Pro Wrestling Chronicle

ROH Champ Brian Danielson ran through everyone for one full year. KENTA came from NOAH and beat everyone, even Dragon, with the GO-TO-SLEEP. This week’s Project Danielson review is my 2006 match of the year. Enjoy your main event.

Before we begin, here is my personal scale. Other members of this site may have different ways of looking at match ratings. This is onl;y the opinion of John Philapavage, and not the entire staff of Wrestling Chronicle.com:

To me ***3/4 is a great match but missing something to get it to the next level.

*** = Good
***1/2 = Very Good
***3/4 = Great
**** = Excellent
****1/2 = Amazing
****3/4 = Near Perfect
***** = Perfect

Styles make fights, much like in boxing or MMA. And workrate or match length does not necessarily dictate a better match. Just because a match goes 60 minutes, that does not make it at least 4 stars.

Also, just because ALOT of holds are demonstrated does not mean it was the best match. That indicates it has the potential to be a great technical match, but the holds could mean nothing five minutes later to the story, and therefore make the sequence irrelevant.

Moving along, sub-genres should have there own scale. A match that really is the setting for a large angle (like a double turn, regular turn, forwarding or starting a major story) does get boasted in my rating beyond workrate. Comedy matches are not penalized for being about humor, and lucha isn’t penalized for being dance-like. If it’s over with the audience, that must be taken into account. Sometimes NOAH matches run for 20 minutes before overkill of finishers, and sometimes it looks like that, but makes alot more sense.

We strive to be worldly here on the site, so we watch ALOT of different styles from ALOT of different eras. This year’s Dragon Gate 6-man might be looked upon as 1997s Michunoku Pro Six Man in ECW. That is to say, great at the time, but just solid or a good little match now. But that’s okay, as readjustment reviews years later are fun too, and everything must be taken in context. Sgt. Slaughter vs Pat Patterson from 1983 would probably seem pedestrian now. Then again, so would Lou Thesz or some of the great World Class six man matches. But they ARE great for there time, and I’ll take into account the surroundings of the Pro Wrestling landscape.

Overall, I like to stress perspective in my reviews, make clear my tastes and how they do or don’t matter in the long run, and give details as to why I think and score the way I do. Lets move on to the matches…

