3. VS Roderick Strong (RoH's Vendetta)
Roderick Strong is known for having some of the most vicious and lethal strikes (especially his Ric Flair-like chops that very regularly bust the chests of his opponents open) in the business, and that blends well with Danielson's striking ability, so you know it's going to be physical when these two lock up. The previous week, these two had another match that saw a very heated ending, with Strong appearing to have legitimately knocked Danielson unconscious with a stiff forearm shot to the face. After unsuccessfully trying to roll Danielson's dead weight over, Danielson appears to come to and they brawl for a bit until Dragon absolutely
wrenches an armbar in, causing Strong to tap in about the span of a second. After the match, both men angrily yell at each other, and take turns spitting on each other, as everyone watching wonders about the work/shoot line being destroyed. A week later, and both men are still pissed off, which means we start this match off with all the piss and vinegar you would expect after the finish to their last match. They fight even harder than usual, further making people wonder about the legitimacy of their anger, which only helps to add to the match. Even if they were shooting with their anger, they were going about it in a "I'm going to beat the hell out of you" way, and not in a "I'm trying to end your career, you son of a b***h" way. Professionalism at its best, shoot or not. The finish of the match was something that is usually only used in wrestling for squash matches when you're trying to get some monster character over in his early stages, but it worked well here, with both men trying to strike the other man into oblivion. The average Bryan Danielson match is quite physical, but when he's going into it with this kind of fire, that physicality is exponentially higher.