New Footage Friday: BRYAN DANIELSON PUPU PLATTER

Bryan Danielson vs. Babi Slymm AWS 1/8/05

ER: It's tough when you get a 20 minute match that ends with a mistaken identity DQ, but outside of the finish this was an impressively constructed match. This was during the era where Danielson's confidence was territorial Flair levels, the guy who prided himself on being able to work a 20+ minute match with any guy in any town. Danielson was always up for a challenge and you could tell that these kind of challenges were his favorite. Babi Slymm was a footnote in 2000s SoCal indy wrestling, a guy who people assumed would make it farther than others based on size alone, but that never really happened. He wasn't a guy typically working 20 minute main event singles matches, and I think that context is important when watching this match. Did it need to be 20 minutes? No, probably not, but I like seeing Danielson stretch things out and work with no filter, taking guys to new places and forcing opponents to extend themselves as well. It's the same kind of mindset Chris Hero picked up on and ran with that torch. Danielson knows how to work through a feeling out process and is good at shifting things from underdog to big dog and back. He's evasive and can land harder kicks from a distance, but is always susceptible to getting mowed down by the much larger Slymm. Danielson makes nice work of Slymm's limitations, and Slymm doesn't skimp when throwing overhand rights or a big clothesline, and took a major bump on a cool superplex. The match peaked any time the two of them went out to the floor, including a fantastic spot where Slymm gave Danielson a giant swing through a dozen chairs before letting him fly into half a dozen more. But Danielson returned that favor in cool ways, plastering Slymm with a dropkick into those chairs and hitting a huge late match tope (though I really wish we could have seen the landing). This match was truly about the kind of reliability Danielson brought to indy cards of any size, especially Saturday afternoons at collector's flea markets.

MD: Lots to like here. Dragon is a cerebral enough wrestler that the thought experiment of how he was going to deal with Slymm early on gave him plenty to milk (generally by keeping things light and friendly and fun so Slymm wasn't going to unleash his full strength). Slymm's act was solid and unique but he seemed in the middle of a transition of dumping the manager and going full face. In general he had this easy confidence in his body language as he leaned against the ring or the ropes after hitting a move, something that was really backed up by his size and the fact he's the champ. It's cocky but also hard to dislike him too much. The real cementing of the heat with the giant swing into the chairs and then the big comeback with the Dragon airplane spin were both very impressive and the sort of stuff that'll stick with you. Ultimately, Dragon was heavily protected (maybe too much so as the smaller visiting challenger facing the local champ) with Vanderpile's interference causing a lot of Slymm's advantages and the finish was all sorts of bs but I do think they made the most of this in general.

PAS: I have to love a guy working a full Blood gimmick in LA indies. How did they never put Human Tornado in dark blue and run a feud? Fun structure with Danielson sticking and moving and trying to stay out of the reach of the heavy hitter. If you are going to work that match, your heavy hitter had better hit hard, and Slymm delivered. His big right hand in the corner looked like a KO shot and he hit some big clotheslines. The finish was over booked nonsense, and I would have rather seen this without a manager (or at least have DJ Quik manage Slymm), but otherwise this was what I wanted from this matchup.


Bryan Danielson vs. Aaron Idol ECCW 5/4/07

PAS: This was Danielson as touring attraction, coming into town and putting the local guy on his level. Idol was a pretty mid 00s indy wrestler, Kawada chops, elbow smashes, the whole deal. Danielson knows how to work a compelling match around that guy though and Idol kept up, he had a nice looking tope which Dragon took into the third row. My favorite part of the match was Dragon's knee drops, when he took control he would drop the point of the knee right on Idol's temple, simple and totally vicious looking. I really liked the ending with Idol going for a guillotine choke and Danielson countering it into a small package for the pin, it wasn't a counter I have seen before and was a really cool one, Bryan should break it out for the inevitable Riddle match.

ER: I thought this was mostly really good, and thought Idol mostly came off more interesting than your typical mid 2000s indy guy. I would have thought this was pretty great if it didn't have that weird section in the third act, where Idol suddenly threw out all of his favorite Kobashi offense all in a row. Once he was doing Kobashi corner chops and bad spinning neck chops it really felt like he completely lost the thread of the match, tossing the thread out in favor of hitting cool spots he saw on a tape. Danielson wasn't out there doing a Lady in the Lake spot 15 minutes in, and that part of the match felt like it was edited in from an entirely different match. But the rest of this was strong. The early matwork could have come off very performative in lesser hands, but Danielson always legitimizes those kind of exchanges, like in the way they showed arm strain and struggle during the bridging sequence. All of the standing exchanges were tight, and I loved the quickness that Idol used on his tope. A perfectly timed tope is a special thing, and both guys were on it here: Danielson flew to the floor and was really good at briefly occupying himself while Idol missed no beats in flying into him, sending both of them into the front row and the front row into the second tow. The ECCW ring looked like one of those concrete lucha rings, no give whatsoever when Danielson missed his flying headbutt, and that superplex had to feel like falling out of a second story window. I liked how Idol played Danielson's game and began to pull away when he did his own thing, really liked how he snapped off a quick rana when Danielson sped toward him off the ropes. The Kobashi tribute was silly and Idol lost a bit of steam when he showed how not great of a striker he was, but the rest of this played great, and Danielson never let it drift too far off the road (like when he put a quick stop to the chops by just grabbing at Idol's nose). I thought it came off like Danielson vs. a lesser Slim J, and since we've never seen Danielson vs. Slim J that's a pairing I was way into.

