The Daniel Bryan Collection
Yes I know I did a 'Greatest Hits' post on Bryan around six months ago but it looks like Bryan will be making his return quite soon so I want to do this post for it and I'll be splitting them up into different parts featuring different years to keep
I'm gonna start off with some of his Indie matches using YouTube but they won't be in chronological order as usual since the matches show up at random on the site, but once I get to the WWE posts everything will be back in order.
If you want to watch the following match, it's titled FREE MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs AJ Styles
Bryan Danielson vs AJ Styles
I have no idea when this match takes place, but it does take place in a National Guard armory centre that also has a basketball court with a crowd of around forty people. Both guys have come a long way since then. Bryan was great with his heel work here as he just kept taunting the crowd by calling them his baboons and taking advantage of the wrestling rules (I have 'til 5 ref!). There was a botch of a big move towards the end but it didn't affect the match much. This is the wrestling clinic you would expect from these two as it built slowly up to a an exciting finish. ***1/2
Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black
From ROH Southern Navigation May 9th 2008. For those that don't know, Tyler Black is also known as WWE's Seth Rollins. You could already see the fantastic chemistry that these guys had here that led them to having some classics in the main stage of WWE in the future. The match was quite one sided to start with as Tyler got most of the offense, but that only got the crowd fired up for Bryan's comeback. The crowd was into this one all the way as these guys started off slowly and built up to a frenetic pace for the final few minutes of the match which featured some great nearfalls and counter wrestling. ****
Bryan Danielson vs Claudio Castagnoli
From ROH Northern Navigation June 25th 2008. Claudio is also known as WWE's King of Swing, Cesaro. It should have been obvious that these guys would have an awesome match in 2013 just judging by how great they were together here. It's awesome that Claudio still used the big swing here. Just like the last two matches, this one just built and built as it went on. I noticed the double monkey flip spot that was also used in Bryan's match with Cena at Summerslam. It was a cool looking move so no wonder he used it twice. A terrific match with an exciting finishing sequence that just went back and forth between the two amazing athletes. ****1/4
Bryan Danielson vs CM Punk
From ROH Reborn: Stage 1 April 23rd 2004. This is apparently the first ever match between these guys so it's pretty historic and there will definitely be way more matches between the two in these posts. Ricky Steamboat is also the referee here. The story here is that Punk attacked Steamboat earlier in the show, but Steamboat still made it out to ref. I liked Punk as the whiny heel here as he complained about Bryan's hair pulling and that earned him chants of 'Punk's a bitch'. This was much slower match than you would expect here but it did gain a much quicker pace towards the end. A great match by the end. ***1/2
Bryan Danielson vs Kaval
From FCW February 7th 2010. This'll be just before the shitty first season of NXT started then. Kaval was smart enough to leave the company when he did later in the year, but thankfully Bryan stayed on. It sounds like Wade Barrett is on commentary but I'm not too sure. Kaval was very impressive with his kicking style and it's a shame that his time in WWE didn't work out for him. This was a pretty short match lasting at ten minutes but they managed to pack in a ton of action and it was a lot of fun to watch. Good stuff. ***1/4
Bryan Danielson vs KENTA
From NOAH November 13th 2008. The commentary is in Japanese so I don't know the story behind the feud. This one seems very appropriate after the debut of Hideo Itami and this is the first match I've seen of his outside of NXT. The mat wrestling section of the match didn't last very long as they quickly hit each other with stiff uppercuts and high kicks. A lot of high flying involved as well. After watching this match I can now see why KENTA is so popular. His fisherman suplex in mid-air was absolutely unreal. A fantastic match where the action never seemed to stop and just built to an amazing crescendo. A must-see match in my book. ****1/2
Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness
From ROH 6th Anniversary Show and the ROH World Championship is on the line. This is also the first McGuinness match I've seen so I was looking forward to seeing why he was also so popular. The fans are split on both guys. This one was going nicely until Nigel hit the referee and caused a DQ eight minutes into the bout which completely turned the crowd against him. Thankfully the match is restarted. Now shit's going down! Nigel was pretty awesome in the heel role by just taunting the hell out of the New York crowd and the crowd hated him for it. This was an incredible match and one of the best I've seen out of Bryan. These guys fought a war to prove who was the better man, and through some devious means, Nigel was able to secure the win. I could have watched this match go on forever as there was not a dull moment to be had an excitement until the very end. If you haven't seen this one, I'd highly recommend it. Fantastic. ****3/4
Well that's it for the Indie days. Coming next: 2010 and 2011.
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