On Sunday August 25th 2024, at Wembley Stadium in London, England, a historic happening will occur. The sport of professional wrestling is one of great subjectivity and debate, but in my most humble of opinions, there is one best ever. One GOAT. And that man will be wrestling, and the result will see one of two things happen; either he will become a champion of the world for the first time in over 5 years, or he will wrestle a match for the final ever time. And in all honesty, I am not emotionally ready for either to occur. But I will be there in person to see what goes down, and I’m so so excited for it!
Bryan Danielson has had one of the most emotional and rollercoaster careers of any pro-wrestler I can think of… being forged in the school of an all time great in Shawn Michaels, with another in William Regal being a key component in his wrestling beginnings, he then helps put one of the most-important promotions in modern day wrestling on the map in Ring of Honor (mainly down to a game-changing feud with Nigel McGuinness (got a feeling that wont be that man’s last mention in this post), before finally getting a start in his NeXT phase on the biggest of stages, and then he was out again, and then he was back again, and then he was a mid-carder, then it was NO, then it was YES, then he was a “B+ player”, then he was the cause of a “Miracle on Bourbon Street”, then he was hurt, then he was back, then he was hurt again, then he RETIRED, then he was a GM, then he was cleared and back, then he was a bad guy and subsequently the champion, then he defended the planet, then he was a wrestler again, and then one-Tribal Chief beating later, he was out of here…
And then, in September of 2021, he became ALL ELITE!
And that’s what I am going to focus on in this blog post. I would be still writing by the time the next All In show was around the corner if I tried to cover and pay tribute to the amazing career of The American Dragon in totality, but I will just give you all a little run down memory lane of his most recent run, the run that brought it home to me, the possibly coldest of ice-cold takes, that Bryan Danielson is the greatest professional wrestler of all time.
Danielson said at the time that he owed no ill will to WWE, but that he came to AEW for the good of wrestling. And my oh my we have been so spoilt ever since. As I write this, I can thing of an incredible number of matches and moments from his time in AEW, all in less than 3 years he’s accomplished more than most do in their whole careers in wrestling. Jon Moxley for me has been the ace of AEW, the MVP, BUT… in terms of time-match, quality-promo class ratio, nobody touches Danielson in All Elite Wrestling to me. Right off the bat, match one, he made history. AEW’s biggest ever Dynamite, Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York. Danielson. Omega.
Did it live up? My lord did it ever!
But in typical Danielson fashion, he didn’t get the big win we all expected. Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega put on an all-time classic match that went to a 30 minute time limit draw. Dave Meltzer summed it up in the immediate aftermath, calling it “one of the best AEW TV matches so far… and one of the best matches in company history”. But it was doubtful in what would be the follow up, we still were in the middle of the ongoing Hangman chase of the title and Omega, so what of our reinvigorated American Dragon?
Well… how about…: Nick Jackson, MINORU SUZUKI, Bobby Fish, Dustin Rhodes, Eddie Kingston, Anthony Bowens, Rocky Romero, Miro, Colt Cabana, John Silver… all fell to the American Dragon before 2021 was out. But, as AEW always USED to do, they made it make sense. Danielson (with his win against Miro) gained a shot at the World Championship, now held by the aforementioned Adam Page, and Danielson wasn’t feeling the fairy-tale rise of The Hangman as much as the rest of us it seemed. Here was where the guy we all wanted came back, a man obsessed with KICKING FUCKING HEADS IN!!!
And that led us to AEW Dynamite: Winter Is Coming. Bryan Danielson finally gets his shot at the AEW World Championship.
And guess what, he had the second all-time classic of his AEW run (we are just a few months in by the way). And he once again took the world champion to a time limit draw, but this time, as it was FOR the World Championship, they went BROADWAY!
I can say this vividly from watching it at the time, this ONE HOUR MATCH absolutely didn’t feel like it had lasted for an hour when it was over. And I don’t think I can give it a bigger compliment than that. They did the rematch a few weeks later, and they gave Page the big win, but it didn’t matter really, Danielson’s spot was not hurt one single bit.
