Best Bryan Danielson Matches

gimmick

This isn't a thread for spam, or anyone to say he hasn't had any good matches or he is over rated, it is a thread to celebrate arguably the worlds best wrestler at the moment. He is on the crest of a wave at the moment, and although that isn't in the WWE is still means a hell of a lot, possibly more as he isn't been pushed by marketing men as a merch pusher, but as a fantastic pure talent.

So with that said, what are peoples favourite Bryan Danielson matches.

Well obviously the best one he was ever in was the one against Cena on Velocity or something a few years ago, because it was in the WWE, and because it was in the WWE makes it better than any other match he has ever been in, in the indies or Japan. :rolleyes:

Seriously though

1. Vs KENTA ROH Driven
This is a crazy amazing match between two amazing wrestlers. The psychology in this one was fantatsic not to mention the reversals of each other moves, what a match.

2. Vs Nigel McGuinness ROH Unified
This is about as brutal as a match can get without it going outside being pro wrestling, while still being a technical masterpiece. These two men beat the ever loving **** out of each other, left it all in the ring and left every fn who has ever seen it delighted.

3. Vs Samoa Joe ROH Fight Of The Century
A one hour draw which passed like it was 20 minutes. Dragon played the classic heel here which adds to the match as the crowd are ridiculously pro Joe.

4. Vs Daniels and Low Ki very early ROH
Only seen this match recently and unfortunately it was on TWC so it was interrupted by commercials. People say this is the match to put ROH on the map, and its hard to disagree. You have 3 amazing talents in their, and the under rtated Low Ki is the shining star in this, moreso than Dragon. Not sure exactly how long this one runs, but if it went the same length again i would not complain.

Fozzy

Obviously got to mention the Driven match vs Nigel McGuinness, it's been getting great reviews from practically everyone who's seen it, new and old fans alike. Vince135792003 got it right when he said how there were so many minor things which summed up together to make a great match

vs Roderick Strong at Supercard of Honor '06 - There's something about this match that I just love. The way Roderick had learned from previous matches and the way Danielson was able to avoid Roderick's offence by taking out a part of his body whenever he started getting the upper hand. Then the match turned when Roderick chopped the ringpost, with Dragon homing in on his hand and wrist. The build up to the Stronghold at the end was really cool too. It's one of those long matches that hasn't bored me at any points on repeat viewings. The story they told was probably better at their Vendetta match though

vs Go Shiosaki at one of the ROH Japan shows. I've talked about this a couple of times here before, so I'll keep it short by saying that Danielson reminded me so much of Flair in this match by the way he worked

gimmick

Waiting for the missus to go to bed and Ill continue watching TOKYO.

That Roderick Strong match is fantastic as well. Completely forgotten about it. Ill watch that once I am finsihed with my current batch.

Double C

Epic Encounter vs Paul London, best 2 out of 3 falls.

His match with Jimmy Rave at the 100th Show is great too, certainly the best match Rave will ever be involved in. His best of 5 series with Homicide in early 2005 was quality. I can't wait to see his series with Aries from the latest shows. If they are a patch on the classic from Testing the Limit they will be unreal.
His whole title run in 2006 was brilliant, especially the match he won the title in, against James "By Gawd" Gibson. Whether he is the Best In The World is debatable, but there is no denying he has had some of the very best matches in the last two years. Regardless of the venue.

Mr.Nice Guy

gimmick wrote: »

This isn't a thread for spam, or anyone to say he hasn't had any good matches or he is over rated, it is a thread to celebrate arguably the worlds best wrestler at the moment. He is on the crest of a wave at the moment, and although that isn't in the WWE is still means a hell of a lot, possibly more as he isn't been pushed by marketing men as a merch pusher, but as a fantastic pure talent.

So with that said, what are peoples favourite Bryan Danielson matches.

Well obviously the best one he was ever in was the one against Cena on Velocity or something a few years ago, because it was in the WWE, and because it was in the WWE makes it better than any other match he has ever been in, in the indies or Japan. :rolleyes:

Funny because it seems to me to be a thread designed to take (not so) subtle pot shots at myself.

What's funnier though is that this thread has garnered a whopping THREE responses, one of which came from yourself, despite being up for four days. Says it all really. Not to worry though mate maybe this post of mine will get it some much needed attention for you.

