AEW Five Fingers of the Death Week of 2/21-2/27

AEW Dynamite 2/23

3. Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia

PAS: I wrote this up for the Ringer, it was dope! 

MD: This was probably a top 3 match up that I wanted out of the promotion in 2022. Now, at the end of it, I want it six more times. This had a completely different feel than Moriarty vs. Danielson. There, Danielson spent the whole match pushing Moriarty to where he wanted him to be. Here, Garcia started at that point and they took it from there. You don't want to look away for a moment in a match like this. Danielson's character is so confident and secure in who and what he is that he's able to goad Garcia into strikes and then just shift gears and pick a leg for the world's smoothest Indian Deathlock entry. It means that his opponents have to show the same willingness to deviate, and Garcia did by hitting the chop block out of nowhere on the leg.

The legwork here was integral but it never overwhelmed the match. It provided Garcia reasonable openings to stay in it. I loved the camera angle during the break when Garcia caught a foot in the corner and hit a dragon screw out of it. I loved him digging his knuckles into the quad while posting the leg. I thought Danielson's reaction after the missile dropkick was great. He sold the shock of his own landing with a few ginger movements, but wasn't at all overwrought and went right on to channeling the intensity with the crowd that was allowing him to overcome the pain.

All of the little moments of manipulation and counters in the stretch stood out. Usually you see them in a feeling out segment or right at the finish (a typical Sasha Banks finish set up, for instance), but they were pressing down on legs and affecting balance all throughout the last third. Danielson mentioned how the match had a real flow in their grappling and while I saw a little of that in the beginning, it resonated more towards the end, which is more daring because that's when they have to bring it all home. The forearms while holding the knucklelock position felt violent and novel. Danielson with two big learned counters in the end, jamming the third dragon screw attempt and especially jamming the attempt at yet another flowing grappling roll to set up the stomps and the finish were just brilliant bits of pro wrestling. Even though this got time and they filled it exceptionally well, it still felt only like a taste and left me wanting more.

ER: I've seen so many "new" wrestlers described as "smooth" over the past few years, and almost every time I finally see them it's always some guy like Lee Moriarty and I realize that in this context "smooth" meant "soulless but fast". Daniel Garcia is smooth as hell, but actually in ways that lead to violence and not just ways that lead to reversals of reversals. This was a hot TV match that I wish I could have seen without a significant chunk happening during Picture in Picture, but even reduced to a 1/6 screen the viciousness sang out the entire match. Little things early, like the overly spirited matwork and Danielson getting to his feet on a break and throwing a push kick to Garcia's face, and the way Garcia threw a block into the front of Danielson's knee while Danielson was pushing the rope running pace. Garcia's smoothness came through strong in his matwork, with one of the finest Indian deathlock sequences I've seen, Garcia mapping mat moves and transitions out so fast that he looked like animation. The selling from both was great, as it felt more like Fujiwara UWF selling than somebody doing exaggerated limping, and that played nicely into the small action shifts. 

They move nicely into and out of matwork and striking and suplexing, always feeling like the match could move into any of those directions regardless of what they were currently doing. Matwork could turn into striking, striking could facilitate matwork, suplexes were thrown to get an advantageous mat position. There were a lot of great moments, but I loved when they were battling over leg locks while scrapping and it kept escalating until Danielson was raining down strikes wile their legs were still tied up. The knucklelock elbow exchanges were unconventional and very cool, a spot that looked naturally and in the moment rather than designed to be clever. Garcia's earlier dragon screws were real sick stuff, like we were going to suddenly see Danielson's kneecap floating on a different part of his leg, so Danielson finally stopping it and dishing stomps to Garcia's neck played big. That triangle finish looked murderous, like he couldn't have physically locked it in tighter if he wanted to. This was a killer 10 minutes, and I have no doubt they could have a totally different and equally compelling match at 15, 20, 30 minutes, maybe even longer. The chemistry was too damn good. 

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