Following this, A Danielson with more of an edge to him picked up wins against the likes of Lee Moriaty, Daniel Garcia and Christopher Daniels, all by referee stoppage. But at Revolution in early 2022, he faced someone who even he couldn’t beatdown and bully, probably the only man who would look the American Dragon in the eyes in a wrestling ring and scream right back at him.
But as much as an wildly entertaining brawl as this match was, it was after that the game really changed. Moxley got the win, but they simply kept brawling, until one man, the only man that could’ve talked sense into both of these men, walked into the ring, slapped both men across the face, and forced them into a bond over COMBAT! And on AEW Dynamite the following Wednesday, Lord William Regal set out the modus operandi of what would come to be known, as the Blackpool Combat Club.
“He is the perfect wrestler”… I couldn’t have said it better myself Mr Regal.
Soon after, Chuck Taylor and Wheeler Yuta and then The Varsity Blondes fell to this newly formed super-team. And young Yuta had by this point fought his way through Blood and into the group, and they battled on. Many tried and failed to take them down, until they got swept into the Jericho vortex. Now, I will be honest, I have grown to have such a disdain towards the modern Chris Jericho that it pains me greatly to talk about him. With that in mind, please forgive me if I quickly gloss over not only the WILD first Anarchy In The Arena match at Double or Nothing 2022, or the Jericho-Danielson PPV match at All Out 2022. But I will touch upon the two excellent back to back matches with a young man who in many ways embodied everything a young Bryan did, my how I so hoped they would’ve just done the FUCKING THING and put him in the bloody BCC… But still, we got a combined nearly 45 minutes across two matches between Daniel Garcia and Bryan Danielson, and it was fucking fabulous to watch it all.
(Off topic for a second, but if Daniel Garcia leaves AEW, I truly believe he will be one of their biggest dropped balls. He should be THEIR GUY… if they let him go, its such a travesty for them, and the gain of The Fed for sure…)
With the World Championship in a state of flux due to… reasons… AEW called upon the former world champions on their roster, and a subsequent tournament saw Bryan get back to back Dynamite wins over Adam Page and Jericho, to set up a MEGA match at Arthur Ashe, a year on from his first AEW match, only this time Danielson would fight for the AEW Championship… against Blackpool Combat Club brethren Jon Moxley.
Although, once again, it was not his time to be the champion, Danielson and Moxley duly put on another great FIGHT, with the one true ACE of AEW getting the title again. And who can argue that it was the right and fair call? It did sadly mean that Danielson was not yet out of the dreaded Jericho Vortex, so to followed nearly TWO MONTHS of Danielson in matches related to Jericho… BUT… once that was finally over, we got back to our normal proceedings of the GOAT just having BANGER matches…
Dax Harwood, Ethan Page, Tony Nese, Dante and Darius Martin (with Mox by his side), KONOSUKE TAKESHITA, Bandido, Bryan Cage, TIMOTHY THATCHER, and finally Rush, all fell to Danielson, before it was once again time to go for the gold…
The character of Maxwell Jacob Friedman is almost a perfect foe for the character of Bryan Danielson. MJF represents doing anything to get to the top, shortcuts if needs be, lying and cheating where needed. Danielson is all about the grind, fighting for everything to EARN your championships and opportunities. But MJF now as the AEW World Champion (having beaten Jon Moxley, with a helping hand from Danielson’s mentor Mr Regal… who… had other places to be and abruptly left All Elite Wrestling) he had a thing or two to prove. Not to himself, but he truly wanted to prove he was better than all of us. And what better way to do that than to go up against the best wrestler around, and win. Or… why not double down, and do so for ONE HOUR… and why not beat him MULTIPLE times in that hour… that was the challenge laid down…
The time for talking was well and truly over. Bryan and Maxwell would go to revolution, and what we got was… my goodness…
Match of the Year competitions in AEW have become almost impossible to decide upon. On this show alone, the trios match involving the House of Black and The Elite was fantastic. But this Iron man match was… it was MJF doing exactly what he said he would do. He went toe to toe with the best wrestler of all time, for one hour, and he beat him. It took overtime to do it, but MJF walked out of Revolution, SOMEHOW, still the World Champion. I really do think this match is up there with the best in company history, and that standard is HIGH let me tell you. It was spectacular, not in the ‘flashiness’ of the moves from both men, but the brutality throughout the whole match, the fact we knew they were going long, but the suspense and the result being in doubt lasted right up until the end. It was an absolute masterclass, and the biggest of props to MJF who was just as big a part of this being as good as it was as Danielson.
