AEW Five Fingers of Death 6/24 - 6/30

AEW Forbidden Door 6/30/24

Bryan Danielson vs Shingo Takagi

I was away the last few days and am just playing catch up now. I saw there was an aggravating discussion about bumping and selling going around though. It's probably a little bit overblown and not what anyone who comes here needs, but let me offer a framework nonetheless, as it's relevant to the match in question. Bumping is a truth framed by lies. Selling is a lie framed by truths.

And does Bryan Danielson ever love to lie. Look, I don't know the state of his neck (in this case, the truth framing the lie). Maybe it's hurt due to something that happened in the Ospreay match (Tiger Driver or otherwise) or one of the Forbidden Door TV multi-mans. Maybe it's not even hurt at all! But he's visibly taped up and talking about it in media appearances. It's remained an underlying plot point in Ospreay's journey. And now, with this Shingo match, it's become a centerpiece in Danielson's tournament.

When he faked the injury in the Okada match last year, it was because he was otherwise injured and had to cover for time, up the stakes, find another way to draw in the crowd since he couldn't perform at the level he wanted. He's done it after matches, in between matches (speaking of in between, he had his leg caught in between two rings for the hell of it; remember that?). This time, however, it was built directly into the blueprint of the match, into its very DNA. The lie was the driving force, the original sin that birthed the match's structure and meaning.

At the end of the early feeling out process, Shingo hit a draping, twisting neck drop onto the floor and the trainer checked on Danielson en route to him barely beating the count. Shingo pressed the issue, hitting a series of suplexes (and superplexes), all working towards the big, dramatic kickout with Made In Japan. It should be noted that Shingo, knowing that he should win a battle of attrition due to Danielson's damaged neck, chose moves that took a toll on his body as well. It was a calculated risk and looked like it would pay off towards the end of the match as Danielson could barely get back to his feet.

Bryan Danielson the person and Bryan Danielson the character both love to lie though, and that stumbling, fumbling, spasming sell drew Shingo in so that Danielson could reverse a kill shot into a shifted balance of advantage and momentum that Shingo would not be able to overcome. He did get to kick out of the Knee, a parallel to Danielson surviving Made in Japan, but the match was truly lost the moment that Danielson took a grain of truth (in this case fabricated truth, which may or may not have sat on top of real truth) and lied to his twisted heart's content.

On some level, he has been the boy who plays wolf, but with this match, it's shifted even further. There's a sense of premeditation here that I didn't feel before. It's gone from manslaughter to outright murder of the fans' trust to create a dramatic effect. And deep down, we love to hate and hate to love every second of it, because in a day and age when we know how every trick is performed, when the performers go out of their ways to show us the strings so that we can marvel at how impressive they are and how many stars they deserve, Danielson's looking us right in the eye and lying to us. The absolute bastard. What a guy.