10 Best Pre-WWE Daniel Bryan Matches

9. VS Takeshi Morishima (RoH's Manhattan Mayhem 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcVL3DJ6GVs When Pro Wrestling NOAH's mountain of a man, Takeshi Morishima, came to Ring Of Honor, fans wondered how he would fare. Sure, he was a solid young worker who was perfecting his Puroresu craft, but he was just so much bigger than pretty much everyone else on the roster. It was a similar problem to what Samoa Joe faced in RoH, where he was just able to use his size and physicality against all comers. Danielson and Morishima had a small handful of singles matches in RoH, but it was their first one, at Manhattan Mayhem 2, that stands out above the rest. This is the infamous match where Danielson had his orbital bone broken and his retina detached by Morishima, and continued wrestling, only to have Morishima continue targeting his eye, probably making the injury ten times worse than it needed to be. Morishima's physical style was a great mix with Danielson's never-say-die gimmick and willingness to take a beating. As we've seen with the Daniel Bryan character, he doesn't back down when he's in the ring with the likes of Mark Henry, Kane, Big Show, Bray Wyatt, or anyone else that towers over him and outweighs him by at least 100 pounds. That means his matches can be booked with a much different formula than the standard "big man VS little man" matches, and this was a showcase of that. Morishima beat the holy hell out of Danielson, but the "American Dragon" delivered some stiff shots, as well. Another thing that makes this match stand out is it flips the script a bit with how wrestling feuds are usually put together. Most of the time, you get two people in a match, but there's no clear winner, or something happens to escalate things. Then their next match is more physical, and perhaps they save the violence for the final match with some sort of wild stipulation. While these two had been in tag matches before, this was their first singles match, and they brought the type of physical brawl that you would expect from people who have been booked to spend years hating each other. Quite the nice breath of fresh air, and it set their next matches together up perfectly.