AEW Five Fingers of Death 7/1 - 7/7

AEW Dynamite 7/3/24

Bryan Danielson vs PAC

MD: I was trying to figure out an angle on this one because it felt like such a out-of-the-box Danielson match in a lot of ways. The pacing was excellent: feeling out early, appropriate escalation, the focus on the neck but not only the neck as PAC was eager to lay a beating on during the break, both wrestlers capitalizing on momentary bursts of surprising athleticism (PAC's early backflip, Danielson landing on his feet on the German) to set up transitions. The mid-match Brutalizer really let PAC take over, but he went for it a bit too much down the stretch maybe and left himself open for a teeter-totter back-and-forth pin attempt exchange, and Danielson almost always comes out ahead there. All the while, the fans were appreciative of what they were seeing, with all of the equal chants that indicated they were just glad to be there. It was a relatively fresh match, part of a tournament that's focusing on Danielson's neck as much as anything else, and it really got the job done in furthering that story and giving extra weight to Danielson's journey throughout. 

Well and good, right? But not a lot of new ground to break there. That's when it sort of dawned on me. We take this for granted, not as much as maybe we could take it, since we lost Danielson for years already and because we've lost him for stretches even for the last few years, but we still take it for granted nonetheless. This typical Bryan Danielson match, him pressing himself against a game opponent in a way that can only be described as "excellence" is something we're just months away from losing on a weekly basis. We have no idea when he'll be back after he retires. Revolution? Double or Nothing? All In next year? But even an attraction match with him five or six times a year, even with maybe a number of weeks of build, a few tags or trios or the occasional singles match, well, that's not going to be this. This is comfortable, familiar. We don't know if he'll zig or zag at any moment, but we've seen the zigs and we've seen the zags and frankly, either will work for us. And it gives us something I can gladly write up a few times a month, maybe even every week.

This is all going away. It's the final countdown and up until this match, maybe it didn't feel like that for me. Maybe he wins the tournament. Maybe he loses it. Maybe he wins at Wembley or loses or has a dream match on a huge stage against some opponent we haven't even thought of yet. But that could be it. And even if it's not, well, "It" is creeping right around the corner. So no, I don't have anything particularly special to say about this match, but I'm still going to take a beat and appreciate it as much as I can because I don't know how many more of its like I will see. I won't take it for granted because I'm acutely and increasingly aware that this is a luxury we will soon no longer have. We've got the tournament final upcoming. We've got All In next month. Let's appreciate every moment we still have left.