6 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Dynamite (11 Jan - Review)

2. Another Tremendous Match

To underscore how good Bryan Danielson is, realistically, he could work 50 matches against Konosuke Takeshita, and this might actually be the worst - and it was still an outstanding effort that very comfortably reached ****.

It was great immediately; Danielson countering a massive Blue Thunder Bomb with a headlock takeover proved his brilliance. He neutralised the size advantage, indicating to Takeshita that he would need to rely on every reserve of spirit to land that elusive, major win. Then, in an incredible spot, Takeshita went back to his power game and rocked Danielson with a blow so hard that the Dragon had to sit down. Danielson can elevate an opponent while sitting on his arse, that's how good he is.

Things threatened to go awry when they blew a spot on the outside. It looked as if they were trying to work a spot in which Takeshita was to catch Danielson's running knee off the apron and nail him with a powerbomb. It didn't work; they each collapsed, but with genius instincts, Danielson immediately fed Takeshita his crushed leg to hand him back the advantage, and they got back on track with Takeshita's gruesome brainbuster on the mats outside.

Danielson is so fantastic at countering unique offence, conveying the idea that he has the answer to everything, even that which a wrestler rarely deploys. This was the case when he got the knees up for Takeshita's stunning springboard senton atomico.

With the fans losing their minds, Danielson and Takeshita traded and countered big head-drops near the finish, which saw Danielson apply the Regal stretch to his unconscious opponent. That spot is going to be tweaked to awesome effect at Revolution.

They shook hands in the aftermath to convey that Danielson respects the best efforts of a motivated opponent, and couldn't respect MJF less.