If you want to truly appreciate the greatness of Bryan Danielson as a professional wrestler, sure you could look at that MJF Iron Man match. You could go back to the ROH battles and the match with Nigel. And yes, his speciality is technically in the ring, I mean he literally has an award for technical wrestlers named after him! But for various reasons (mainly injury-related, some storyline reasons also), Bryan would wrestle just three matches in the following SIX months after Revolution 2023. All three matches with totally different opponents, totally different stipulations, and under totally different circumstances. BUT… all 3 were huge PPV matches, that for different reasons (we will get into those…) AEW NEEDED Bryan Danielson. And he did not let us down.
It felt somewhat inevitable that one day, The Elite and The Blackpool Combat Club would go to war. And in the summer of 2023, they did just that. With Bryan battling with his body, he could only fight in one of those sadly, but boy did he make it count…
And thus we got just over 25 minutes of exactly what was advertised, ANARCHY!
A match so insane, violent, bloody that I wouldn’t even know where to begin to describe it for you. But if you like hardcore wrestling and just MAD MAD SHIT, this is the one for you. The BCC got the win, and on to the next one we went. Which, given the time of year in the wrestling calendar, meant it was soon time for AEW and New Japan to clash. And given he had to miss the show the year prior, it meant it was finally time for a Bryan Danielson dream match.
Who’s the best wrestler in the world? Of all-time? Well… there are far worse answers than Kazuchika Okada or Bryan Danielson let me just say that. And at Forbidden Door, in the main event, the two somehow had to follow another all-time classic between Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay that had proceeded them. This match promised to be special, that much was clear from the entrances.
So… was the match as good as we expected? No maybe not, but that’s only a testament to the incredibly high standard both men have set. Bryan clearly wasn’t working 100% healthy for the whole match. Okada was maybe holding back (just around the corner from the ever-gruelling G1 Climax tournament in Japan), but just getting this match in front of our eyes was a joy. Such a joy. And I’m still buzzing from it. Little did I know it would get even better… but that’s still to come. Now lets get to… well, probably the toughest period in AEW history, and how our GOAT helped save the day…
I will spare you having to revisit it all again, but basically… two men had a disagreement, and a physical coming together, one of the men got fired. That man was planned to be in the main event of the next AEW PPV, which was not only DAYS AWAY, but it was in that man’s hometown. AEW needed a saviour. And whilst I don’t think anyone could replace CM Punk to a Chicago crowd, I think they got one of the very few men who could suffice. Even if he did have just one working arm.
Yes he was unfit for Wembley a week prior. Yes he was still hurt. But AEW needed saving. And Bryan Danielson answered the call.
And then of course, he then had a BRUTAL, VIOLENT battle, and it was also a fucking brilliant match! Because, of course it was.
(What I said about AEW POTENTIALLY losing Daniel Garcia earlier in the blog post, rinse and repeat that and apply it to Ricky Starks too! AEW will massively regret letting him leave to go to WWE. He could be a top top guy for them for the next decade…)
And then we go into year 3 of the Danielson AEW run. And this is when Bryan clearly decided to go into batshit-crazy fucking MENTALIST SICKO mode. Because just looking at this list of matches and opponents on paper looks absurd, watching them happen was on another level.
The feud with Starks continued into a couple of tag matches, as well as an outrageous Texas Death match on an episode of Collision.