Come on you Danielson fans get posting your matches! We need to see the world's best in action!

ShawnRaven

You really do come off as a bigger asshole than me at the best of times!
Now, don't say i never give you a compliment!

VR!

Vince135792003

I've only seen a few of his matches. The biggest compliment I can give him is that I'm willing to pay for more.

I love the detail in his matches.

gimmick

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Funny because it seems to me to be a thread designed to take (not so) subtle pot shots at myself.

Dont get a big head there. I honestly dont give a rats ass about your opinion on anything.

Mr.Nice Guy

gimmick wrote: »

Dont get a big head there. I honestly dont give a rats ass about your opinion on anything.

Oh right so your comments must have been aimed at someone else then.

gimmick

They were aimed at Danielson funnily enough. He is my favourite wrestler at the moment. As far as Im concerned, he is having amazing match after amazing match at the moment, you dont like his style. Thats the end of it really.

Mr.Nice Guy

gimmick wrote: »

They were aimed at Danielson funnily enough. He is my favourite wrestler at the moment. As far as Im concerned, he is having amazing match after amazing match at the moment, you dont like his style. Thats the end of it really.

I'm referring to this little doozy:

gimmick wrote:

Well obviously the best one he was ever in was the one against Cena on Velocity or something a few years ago, because it was in the WWE, and because it was in the WWE makes it better than any other match he has ever been in, in the indies or Japan. :rolleyes:

Doesn't take a genius to work out who that's aimed at. If you want to make a thread about your hero that's fine but I'd appreciate it if you'd do so without taking jibes at me. I don't think that's too much to ask.

I'll leave it at that because contrary to what some may think I don't actually want to take threads off-topic.

flahavaj

I should've posted in this one earlier, but hey I'm a lazy sod.

Great matches by Danielson....

I guess you'd have to start with the triple threat main event from the first ROH show Vs Ki and Daniels. Really good match that still stands up today and the foirst great match to start the tradition of bAwesomeness in ROH.

Even better is the second show's main event Vs Low Ki. Surprisingly mat based with lost of good MMA style these guys put on a 30 min mat classis. Slightly better than their legendary match the previous year in the final of APW King of the Indies. This tournament and this match were the template and inspiration behind the original vision for ROH.

Moving on from there his 2/3 falls match Vs Paul London was a great, great match that elevated London into a main eventer in the eyes of the fans and its stil as good today as it was over 4 years ago.

Testing the Limit, the 75 minute match with Austin Aries is not to everyone's taste. Personally i love it. Dragon shows his greatness in working around a botched suicide dive to gut it out and finish the match despite being in obvious pain.

He had probably the best match of AJ Styles' career around this time as well, reigning in his spottier tendancies and making Styles look way better than he is.

The match Vs Jushin Thunder Liger, true japanese legend is great too, Danielson really rises to the ocasion and its a tribute to the repect he holds in the game that a legend like Liger would give him so much.

The 5 match series with Homicide was awesome. He shows a different to him in these atches, brawling and blading like a deathmatch specialist. The sight of him performing excruciating submissions in the midle of the crowd will live long in the memory.

The title match Vs Austin Aries where Dragon leaves ROH for a stint in Europe is easily one of thebest ROH matches in 2005 as is the best opener in ROH history in the BOSJ tournament Vs Spanky.

An oft-overlook classic is the match where he wins the title from James Gibson. This is the quintessential mat classic, a real chess match between two workers truly at the top of their game.

Dragon's title run is probably the best in ROH history. He literally NEVER had a bad match. Highlights include him dragging the best match of Jimmy Rave's career out of him, an awesome display of dickishness Vs Shelley, the always excellent Joe matches especially the 1 hour draw, acareer making match with Delerious, 4 AWESOME (again career making matches) with Roderick Strong.

Special mention must go to his matches with Nigel McGuinness. In particular the match at Unified in Liverpool, which I had the pleasure to witnesss live,was one of the most amazing things i've seen in a wrestling ring. Just incredible,brutal drama and sroryteling at its absolute finest. In fact Dragon showed himself to be a great company guy, pulling double duty on the second night, with great matches Vs SUWA, where he took a brutal chairshot, splitting his head open disgustingly and then going out a second time to wrestle a fantastic bout Vs Roderick Strong against doctors orders.

