2005: Bryan Danielson becomes Bryan Danielson
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In April of last year, I decided to start binging 2005 Ring of Honor. At the time, I really wanted to expand my wrestling viewing and see stuff that I wasn’t as familiar as I would have liked to be at the time. Additionally, considering how renowned peak ROH is in wrestling circles, especially 2005, I was curious to see how it held up. I have been working my way through it since then, learning a lot about the promotion and time period in general. From discovering fun lower card acts like the Ring Crew Express and Davey Andrews, reaffirming my previously held convictions about people like CM Punk and Samoa Joe and finding out how good Jimmy Rave was. That being said, one of my favorite things about this binge has been watching the transformation of Bryan Danielson.
Danielson, who had been with the company since it’s very exception, has always been one of the main attractions in the promotion. Despite this, he never had the distinct privilege of calling himself ROH World Heavyweight Champion as of the first half of 2005.
Attempts at trying to become champion had been thwarted previously by Samoa Joe in 2004 and most recently back in May of that year, Austin Aries. The second loss was a particularly crushing defeat for American Dragon. As after spending the months prior embroiled in a hostile feud with Homicide, his mental state had deteriorated significantly. This led to him being unable to keep focus against the quicker and explosive Aries, who exploited his opponent’s weakness to keep the belt in his shoulders. Frustrated and lost after being defeated so decisively, Danielson revealed that he had “quit” the promotion and wouldn’t be seen in the promotion throughout that summer.
In the period that Dragon was away, a lot of significant events would occur that would alter the company for years to come. Firstly, CM Punk would defeat Austin Aries to become ROH World Champion and kick off what would become known as The Summer of Punk. The angle would go on to be the one that cemented ROH as the go-to indie promotion during this time period and resulted in some of Punk’s best career work. The angle would come to its climax in August, with James Gibson dethroning Punk in 4-way also featuring Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe.
This title victory would also be climatic for Gibson in it’s own way as it culminated his own arc that had started when he first arrived in ROH earlier in February. In a career that had seen him be type casted as a cruiserweight wrestler, Gibson saw this ROH run as a opportunity to prove himself inside the best roster in North America at that point. In spite of failing to win previous world title matches against Aries and Punk, he was able to push forward and obtain what was at that point, one of the most sought-after belts in all of wrestling.
Gibson’s reign would be defined by him running against the clock. Since it was pretty much confirmed by that point that he would be going back to WWE soon, Gibson would be tying up loose threads that he had accumulated during his time in ROH during this reign. He dispatched of Homicide and Spanky in one night before having a very underrated match with Colt Cabana the following night in which he would retain the belt. This would make three ROH originals that Gibson had dispatched during his reign, all while noticeably showing a far meaner side of himself with each subsequent defense.
This would bring us to September 17th, 2005.
It was just another ROH show, this time emanating from Long Island, New York, The main event is set to be AJ Style VS Jimmy Rave in Finisher Match with Mick Foley and Prince Nana as their corner men respectively. The first few matches on the card were the usual fare from ROH during this era. Low Ki and Jay Lethal culminated their feud that had been brewing since the Trios Tournament early in the year, Nigel McGuiness having his first defense of Pure Title against Roderick Strong in a very solid match, Adam Pearce debuted and did shitty “old school” cosplay in a 4 corners match. The show hadn’t produced anything particular that would make it stand out in a sea of all the other output ROH had produced that year.
Then Final Countdown would hit for the first time.
Out would come Bryan Danielson, making his first appearance since losing to Austin Aries back in May. Gone was the manic bald guy with black trunks look he had been sporting the last time he was in ROH and in its place, was a new shaven look accompanied with the signature William Regal red trunks that would define him for years to come. Danielson, who had spent the past few months away in Europe, had come back to the company with one more chance to become ROH World Champion.
This wasn’t going to be an easy task though. Across the ring was James Gibson, the current ROH World Champion. A man who has defeated a plethora of ROH originals during his world title run as previously mentioned, now tasked with taking down another one of the founding fathers of the promotion during this title reign.
The match starts as a typical ROH world title affair from the era with both guys taking it down to the mat. Gibson has been very successful when taking things to the ground, as shown when facing technicians like Cabana and Spanky throughout the year. However, when stood across the ring from Danielson, he met his match. Dragon is able to absolutely dominate the early going of this match, showcasing a level of patience that hadn’t been present when facing Aries back in May. This includes him doing a very cool transition that I had never seen before done with the struggle necessary to make it work.
Gibson is able to gain control eventually by suplexing Danielson out of the ring. From there, he starts his own control segment, showcasing his newfound mean streak that’s been present during his previous defenses. Every strike that he hits has an extra feeling of spite behind it and in comparison, to Danielson’s previous control segment, he seems more concentrated in just punishing Dragon more than anything else. At one point, when Gibson is pulling Danielson’s nose and the referee demands Gibson to stop, he proceeds to respond in a very familiar manner.
It is also important to note the crowd for this match. Despite the Long Island crowd being notorious for favoring WWE/TNA guys at this point, they are vastly pro-Danielson throughout a great portion of this match. This support extends to when he regains control of this match after the storm that is Gibson’s offense. For a moment, it truly feels that for everything Gibson throws to fight back, Danielson has an answer for it. Whether that be reversing a guillotine choke into a pinning combination or being able to reverse a german suplex from Gibson by tossing to the outside of the ring so that he can do suicide dive. Eventually, however, he begins to get overconfident in a very detrimental way.
Bryan Danielson has been this way before. The same attitude resulted in him losing to Samoa Joe when he challenged him for the belt a year prior to this match. Now, it’s that same attitude that eventually results in giving Gibson an opportunity to fight against Danielson’s immense offense. Despite this, it’s never enough. Danielson has done enough damage due to being able to play the long game and think ten steps away in a way Gibson hasn’t. Specifically, his shoulder has been fucked after Danielson ran it into the exposed guardrail.
Despite this, Gibson is able to pull some of his bigger bombs to try and dispose of Danielson. No longer acting aggressively and desperate to keep his championship, Gibson bust out a top rope leg drop and his signature double underhook suplex, the same move that won him the belt. However, Danielson would persevere. Gibson keeps throwing shit at the wall, with some portion of the crowd being shifted towards his side. And then, it happens:
From this moment on, it’s game over for James Gibson. Danielson proceeds to hit a dragon suplex, but only gets a two. From there, he locks Gibson in the cattle mutilation, but Gibson keeps fighting out of it, deciding to stay alive till the bitter end. Dragon, knowing that this is now or never, adapts to the situation. He grabs Gibson previously worked over arm and locks in a crossface chickenwing! Gibson can only hold out for so long, before he cedes ground and decides to tap out, ushering a new era.
Not only is this one of the most important ROH matches of all time because of the result and the subsequent reign it kicked off, but also a significant match in Danielson’s artistic approach. When looking at Danielson’s career work up to this point, you can see that he’s still figuring things out, experimenting with different moves that you wouldn’t see him do years after the fact. Additionally, there was a certain lack of polish that added a sense of realism in his work. Starting with this world title run, Dragon would develop a match formula that would get rid of these previously mentioned attributes and replace it with mechanical efficiency and a very distinct sort of polish only he can bring to his work.
This match feels like a bridge between those two Bryan’s. Everything he does is perfectly executed in a mechanical sense but at the same time, he is casually hitting stuff like a Tiger Mask inspired spinning kick. It’s the type of performance that makes Danielson’s revered as the greatest of all time, being able to witness the evolution of somebody in real time in such an effective manner with an inspirational efficiency and passion behind it.