2003: Jobbin’ With Style
- 2003: Jobbin’ With Style - June 24, 2024
State of The Dragon: 2003
On our next stop through Bryan Danielson’s warpath through professional wrestling, we go to the year 2003, one year before I was born, and find what else but true greatness. Throughout the year he continues to do solid things in the emerging Ring of Honor against the likes of Samoa Joe and Jay Briscoe, plus an absolutely phenomenal match against AJ Styles for the number one contendership to the ROH World Title. Dragon also worked in New Japan Pro Wrestling, mostly in tag action, had clashes in Canada, and had exhibitions in England, but none of these are the focus of what I want to highlight in this piece. I wanted to take a look at something charming even if it’s not the best example of his work at this stage in his career: his WWE extra work in the year 2003. Although he had actually done dark match jobber duties in the fed with three matches in 2000, one in 2001, and two in 2002, 03’ marked Danielson finally appearing on WWE television, as four of his six matches that year would make it to air. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with his encounters with Paul London, Brian Kendrick, or Jamie Noble, the most high profile name he does the job to is none other than John Felix Anthony Cena, who was well on his way to prominence, a year or so out from his first title run in the company. While we know what Danielson is capable of in an unrestrained indie environment where he can work to his heart’s content, I want to examine this match as a very early example of him twisting his style to the WWE’s specifications, all the while maintaining the essence of who he is. All this brings us to February 4th, 2003, on Velocity.
Vs John Cena, Velocity 2/4/2003
The first question any viewer of this match (which is available on Youtube by the way) is what the actual fuck is John Cena wearing? The answer to which is: nothing good. The face that would eventually run the place makes it to the ring clad in a horrifying yellow outfit that looks like an abstract Spongebob Squarepants cosplay, with the Dragon already waiting. The bell rings and a stiff collar and elbow tie up begins the bout as it does so many. There’s a great sense of physicality from Dragon right away as he drops to a knee and then digs in to attempt to push Cena back before being bulldozed backwards by the larger man.
Amidst this tie up, Ernest “The Cat” Miller on commentary makes it known that the “boys in the hood” (his words, not mine) would rather have Cena rap than wrestle and that Mr. The Cat is fond of the horrific yellow pants Cena is clad in. I’m glad to find that the quality of WWE commentary has stayed consistently questionable throughout these many years.
Instead of turning outside of the opponent to snatch an arm wringer like most do, Danielson bumps the collar tie arm of Cena inwards in a move greatly resembling actual amateur wrestling hand fighting, a detail I find absolutely lovely. Cena reverses it slickly, and Dragon switches limb targets, pushing down the inside of Cena’s leg and forcing him to the ground. Cena recovers and they trade arm wringers, before Dragon employs the armbreaker over the shoulder, which is a classic staple of just about any TV match he would go on to have. Cena shows a lot of concern before being goaded back into the fight and tripped by Danielson, who goes back to work on the arm, going from Fujiwara to top armlock to Kimura in an incredibly fluid way. Like the absolute loveable dork that he is, Cena responds to this technical wizardry by engaging in a test of strength or greco roman knuckle lock, which to no one’s surprise, he succeeds at. He pushes Danielson all the way to the ground, before it officially starts to get wild, as a pin attempt by Cena gets countered into a monkey flip, which pisses Cena off and he batters Aberdeen’s finest with a huge clothesline. Cena bullies him around the ring with stomps and other opportunistic strikes, until Dragon finds his last bit of daylist, a rear waistlock broken followed by an enzuigiri. Adding insult to injury, Danielson teaches John the capital of Thailand with a cheeky back kick, before absolutely teeing off on him with european uppercuts and more kicks. Unfortunately for us sickos, this is cut off rather abruptly with a boot and finally a proto-bomb, which looks like dogshit. Cena does some really funny heel-isms on his exit, and sadly that’s all she wrote for the artist briefly known as Infinito.
Final Thoughts
While Danielson had much better matches in this year, I chose this because to me it shows how truly great he already was as a wrestler, as even within the constraints of three minutes and forty four seconds, he put so much passion and physicality into what otherwise ought to have been just an easy little try out exhibition on a C-Show. From creativity in chain wrestling to just straight up drilling Cena with kicks, he leaves such a nice impression even if the goal is to make Cena look good. While John would go on to also be one of the all time greats (albeit not the GOAT as Bryan will), he very much looks like the passenger as Dragon drives him to a really fun little piece of history. It definitely serves as a premonition of how Danielson would later successfully adapt his indie stylings to the biggest show in town, as he already had an incredibly refined little showcase of his skills ready to go at any time. Necessity is the mother of invention, and ol’ goat boy is nothing if not inventive. All hail our god of wrestling, as long as he may reign.