His match Vs KENTA at Glory by Honour was the best of last year in any company. the story they told was simply supreme with KENTA brutally kicking th ever-living **** out of the legit-injured shoulder of danieson, only for the champ, wrestler supreme to somehow pull out the win. In typical Danielson fashion, the match in which he dropped the title to Homicide was a work of art. The drama they built and the way that Dragon typicaly made the new champ look a million dollars wasa testament to his skills as a wrestler.

He hasn't let up for one second in 07. The Driven match Vs Nigel was even better than anything they had previously done, something I had never thought possible. The KENTA bout on the same DVD is just spectacular and the better bout IMO. The main event of the first PPV where he teamed with Morishima Vs KENTA/Mcguinness was a fabulous Japan style tag match. He also had a really good bout with KENTA in NOAH. His Morishima trilogy is said to be supreme and I await those with anticipation. He was Flair like in making Go Shiosaki look incredible in Tokyo.

Actually i'm glad i put this together as it has reaffirmed my opinio that Bryan Danielson is the finest wrestler on the planet. Thats only a selection of his great matches I've forgoten soi mny such as is Marufuji bout in 05 or his NJPW matches with Tiger Mask and Koji Kanemoto. I cannot recall seeing him in a poor match and you can be sure that anyone he works with will come out of the bout with their reputation enhanced.

If anyone put together a comp of his geat bouts you'd be loking at 5/6 discs no problem and it would rule the world. Maybe I'll send one to MNG for Christmas!;)

Fozzy

Good post

Something that I'm reminded of was listening to Wrestling Observer Live around August, Meltzer and Alvarez were getting real down about the state of pro-wrestling after what happened with Benoit and they were talking about steroids and how the best wrestlers don't always make it or something like that and they were just about to go to a break so some music started playing. Bryan's voice just picked up then and said "you know whose music that is?!", because it was The Final Countdown. Meltzer started going on about how he had just watched a 6-man tag from NOAH and that even though Danielson didn't have much to do in it, he still did everything perfectly

It just made me smile, how the topic of Danielson managed to turn two depressed wrestling fans into two excited kids

flahavaj

I just read this post by Gabe Sapolsky on the ROH forum. Its his thoughts on the KENTA/Danielson match but he also speaks quite eloquently on the skills of Danielson:

“Driven” - Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA: Once again the production session had gone long into the AM and we were nearing the time for my flight. I usually like to get to the airport a little early, relax, listen to my old Ipod Mini and read up on MLB news. Well, we had just finished watching the normal two camera edit of this match. It just didn’t do it justice. I ended up making my flight with three minutes to spare because this had to be edited with all four cameras. I am a huge fan of anything putting KENTA vs. Bryan and this match, which might be their last singles match (at least for the foreseeable future), did the whole rivalry complete justice. KENTA is a guy that can carry a company. Bryan is a subtle genius and someone who I can consider lucky to be able to watch perform on a regular basis. When an artist with the talent of Bryan comes around you better appreciate it to the fullest all the time. My favorite part of the match was Bryan working the “I have till 5” thing with the ref until it got a big pop and a “Dragon” chant. The fact that this match and Bryan vs. Nigel from the PPV are on this release is a testament to how good Bryan is.

Says it all really for me. The guy is a pleasure to watch wrestle and anyone who doesn't give him and his work a genuine chance really is missing out big time(thats not a dig at anyone in in particular its a general observation).

Fozzy

Oh yeah, that must be the match that had the real good "I've got til 5" bit in it. I remembered seeing that spot done real well but I couldn't remember what match it was. Good stuff

Danielson's also very fortunate to have a booker like Gabe. They both seem to admire the talents of the other a lot

gimmick

Just watched Danielson Vs Gibson at Death Before Dishonour 4. An absolute cracker this is, as would be expected. Goes a good length too and the ending is spot on. Pity everyone knew that Gibson was on his way back to WWE at the time, as I felt it took the element of doubt out of the match.

I loved Danielsons promo at the end, and when someone shouted "Sell out" at Gibson, Dragon turned on him and had a cut off him. Id say your man felt like an awful idiot.

Over the xmas, given Ill have lots of time on my hands, i am going to watch over Dragons title reign in ROH, as Im sure there are a few great matches I have forgotten about.