2022: The Art of Knowing Your Fans
- 2022: The Art of Knowing Your Fans - August 26, 2024
Bryan Danielson’s match against Daniel Garcia at Fight For The Fallen 2022 is a perfect example of how special Bryan Danielson is. After a two-month hiatus with a concussion Danielson returned to the ring, however, if you weren’t privy to that knowledge, one might have thought Danielson was gone for a year with how the crowd reacted to his return. Danielson was showered with “Welcome Back” chants, which made me realize an important factor in Danielson’s drawing power. Due to his shocking retirement in 2016, where he left a huge void in professional wrestling, fans will never again take advantage of seeing him wrestle. However, Danielson on the other hand, will gladly take full advantage of the fans’ empathy. The fans’ relationship with Danielson is quite simple; they care. They care about every injury, every scary bump, and any sign of an injury. We never know when the next injury may occur and for how long the American Dragon will be out of the ring; or even if he would ever come back. Danielson knows this dynamic, so what does he do with an audience that cares about his health? He makes them think he knocked himself the fuck out because of his history of concussions. If that isn’t the definition of a pro wrestler then I don’t know what is.
The match starts strong with a hot crowd and a flurry of dropkicks and kicks from Danielson. The crowd matched Bryan’s aggression with chants such as; “Fuck him up Danielson, fuck him up” and the classic “You’re going to get your fucking head kicked in”. This set the tone and story for the match, Danielson is the aggressive veteran teaching a lesson to his younger counterpart. Which brings me to Daniel Garcia.
I would argue at that point in his career, this was his biggest match. For the most part, Garcia looked great besides a small dip in his control segment after Danielson took the DDT to the outside. What I appreciate most about Garcia in this match was his innovative counters, for example, he had a great spot early in the match where Danielson slides into the ring but Garcia immediately hooks his arm and does Danielson’s signature elbow strikes. Then later on Garcia countered Bryan’s headstomps by hoverboarding Danielson into a sleeper hold.
As the match continued Bryan was dominating and hit a missile dropkick, but this time he didn’t get up.
He just lays there. For a split second, you could hear the air get sucked out of the arena. However, due to Jericho, you can’t hear the audience due to his obnoxious commentating…I digress. Danielson for the rest of the match was working from under, selling his concussion while Garcia gets to be the center of attention for the remainder of the bout. Danielson’s multifaceted wrestling ability was what made that match special for me. The ability to serve as the dominant vet and the underdog in the same match was truly surreal to see on rewatch.
What I love about this match and why I chose this was because I attended this show. Two months before this match I was supposed to go to a meet and greet to meet Bryan Danielson, but due to his concussion, the event got canceled. However, I got to witness him wrestle someone geared up to be one of his successors. Witnessing Danielson working us live was such an amazing experience to reflect upon. I’ll never forget the moment I realized he worked me, I said “He fucking got me again”. And he probably will again. I highly recommend this match.
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