Is it possible to “just tell” someone is going to be an all-time great?

Going into this American Dragon project for Violent People, myself and the rest of the founders let other folks tackle who has what years. Seemed fair. And when we finally selected I was sort of relieved Danielson’s first year remained on the board. Seeing the literal start of a living legend, there are a lot of interesting ways to tackle that. I thought this because I had assumed his debut match against Brian Kendrick was readily accessible. Well, that was wrong. What I have is two matches on an FMW tour that happen back-to-back nights.

I won’t let this lack of footage keep a good idea down. I already built out a small framework of what I would be looking for and to change the thought process merely because the all-time great doesn’t wrestle against something of an early career rival, seems cowardly. And sure, on top of not being with an eventual long-term in-ring opponent, it is a tag match with international opposition so there is an immediate need for a Feel for pro wrestling that comes from doing it for a bit. But no, I’m going to be stubborn.

Probably should mention the two matches.

• American Dragon & Lance Cade vs. Naohiko Yamazaki & Yoshinori Sasaki (FMW 12/11/99)
• American Dragon & Lance Cade vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Yoshinori Sasaki (FMW 12/12/99)

Early on, Shawn Michaels seems to get an ask to come as special referee for FMW, he says let me bring a couple of my kids in addition to Cold Hard Cash. Neither match is particularly good. Discussing them as singular matches wouldn’t get the blood pumping. Not horrendous, but we are talking two very young wrestlers trying to hang in there in another country with more seasoned grapplers. Not the standard recipe for greatness.

With that, let’s get into talking about where Danielson lands early on in his career in becoming one of the greats.

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Can he do the moves?

Need to workshop this section likely. A lot of young wrestlers feel limited. That isn’t inherently a negative, not at all. They are in theory trained to understand the basics and underlying fundamentals. To do A Lot would be running before you can walk. Note for my editor, help me rename that section. Perfect, carrying on.

With a newer wrestler, I like to see a commitment to the actions. Does running the ropes look “normal” within a wrestling context? Can they throw a strike without looking scared of hitting their opponent? And lastly, most importantly, can the do their moves without looking like they need to take a hot stinky dump?

PSYCH Bryan Danielson does all the things you look for from a wrestler plus does neat shit. He managed to come off as a second or third-year wrestler versus a guy who debuted a couple of months ago. That isn’t saying he’s otherworldly talented, just more so given his training he came in with a certain level of polish.

As far as showing things off, the Yamazaki match is a bit less interesting in this regard. They often get paired off and Lance Cade is given Sasaki across both. Yamazaki is a less interesting wrestler so with time constraints and it being a tag match, Danielson isn’t going to have much coaxed out of him. Not saying there isn’t some stuff, there is particularly a sleeper he throws on that looks hellacious. If someone wanted to feel smart (and not like they are doing confirmation bias which is what actually is the reason) they would note that the tenacity Danielson puts the sleeper on Yamazaki is that of a seasoned vet. There is no itch, there is no major theatrics, he puts it on and makes it look like he’s trying to tap him.

Oh, and he hits a wacky Asai Moonsault. In the next night’s match, he also does a springboard tope to the second row. Easy to see a world where these are his last matches. Just breaks his neck or back on one of these wild dives to the outside.

The real good stuff from Danielson is in the match featuring Oya. Shooty adjacent grappling, that is catnip to me. There is a sink-or-swim aspect to the style, you either make it look good or it looks like shit. I think there is a lower barrier to entry to make it good if I’m owning my biases. As long as you commit to it, and don’t come off half-hearted, it is harder to make it look bad. But half attempts always fail. And that’s how they open this thing! Plus you have AmDrag doing a Fujiwara into a Cattle Mutilation, a moment that tingled my brain.

That is one of two moments you get to see a real staple spot of Danielson for years to come. He also does the flip out of the corner. It is raw, it kills momentum a bit, but with hindsight you see it. You know how he eventually makes that move consistently work in the flow of his match. That’s the beauty of watching someone that 1) goes on to be great and 2) we have so much of what they did early on. There is a ramble that I want to go on, but let’s save that and go to the flip side of offense.

Does he understand how to sell?

The answer to this one is “sort of”! Not much is asked of him in either match. Matches could have used more structure which I won’t blame the new wrestlers for, but there isn’t a major face in peril sequence built around him. There is this chop exchange as well with Yamazaki that unfairly is seared into my brain where he never flinches. We got him acting like he’s Bain out there. That was the most Dragon looked like a fresh out-of-school wrestler.

And because of the lack of structure, there wasn’t much to look for from long-term selling. Given things are even keel, it isn’t long, so no one ends up looking particularly ragged or hurt. This is one of the reasons I was hoping I could find the Spanky match from ‘99 in time. Even if that match is a 10-minute draw, it is two wrestlers going at it the entire time and they are always the focus. You can get more information that way on an individual wrestler.

I didn’t get to see that so I can only go off these two matches and he wasn’t lightening the world on fire here.

Is 6 months in American Dragon, fresh out of school, as good as mid-upper-tier indie wrestlers now?

More of a thought experiment than something I’m looking at for most wrestlers. Most wrestlers aren’t potential #1 Greatest Wrestler Ever contenders. Again, wonky data pool here.

Anyway, wrestlers in prominent positions that he looked better than:

• TJ Crawford
• Cole Radrick
• Suge D
• Marcus Mathers
• Krule
• WarHorse
• Would pick an AIW wrestler but does anyone besides Josh Bishop count outside of that promotion?
• Kevin Blackwood
• Brandon Kirk
• Jaden Newman

I don’t think all these wrestlers are the drizzling shits, I just think six matches in Bryan Danielson was more committed to all his movements, from strikes, grappling, to moving around the ring than most today. And not enough wrestlers know how to sell and bump well where even that not being a positive on Danielson’s grading rubric, ends up being mostly a wash.

I said a little bit ago I was going to ramble, and that was for here! Danielson had the unique opportunity to go over to Japan for a major promotion during their anniversary weekend. Part of the reason they didn’t look out of place is he had a longer ramp with more resources at a school with more connections. Say what you will about the amount of hands-on training Shawn Michaels did at the Texas Wrestling Academy, he was one of the biggest stars on the planet. He seemed to give enough of a shit about the success of his students to leverage his stardom to give them experience other wrestlers couldn’t. Still, this is a bit of an obscene situation, this wasn’t super normal then, it isn’t super normal now.

I will say, wrestlers of Danielson’s era had a better pipeline to get regular international experience. Between the world of wrestling “flattening” and the world economy, Japan in particular, going into the trash bin from the pandemic onwards, no one is getting flown in with major regularity.

Anyway, Bryan Danielson, did he look like the makings of an all-time great immediately?

No, and if you think he did, go huff your own farts.

Go check out the rest of Wet Hot American Dragon here.