Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Bryan Danielson – The Final Countdown

Death Before Dishonor
Boston, Massachusetts
August 10, 2007

Bryan Danielson vs. Matt Sydal

Despite both guys being near the top of their games at this point in time, this was pretty damn underwhelming. Sydal’s heel stuff with Sweet ‘n’ Sour led to a lot of fun backstage stuff, but it did not exactly put him in the best position for in-ring work. To compound matters, Bryan still essentially worked on top here which really did not allow a fun match to unfold. All and all, this was a disappointment. [Bryan won via elbow strikes.] (**½)

 

Take No Prisoners
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 16, 2008

Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries

As far as Bryan vs. Aries matches go, this was of the more enjoyable ones. There was a bit more urgency to this one than usual, and there was a sense of direction in the in-ring storytelling that made it more satisfying. Essentially, Bryan tore after Aries’ arm for a good bit which hampered Aries’ ability to effectively fight back in an sustainable way. That allowed Bryan to fend off the comebacks and eventually put him away with an armbar. Solid stuff. (***)

 

Respect is Earned
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 7, 2008

The Age of the Fall(c) (Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs) vs. Team Teamwork (Bryan Danielson & Austin Aries) [ROH World Tag Team Championship]

The match started with a hot brawling sequence that ended in a near-immediate disqualification against Jacobs (he and Aries were really going at it). After the match got restarted, they settled into a really methodical brawl that did not feel appropriate at all.

The idea was that Bryan was getting beaten down the majority of the time, and that it was all building to the Aries tag. The problem there ended up being that the Aries tag was not all that exciting so the sluggish start really did not have the type of payoff required to salvage the rest.

The match eventually broke down, and it came down to Bryan vs. Tyler while Aries and Jacobs brawled to the back. They went at it for a while until Tyler finally won with the Phoenix Splash. This match was probably more effective at continuing the Tyler/Bryan and Aries/Jacobs issues than it was at being a successful tag match. (**¼)

 

New Horizons
Detroit, Michigan
July 26, 2008

Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black

You can see what they were going for here. After Bryan had beaten Tyler once on a house show in the latter’s titular “Breakout” match, it was clear that a rematch was in order and on a bigger stage. In the PPV before this one, Tyler pinned Bryan in a tag match which nicely set up this PPV main event.

So, they wanted this one to be this epic battle where Tyler really looked like he was on Bryan’s level. The problem was that Tyler was not (and has never been) on Bryan’s level by any stretch of the imagination. A lot of the work they did in the match backed that up, and Tyler having the advantage for such a large portion felt cynical at best.

The somewhat good news was that the match had a real hot finish due to unexpected reasons. Tyler gave Bryan a Buckle Bomb which caused the turnbuckle to explode for all intents and purposes. That really sent a bolt of electricity into the match, and the energy translating nicely to the closing proceedings The match eventually came down to a slugfest that Bryan won, and he then finished Tyler off with the elbows. (***)

 

Fueling the Fire
Manassa, Virginia
August 1, 2008

Team Teamwork (Bryan Danielson & Austin Aries) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)

This fell victim to being a scheduled time limit draw. The major obstacle in matches like this is that the wrestlers work like they are just trying to fill time. It seemed like they might try to redeem this one with a five-minute overtime, but then that went to a time limit draw too. Snooze. (**¼)

 

Bound by Hate
Markham, Ontario
November 8, 2008

Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega vs. Tyler Black

This was a cliche three-way battle that benefited from the wrestlers being really over. It was nothing all that special though. [Bryan finished Kenny with Cattle Mutilation.] (**¾)

 

Southern Hostility
Nashville Tennessee
December 6, 2008

Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli [No Disqualification]

Bryan and Claudio had a lowkey great feud in 2008 that essentially got lost in the million other things happening in the company that year. Every match they had was great or close to, and it was such a great journey for Claudio to go on. He was stuck in a rut as a way-too-happy babyface character that did not really allow himself to be presented as a top guy.

This feud slowly and naturally turned him and gave him a necessary mean streak to play in his matches with Bryan. While he still clearly was missing a little something to be considered worthy of the ROH title by this point, his performance here really proved that he was infinitely closer than he was before this program.

Claudio was just ruthless with Bryan, and Bryan was very giving with him. He made sure Claudio looked beastly yet smart at the same time. Bryan then of course fought back and eventually won. Given that Claudio did *nothing* over the course of the next twelve months, it’s almost hard to even retroactively justify saying he should have won the Bryan feud. Needless to say the Adam Pearce era presented far bigger obstacles for him in the company.
(****¼)

 

All-Star Extravaganza
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 26, 2008

Bryan Danielson vs. Jerry Lynn

These two did the babyface vs. babyface “We really respect each other!” match, and they essentially proved there are limits to such a story. Specifically, the limits would be the story loses its spark if it runs on too long, and doing such a story with Jerry Lynn REALLY should not go too long.