MD: I really liked this. Dragon was full on heel here and totally into the role. It was a Dragon that we've seen before, plenty even, but that I haven't revisited for a while so it felt fresh. There was no joking or goofing. He was sharp and mean throughout while still being incredibly giving. For instance, in the opening matwork, he'd win most of the exchanges with everything taken and nothing given, but then fall behind every time they moved into something with more motion, including eating the early tope from Idol. When he took over finally, it was with a cheapshot and most of his cut-offs were cheap as well. He didn't have to do that. His offense on top was mean and nasty, stretching and throwing Idol about. Even though Dragon made sure Idol looked good early on, Idol didn't really have to utilize any of his big offense until the stretch. That probably made me a little more forgiving of how some of it was a little less than credible. Towards the end, they laid down some great parallel spots. For instance, Dragon hit a power move and finally locked in the cattle mutilation out of a pin; he was able to cinch it but at the cost of having poor positioning. They, after a rotation or two, then did the same sort of spot with Idol's guillotine choke. It didn't quite work as well, but the thought was appreciated. It might have been standard Dragon fare, but that's the sort of new footage that we'll jump at happily.

Bryan Danielson vs. Nelson Creed ECCW 6/16/07

PAS: I really liked this. Creed had a bunch of fun power plant offense, and this match came off like Danielson working Above Average Mike Sanders. Dragon took much more of a back seat in this one, it was a very Lawlerish performance, with Danielson taking a beating, firing up with big strikes and putting his opponent down. Creed had a bunch of fun spots, some good springboards, a nice rolling set of back suplexes where he kept contact with the arm, and a great top rope reverse atomic drop which looked like it drove Dragons nuts into his throat. Even though there was a lot of arm work, it was more Danielson selling accumulated punishment then really selling a limb, although I didn't have a big problem with that. I am not sure Creed could have a match this good with a lesser guy, but on this day he was an ace.

ER: I liked this a lot too, and didn't see any evidence that Creed would struggle against a lesser opponent than Danielson. This wasn't Danielson leading Creed through complicated sequences, this was Danielson taking a bit of a backseat to showcase what Creed could bring in a match he wasn't winning. This was 20 minutes and Creed controlled probably 75% of it, and he showed off a pretty deep bag of tricks. The best part of his extensive moveset is that it all felt like it came from the same wrestler, never veering into "This guy played VPW2 or Fire Pro and cherry picked his favorite moves" but instead delivered everything with the same direction. I liked how Danielson started going after his arm and Creed's offense made it seem like if that was what Danielson wanted then he was going to show Danielson how to take apart somebody's arm. I always like limb offense when the ropes are involved and Creed was smart about finding cool new ways to attack Danielson's left arm around those ropes. Creed somehow managed to have a lot of offense without really coming off like a moves guy, and I think that's because of how well his offense played into the actual match they were having. He had a few different suplexes that incorporated Danielson's arm without being showy about it, with my favorite being a northern lights that he quickly rolled into a nasty Fujiwara. The finish didn't really work for me, needed another step thrown in before, as it felt like Danielson had taken too much punishment to just be able to come back with some good enough slaps and lock on a chickenwing. The comeback after the avalanche atomic drop felt way too quick, feels like a move that should really be protected just because of the difficultly level, but at the same time I'm glad it got used. I would have liked one extra beat with the finish, some big mistake that Creed made to allow Danielson a wide opening to the finish, and instead it felt more like Danielson saw the time and went home. Overall, I liked what was presented.

MD: I liked the first half of this more than the second half. In general, Creed held up his side of things. He had some really good corner clotheslines, kept it all interesting and varied during his control of the arm in the middle, and had a good mix of moves and peppering attitude towards the end, which set up Dragon taking things over the top with the slaps for the finish. The inverted atomic drop off the top was ridiculous in a good way, if only because the announcers noted any move off the top could end it and then they did the one move that probably wouldn't, and I liked how he had the ref hold Dragon's hand during the initial handshake which is a clever little flourish I'm not sure I've ever seen before. There were a few awkward entrances into holds or exchange by him, but nothing you couldn't sweep under the rug given the setting. I was more into the limbwork and its selling than Phil, for good and bad. I thought the his selling of the previously injured shoulder was excellent during Creed's control, especially on his comebacks and how it led to the cutoffs, but it did disappear during the comeback. That wouldn't be a big deal if they didn't go back around again to some more shoulder work later, but they did. It was especially dubious during the first chickenwing. Maybe with that in mind, I thought the finishing stretch was a little disjointed and despite the fact it was warranted, I thought Dragon's hulk-up was a little goofy, especially relative to how well he'd emote a few years later doing the same sort of thing. That said, I really did enjoy half of this and though the rest was absolutely fine.