A Bryan Danielson Match.... Misses?!

 

AEW DYNAMITE 02/23/22

Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia
I believe that this is the 2nd ever Daniel Garcia match that I've watched (with the first one being vs. CM Punk), and I have to say that I am not impressed by his showing here at all. He is against my favorite wrestler of all-time, so it would be easy for me to enjoy this, but I just didn't. Garcia was incredibly bland. He came off as a dude pretending to be a nO giMmiCkS nEeDeD Pure Wrassler!1 or whatever, and my goodness. All of his control work over Bryan fell so flat. No intensity, no rawness, hell, his stuff wasn't even overly smooth in a way some touted technical wrestlers (Malenko, Lance Storm, ZSJ etc) do it. There was just nothing to it. Bryan was good as usual, but there's only so much he could do in a match like this. **

Wake Up Babe, a new Danielson Match dropped

 

AEW DYNAMITE 02/16/22

Bryan Danielson vs. Lee Moriarty
This was exactly what it needed to be. A beautiful young boy match. Danielson is a juggernaut torturing Lee Moriarty with his amazing arsenal of offense, all the while giving him the perfect amount of shine to do his stuff. This was my first time watching Moriarty in action (I'm pretty sure at least), and while Danielson is obviously the reason why this match was so fucking good, he was a good counterpart in this particular role & match. ***3/4

AEW Dynamite fucking RULED (Punk n' Mox, Hangman/Archer TEXAS DEATH MATCH)

AEW DYNAMITE 02/09/21

CM Punk & Jon Moxley vs. FTR
Classic, tag wrestling 101 sequences galore a la Cash n' Dax; they basically did their usual FTR thing, and while it can be a little hit-or-miss depending on who they're up against, it mixed extremely well with their opponents here. The selling of both Moxley & Punk was top notch, especially Punk, and I absolutely loved Moxley just throwing the lads around. And then maybe most importantly, the energy in this thing was just so much fun throughout, I couldn't help but to really love it all. A very good match. ***1/2

Adam Page vs. Lance Archer
This was pretty much the best-case scenario for this match-up. God it ruled so much. It's the kind of a match where the more I think about it, the more I like it. Just straight carnage from start to finish with no bullshit in the way of it. Insane spot on the steps, insanely epic finish. Awesome visuals with the blood. Hell. Yes. ****

2022 MOTYC (****+) LIST

 

★★★★★

★★★★¾
CM Punk vs. MJF (AEW 02/02)

Angelo Parker, Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia, Jake Hager & Matt Menard vs. Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, Ortiz & Santana (AEW 05/29)

★★★★½

Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW 01/05)

Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe (ROH 04/01)

Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (WWE 07/30)

★★★★¼
Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 03/06)

Jon Moxley vs. Wheeler Yuta (AEW 04/06)

★★★★

Adam Page vs. Lance Archer (AEW 02/09)
CM Punk vs. MJF (AEW 03/06)

Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair (WWE 04/02)

Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn (WWE 04/03)

CM Punk vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 09/04)

Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley (AEW 09/21)

Jack Perry vs. Luchasaurus (AEW 11/19)

Bryan Danielson vs. Dax Harwood (AEW 11/30)

CM Punk Is One Of The VERY Best Of All-Time

 

AEW DYNAMITE 02/02/22

CM Punk vs. MJF
Okay now. This is what we're doing now. You know, sometimes when I see a match that I find to be so-damn-great, I struggle to put how I feel about it into words. Most recently, my 2021 MOTY in Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns was like that.

This was better than that match.

This match is a masterclass. CM Punk's performance was legendary; from the badass old-school babyface opening to obviously the selling & his overall babyface magic, he was simply undeniable. This was a damn near 40-minute match with most of it having him in peril & it could've EASILY become uninteresting at many points given the length, but Punk's perfect selling & portrayal of his character made it damn sure that I was glued to my screen the entire time. He never, and I mean never forgets that he is hurt, and it's beautiful how he showcases it throughout. Obviously you have the big moments where MJF is on it like a shark, but I think what I adored the most about all of that is the little moments where Punk did small adjustments to continue the narrative of his arm being fucked. Or later on the knee. 7 years out of leaving the business, grey-bearded Punk getting systematically picked apart by this 20-something year old punk. But he damn sure tries his hardest, and he gets MJF a few times in the middle of this vicious attack, he gets him good, but the work by Maxwell shows beautifully in those moments, as you can clearly see that the juice has been sucked out of him, and in particular a couple of specific parts of his engine. Goodness gracious what a beautiful story to watch unfold. CM fucking Punk, man. There's so much to it that I loved. Even when MJF botches the ring post Figure-4 Bret Hart spot, Punk immediately saves it by kicking his way out of the hold with the leg MJF couldn’t lock in. So good.

As I said, this is a beast of a thing with its length, but it never feels like it's _actually long_, because of how compelling the wrestling is. I think this even outdid both of the Hangman vs. Danielson matches when it comes to that, to be honest. A single match performance by CM Punk that I could never do proper justice, and MJF definitely delivered in the biggest match of his career up to this point, to say the least. My immediate reaction is that it's my favorite match to happen since Kofi vs. Bryan, Mania 2019. ****3/4