Jerry was a real solid wrestler who absolutely had good matches across all three decades he worked in. He was limited though in a variety of ways, and his matches with Bryan suffered during this time period because they never had some sort of edge.
(**3/4)

 

Steel City Clash
Elizabeth, Pennsylvania
March 20, 2009

Bryan Danielson vs. Mike Quackenbush

This was a big improvement on their first match in ROH as this was far more focused. Both guys settled into going after each other’s limbs pretty early on which gave them a match skeleton to play off of throughout. It worked! [Bryan won via small package.] (***½)

 

ROH on HDNet
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong vs. The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie “Eddie Edwards” Edwards)

This was some solid television wrestling. Beyond that, there was not too much else to say about it, as the HDNet tapings era of ROH really had a very low ceiling for a variety of reasons. [Roddy eventually took a ton of offense from the Wolves before finally submitting to the single leg crab from EEEE.] (***)

 

ROH on HDNet
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong

This was the final match of Bryan’s that aired on ROH television. It felt more like a celebration of Bryan Danielson than an actual match. He ran through a lot of his trademarked sequences, and there was a soulless quality to this one.

Part of that was just due to the context of it happening on the sterile HDNet show. Mostly though it was just that there was no sense of unique in-ring story to fill the extended length of the match. It was just physical, urgent, and logical action that felt somehow generic.

The easiest thing that could have elevated this above “solid” status would have been to tell a story of a desperate Roddy trying to finally get that big singles victory over Bryan before he departs. Especially since Roddy eventually won cleanly. Oh, well. Solid will have to do. (***)

 

The Final Countdown Tour
Dayton, Ohio
September 18, 2009

Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero
Chris Hero’s career has been a near never-ending series of identity crises (the exceptions being the 2010-11 Kings run and the 2016 “I’m the greatest of all time” run).

In 2009, his issue was that he was trying to portray himself as a super serial wrestler who had great technical and knockout ability. The character was not fully connecting with the crowd though, and he also managed to not really translate that into quality matches (at least on a consistent basis).

That issue popped up here sadly, and it led to a really flat main event. Hero dominated too much of the first half of the match, and it just did not work. By the time they got to the competitive second half of the match, too much of the match felt obligatory instead of genuinely necessary. The fact that it ended with a clean Hero win also clearly did not feel earned in any way based on the 50/50ish nature feeling throughout a large portion of the contest. (**½)

 

The Final Countdown Tour
Chicago Ridge, Illinois
September 19, 2009

Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries(c) [ROH World Championship]
While the even-ess of this match felt more appropriate than the Hero Final Countodown match, it was nonetheless kind of underwhelming to see yet another Bryan match being worked like Bryan was not the infinitely better performer. It really just took a lot of edge out of Bryan’s final matches. Wrestling “respectfully” is fine, but it feels phony to treat all your opponents like they’re on your level. Because no one but Nigel was actually on Bryan’s level. The matches needed some internal hook. Some sense of strategy or competition. Instead, they felt inauthentically even. (**¾)

 

The Final Countdown Tour
Boston, Massachusetts
September 25, 2009

Bryan Danielson vs. Davey Richards

The Final Countdown Tour prioritized Bryan putting over the remaining main-eventers left in the company as strongly as possible instead of putting on the best matches possible. You can argue that this effectively “passed the torch” from Bryan to Davey as “The Guy” in ROH, but it really failed in most other ways.

The real thing missing from these matches was a sense of strategy from the opponents and a sense of urgency to be someone who defeated Bryan on his way out. No one was going to replace Bryan as the “Next Bryan.” He meant too much to the company at this point. (**½)

 

The Final Countdown Tour
New York, New York
September 26, 2009

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
This was the only match from the Final Countdown Tour that really felt appropriately worked. While ROH at times tried to make Austin Aries and Tyler Black seem like legitimate rivals to Bryan, Nigel was the only real equal to Bryan and thus the only person who it would make sense to have Bryan go out against looking like his equal.

They did a great job of balancing showing some nostalgia for their previous matches while managing to tell a compelling in-ring story that could stand up on its own. Both men were constantly looking for the advantage. As it seemed like Bryan was building enough momentum to win soon, Nigel started getting a little desperate.

That kicked off an extended closing sequence with a real sense of urgency. Both men were going for the win in the best way possible. Of course, it was finally time for Bryan to win on his goodbye tour, and he won via referee stoppage.

This was a very fitting goodbye for both performers in ROH. (****)

 

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