10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2024

2. Swerve Strickland Vs. Bryan Danielson - AEW All In: London

A career-threatening match, and yes this is incredibly obvious, should incorporate a spot in which the fans believe that the wrestler’s career is over. 

Bryan Danielson - because he is a genius - added an ingenious layer that elevated and made unbearable the feeling that he was actually done. 

In a life-affirming sequence, Swerve Strickland was kicking the piss out of the Dragon. Bryan spotted his young daughter Birdie at ringside. Bryan ate those kicks full-force in the chest as he screamed “I love you so much!” at her. This was exquisite stadium wrestling, the perfect occasion on which to do full-bore melodrama. Dragon fired up. He kicked Swerve even harder. This was amazing, in and of itself, but then Birdie was shown jumping up and down in glee. This was a masterclass of tender sweetness and pro wrestling violence, a tonal mismatch reconciled only through the Dragon’s unparalleled genius. 

Then, Bryan hit the Busaiku knee. Other, lesser wrestlers would have gone straight to the near-fall. Swerve and Bryan operated on a different level. Swerve brushed Dragon’s finisher off. This wasn’t just the Busaiku. It was a Busauku powered by his daughter’s love. 

This was an incredible twist in an all-time emotive match. “Real graps” fused with the height of broad, universal feeling: it was everything at which Danielson has excelled. It was a Bryan Danielson x Daniel Bryan match, almost. 

His career triumph.