After this, the next major stop on the Danielson GOAT SICKO mode tour was a big one… If Okada was a dream match, this next one was THE dream match. A match that injury kept us from at the previous year’s Forbidden Door PPV, albeit he was replaced by a debuting Claudio Castagnoli, which was pretty cool. But we all wanted to know who the best technical wrestler in the world was? There was only one way to find out…
And it was everything we wanted it to be. Just a masterclass of wrestling wizardry.
(the following is my review of the match from my blog review the AEW WrestleDream PPV of 2023)
Danielson (wearing Seahawks colours) got a standing ovation (including from Jon Moxley, who stayed on commentary) as he made his way to the ring. There was lots of grappling in the match of course, and it was unlike 99% of modern day pro-wrestling matches, as two absolute masters of their craft put on a performance of the highest of standards. I would say if you were scoring this on points, that Zack was ahead early on, as Danielson would look to get into it only for Sabre Jr to get out of it, some of the joint manipulation from Zack was ungodly, like nothing I had ever seen! It seemed to me that Danielson’s striking capabilities would be what could get him the edge here, as he hit a series of his signature stomps towards the end, and the finish came after Danielson hit a Regal Plex and a running knee for a 2 count. Danielson was not to be perturbed, and lowered his knee pad and hit another big running knee, and that got him the win. In conclusion, this was an absolute classic! My words here haven’t done close to doing it justice, and although Bryan won… did we get the answer to the question of ‘who is the best technical wrestler in the world?’… I’m not sure… and as great as this match was, I feel like both men had more to give… and so don’t be surprised if we see a rematch at some point in 2024.
*****
Bryan won, yes. But was our question really answered? Possibly not…
Danielson’s October 2023 was beyond belief really when you look at it, it’s no wonder he didn’t wrestle at all in November, in ONE calendar month he faced; Zack Sabre Jr on PPV, Kyle Fletcher, Swerve Strickland, Christian Cage, Andrade El Idolo, and a tag match with Claudio against Orange Cassidy and Okada… the only loss of those being against Christian unsuccessfully challenging for the TNT title. After this, came a true gift from the wrestling gods. Now, I will firstly ask for forgiveness, because in this time period, Danielson also made a cameo appearance in a WILD multi-man tag match on ROH with his fellow BCC members to take on FTR and Mark Briscoe in a tribute match to his late, great brother Jay. But December 2023 was ALL about… the Continental Classic.
I still can’t quite believe this tournament was real. It was just incredibly good in-ring action in pretty much every match. Everyone involved showed THE FUCK up in, and Bryan was no different. He began with a hard fought win against his wrestling opposite in Eddie Kingston, followed by a surprise defeat to Andrade. Danielson was quick to recover with wins over Daniel Garcia and Brody King. His final match of the league phase would be against fellow BCC brother in arms, Claudio Castagnoli.
In a stunning match, Danielson’s resolve meant that he held on to do enough to advance to the Blue League final. It meant that the following Wednesday, we would get a rematch of night 1 of the blue league to end things. To advance to the Continental Classic final, Eddie Kingston would need to avenge the defeat from one of his (many) enemies in pro-wrestling. Could he finally overcome the American Dragon?
For every heroic triumph, their must be a mountain they climb. And Bryan Danielson was the mountain for Eddie here, what a role he played in this story. Kingston would go one better and win the whole thing a few days later against his friend Jon Moxley.
So what now for our American Dragon going into 2024? Well… how about he fulfils one of his dreams finally, and he goes over to wrestle in the land of the rising sun?
New Japan Pro Wrestling. Wrestle Kingdom. Tokyo Dome. Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada.
If the first meeting was a taster, this was the main course. Just a fucking incredible match that you should absolutely go out of your way to see. This was Okada’s house for sure, but I have never seen Bryan Danielson feel more at home.
(The following is the review of the match taken from the F4W website’s review of Wrestle Kingdom 18, written by Chick Fritts.)
This was one of the greatest matches I have ever covered. It was focused, vicious, and emotional. This is what professional wrestling is all about.
