’ll see arguably the two best wrestlers in the world fighting for the WWE’s top title in less than three weeks. 

While I’m a bit disappointed that this epic match isn’t going to get a ton of build (just two shows, basically), that isn’t going to prevent me from giving the WWE major props for keeping Bryan in the spotlight. 

He’s on fire right now, and without any other must-see feud for Punk right now (at least one that fits with all the other current storylines), this makes a ton of sense to me. 

Ride Bryan will he’s hot, and put him against another incredibly hot performer. 

The result could, and I think will, be magical when “the best in the world” takes on “the American Dragon” at Over the Limit.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him onTwitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.