9.16.06 Danielson vs. KENTA: Big match feel. Electric crowd. No Danielson comment via R.A. Bobby Cruise tonight, coupled with Danielson’s focused all business stare down at the intros (KENTA likewise), adds to the serious title match feel. No comedy tonight, fellas.
Danielson comes in with his RIGHT shoulder taped up, and the commentary of Prazak and David puts over the drama that Danielson only has one arm coming in and barely escaped Cabana in his last match.
A feeling out process to start. KENTA misses a big kick on the first lock up, slaps Danielson off the second collar and elbow tie up, and gets slapped back by Dragon off the third. Fourth go-round is a knuckle lock up that ends in the ropes with a great looking armbar and knee to the head on KENTA by Danielson. I wrote out all this out to highlight that in the first two minutes they do very little physically, but it’s intense, and ends up meaning so much more. They aren’t playing to the crowd because at first they don’t have to.
Next we actually start the story of the match, in physical terms. KENTA kicks to the shoulder and Danielson bails out. Danielson purposely only uses the left hand and comes forward protecting the right side of his body. Danielson gains control, and because he doesn’t play to the crowd (He’s focused) and is applying everything “plus 10%”, it looks like a worked shoot – in a good WRESTLING sense.
Danielson tries some submissions 5 min. in, but KENTA is right back on that Right shoulder/arm of Danielson. They go to the outside and KENTA again KILLS Danielson’s shoulder with kicks and throws into the barricade. I think I like these two match-up so much because how and when to pace things. They go first gear to third gear to first gear to fifth and it works well because of their timing.
Back in the ring for several minutes of KENTA working on the right shoulder/arm, really wrenching it for visual effect. Crowd again signals what can best be called “time code changes” and the two artists oblige, but on the ground. KENTA is being a big prick (as usual), and a keylock has half the crowd buzzing over a tap. You can see a few fans even standing for it, and yet we’ve just hit the nine minute mark.
Commentary puts over that Danielson tapped out to a McGuinness keylock a few weeks back, and I should also mention it’s been acknowledged that KENTA has beaten everyone in ROH with the Go To Sleep, including Danielson TWICE. So Danielson’s a bizzaro-face for the moment in this match structure, which only works in ROH and NOAH. (I do realize that you could say “the heel has no way to win/ babyface will finally overcome” but that’s not really how KENTA is played here, and as you’ll see, I’m not complaining.
Danielson gets a “hope spot”, only using his left hand, and gets smacked down for it. Crowd reacts huge. Still too early to bite on a KENTA nearfall. More KENTA right side strikes and subs. Danielson finally gets the advantage at the 11 minute mark. KENTA really struggles before Dragon can get his arms for a surfboard, which I felt was a strength in the Lance Storm match. Danielson finally acknowledges the crowd at 13 minutes, reclaiming the heat for the botched surfboard with a knee slam, yelling “I fucked up? I don’t EVER fuck up!” Young heels take note as he goes hard at KENTA’s knees right away and never loses the crowd. He also reclaims heel status with a figure four and grabbing the ropes for leverage. Then he refuses to break the hold. Crowd is eating out of his hand. We even get a “Dragon” chant.
KENTA comeback at the 16 min. mark by stiffing Danielson’s injured right shoulder a few times. Even in Danielson matches ROH works to give the A.D.D. generation mini hope spots and strong moves, because while KENTA and Danielson each have separate offensive stretches, the “seller” always gets in a shot or two. This is always true of the Danielson matches this year, even the more deliberately paced ones. Also, I’ve noticed the fans are actually conditioned to buy submissions more then pins . Perhaps it’s the length of time a submission gets, but a KENTA two count doesn’t get a bite, while a cross arm breaker applied moments later to that shoulder does.
18 minutes in. Cool save as Danielson’s flip off the corner over KENTA is miss-timed, but the drop-down-roll-over into the half crab gets over, and a pull to the center with a knee over KENTA’s head sends the crowd into a frenzy. It looked good and had purpose. Dragon shakes loose from a Go To Sleep tease, then hits a suplex. Again, the little things: he sells that executing the move hurt his shoulder and he’s slow to pin KENTA because of it. Chicken-wing, but no one’s buying until he adds the body scissors. KENTA escapes at 20 minutes, and from a story and layout to execution, this match has been pretty flawless. The decision to work at a faster pace until Danielson gains control, and the fact they aren’t going 60 minutes, help a lot (and I’m a fan of the Danielson pacing and his longer “niche” matches).
Danielson, who is still selling his shoulder while on offense (including not lifting his right arm before a diving headbutt), gets a lifted boot to the face. That was one of the few spots I felt looked lame in the first 21 minutes, but it wasn’t a “screw up”. A springboard dropkick by KENTA is met with a hard dropkick from Danielson, and it looked great. Good sequence, but the double K.O. count gets little heat. To show my differing tastes/opinions, they do the NOAH delayed selling/last man standing sequence with kicks, chops, suplexes, forearms, and headbutts. They both eventually go down, and I’m like “o-kay…”, but the crowd eats it up.
They go to the outside, reversals, and an AWESOME belly-to-belly by Danielson sends KENTA to the concrete. The crowd is really into the last few minutes. Danielson does his springboard plancha (No summersault today) into the crowd and hits it, to a deafening “ROH” chant. He grabs the right shoulder as he climbs back over the barricade, a fact not lost on commentary. Soon after, a KENTA fujiwara armbar out of nowhere at 25 minutes signals the move into the final stretch (or act, as I say because it’s a play with violence).
Continued right arm/shoulder submissions on Danielson are heated. I’ll try to give the rundown, but at this point just beg, borrow, and steal to get this match. I know I’m a huge Danielson mark, but see for yourself.
Danielson catches KENTA’s arm and hits a RegalPlex for two and three-fourths. Danielson hits a belly-to-back from the top, and then tries cattle mutilation at 29 minutes. At first they chant for the tap, but at the break they cheer for it not being over. Front chancery suplex, and Danielson goes up top. Sequence of the year nominee. KENTA springs up for the falcon arrow, gets sent down to the ring, and Danielson dives after him. KENTA catches him and hits GO TO SLEEP (fireman’s carry into a knee kick) for an unbelievable false finish! Danielson barely gets his foot on the rope to stop the count. KENTA looks exhausted and shocked. We’re 30 minutes in.
Danielson is noted as the first to survive the finisher all year in ROH as they both sell the damage. Brilliant protection of a finisher. A vicious kick to the shoulder and KENTA goes for the Busedu (sp?) knee, but gets rolled up with a bridge for another awesome nearfall. GO TO SLEEP tease, into a Danielson crucifix pin. No dice, so we get hard UFC elbows from Danielson. This is how he beat McGuinness and Strong last month. KENTA looks knocked out, but POWERS UP! Danielson immediately grabs the arms, tries Cattle Mutilation, and gets rolled thru just as quickly. The KENTA nearfall off the roll-thru worked even better in that spot then in the Lance Storm match. Just like that match Danielson keeps the arms hooked and hits a suplex. Kick out, but the arms are still hooked! Back to Cattle Mutilation. Doesn’t work. More elbows and another attempt at Cattle Mutilation. KENTA taps out and Danielson wins. Perfect ending, because him getting out of Cattle Mutilation again would have been complete overkill of the drama, or bordering on it.
This is the mainstream fan’s Danielson match, with a quicker and more accepted style then Danielson-McGuinness “not for everyone” matches. It reminds me of his Marufuji match in Dec. ’05, but with ten times the back story, subtext, and crowd to suck you in.
Though Danielson’s legwork mattered little in factoring into the finish (I loved it, but it doesn’t factor in nearly as much as it should in many matches), KENTA’s right arm/shoulder work on Danielson was the story and forced Danielson to overcome.
Excellent selling, great moves, good pacing, and beautiful storytelling with their bodies. This match is everything that wrestling is supposed to be, it’s humorous that one of the participants can barely speak English. Neither of them had to say a word, and the story was told. Like the first two McGuinness matches in terms of my enjoyment, but on steroids (not the wrestlers, the match). I’m leery of going five stars anytime, even for my favorite matches, but I refuse to go lower then 4 ½ stars. So if you like snowflakes, I’m giving this one 4 ¾ stars. If you’re not into Dragons Gate six-man style matches, this is your Match of the Year, and that’s saying a lot. Joe-Kobashi, Joe-Punk 2, Dragons Gate Six-man, and this match. Somewhere in there, depending on your leanings, is a five star match. Let the debates begin… (****3/4)