The opening tie-up saw Okada trying to bait Danielson into striking. Instead, Danielson took Okada to the mat and began going for Okada’s arm. Once they returned to their feet, Okada caught Danielson with a couple of strikes, flooring Danielson. Okada landed a dropkick to Danielson’s eye before landing a DDT on the floor. Okada attempted a running dropkick, but Danielson cut him off with a leaping knee strike. Danielson then placed Okada against the barricade, slamming his arm into the metal. Back in the ring, Danielson continued his focused attack, brutalizing Okada’s rainmaker arm.
After minutes of torture, Okada caught Danielson with a big boot. The follow-up air raid crash left Okada in a relatively strong position. Okada tried climbing to the top, but Danielson cut him off with a barrage of uppercuts. Danielson then hit a butterfly suplex from the top and continued his wear-down attack. Danielson carried Okada to the apron, but Okada surprised Danielson with a scary piledriver. Back in the ring, Okada taunted Danielson with flat foot kicks to the eyepatch. Okada then ripped off Danielson’s patch and drove his foot into Danielson’s bad eye.
Okada landed an elbow drop from the top rope, but this further injured the arm of Okada. Okada then tried for the rainmaker, but the injury-induced hesitation gave Danielson the time duck. Danielson followed up with a kick and his signature elbow strikes. After eating a slew of elbows, Okada powered up, but Danielson answered with a busaiku knee and the Labell lock. Danielson transitioned into the hold he used to submit Okada at Forbidden Door, forcing Okada into the ropes.
Once Okada escaped, Danielson stomped his head into the mat. Danielson pulled to a standing position, where Okada fired back with a sudden rainmaker. Okada fell in pain and was unable to follow up. Danielson pulled Okada to the ground, but Okada fought back with strikes on the mat. Once standing, Okada tried another rainmaker, but Danielson stuffed it. Danielson hit one busaiku knee but didn’t go for the cover, instead opting for another. Danielson missed, leaving Okada an open opportunity. After dropping Danielson, Okada landed another rainmaker and collapsed onto Okada. The referee counted to three, leaving Okada with the win.
There was a beautiful moment towards the end where Danielson indulged himself a little, and soaked in the YES chants from the Tokyo Dome crowd. Something I’m sure he never thought he’d be able to do, but it was so heart-warming to see him take a moment to truly take in the appreciation he was getting, as he was playing his part in a masterclass of his art.
After the small matter of Okada at the Tokyo Dome, and a quick stop at New Year’s Dash the next night (for a little match where he teamed with Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Mox to take on TMDK’s ZSJ, Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste), it was time for the Danielson SICKO mode tour to resume… And I’m jus going to list some opponents for you, and you can decipher the rest… January – April 2024, Bryan Danielson wrestled: Yuji Nagata, Hechicero, Jun Akiyama, Shane Taylor, Katsuyori Shibata, Lance Archer, BLUE PANTHER IN MEXICO CITY, a handful of wildly entertaining multi-man tag matches along the way as well. But there’s two matches with former foes I want to give special mention to. Two wrestlers who couldn’t be more different in physical attributes, and I’m doubtful they’d get along as people outside of a shared disdain for Danielson perhaps. The first was the much anticipated rematch with the OTHER best technical wrestler in the world, with a showdown between the two not only taking place IN JAPAN, but finally giving us that little bit extra we craved after their previous battle.
Bryan had seemingly anointed his own technical sorcerer successor. After 32 minutes of mastery, Zack Sabre Jr had won the battle and the war. Watch this one too, ASAP.
The other Bryan Battle from this period I want to touch on, was from Revolution 2024. This was Sting’s night, that’s not a debatable topic. But it was the night Eddie Kingston got something he maybe never thought he could get, Bryan Danielson’s respect.
Bryan Danielson isn’t just the greatest wrestler of all time from a holds and grappling perspective, but he is an ungodly good storyteller as well. His and Eddie’s story is such a simple one, one many of us I am sure have faced in some form in our lives. And here we FINALLY saw Eddie get his props from Danielson. What a tale.
(skip to 2.20 of the following video)
OK, so we have had Okada (TWICE), we’ve had Danielson vs Omega. We have had Danielson in multiple classics with Adam Page, we’ve had Swerve, Eddie, Claudio, Christian Cage, I could go on… but NONE of them, in my humble opinion, are even close to what I believe, might have been the greatest wrestling match ever to take place in America. April 21st, AEW Dynasty. Bryan Danielson. Will Ospreay.
After this ALL TIME CLASSIC singles match, we got a spell of multi man tags for Danielson in the months that followed (with all due respect to SATNAM SINGH and a 5 minute match that ended in a DQ). All good matches, and Danielson was Danielson in all of them, but it’s also not a shock that he may have not needed the weight of singles matches on his body after such an extraordinary run before that… Until of course, in classic Bryan fashion, he enters the Owen Hart Tournament, and has 3 BANGER singles matches in the space of about 2 weeks.
Oh, and it wasn’t like he had duffer opponents in any of them either, 3 exceptional opponents… in a row… beat them all. Banger matches with each one.
And yes, Bryan beats Hangman in the final. BRYAN gets the match with Swerve that Hangman was so desperate for…
And so that brings us nicely to Bryan’s next match. Maybe his last too.
Swerve Strickland had turned from someone who invaded a man’s home and stood over his baby’s cot, to a World Champion greeted loudly each week by the adoring AEW fans. But naturally, like any great champion, he takes exception to people coming for his crown. It all seemed like it would be mutual respect between two Washington natives, but things… changed…
And then the news began to spread… Danielson’s AEW contract was legitimately up on August 1st. There was already Bryan saying this would be his last year as a full time wrestler many months prior. And so some air needed to be cleared. And in kayfabe or not, Bryan attempted to do that, but his relaxed attitude seemed to irk some, that he was already looking to the end and retirement. And looking PAST the fact he had a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP match at WEMBLEY on the horizon… He needed a kick up the arse really, and from an unlikely source, but one that does make total sense when you think about it, he got it from DOUBLE J…
(around 6.15 onwards is what you want by the way)
“if you’re gonna go ALL IN, freakin go ALL IN”. Well, the next week, Bryan did just that…
I was looking forward to seeing Bryan Danielson. I really was. But I was READY to see him wrestle Swerve, after this segment…
THAT is the SWERVE STRICKLAND I want!
And THIS… is The BRYAN FUCKING DANIELSON I WANT… Remember how it was Jeff Jarrett who put that fire into Bryan again, well sometimes… if you play with fire, you can get burnt!
As we get closer and closer to August 25th, I have been trying to rationalise things. It’s EVERYTHING to me to be able to finally watch Bryan Danielson wrestle live. It’s another thing that I MIGHT see him win the World title. It’s almost indescribable that I could be there for his final ever bout.
My honest prediction, is that Bryan gets his moment. I THINK that Bryan will beat Swerve at Wembley, that Hangman Page wins the Casino Gauntlet match, that its Bryan and Page at All Out, Bryan vs Darby Allin (another Washington man) at Arthur Ashe, and then in Tacoma on October 12th, the home state of BOTH men… I think that is when Swerve wins his title back from Bryan, and Bryan calls it a day. That’s what I think will happen. But I would not be remotely shocked if Swerve beats Bryan, and that’s the end. Because… he is indeed ‘the best fucking wrestler in the world, and has been for the last 20 years!’
Maybe that’s my prediction, or that’s just what I want to happen. Because I simply don’t want to believe this could be the end. There is every chance I shed a tear (or many) when Danielson inevitably walks out to Europe’s iconic song, I can’t even imagine the upset I would feel if I saw my GOAT’s career end before my very eyes. I had to live through my favourite wrestler ever passing away before we knew we had seen his last match. But with that in mind, maybe it is worthwhile that Bryan should go out on the biggest stage? To preserve his body and mind, and to spend as much time as he can with his beautiful young family.
But regardless of just how soon the end is, I can’t say enough thanks to the GOAT. I really hope you had the time of your life. Because I know that I did.
Josh.