9 Ups & 9 Downs For AEW In 2022

8. The Cool-Down Of Bryan Danielson

Bryan Danielson is one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, if not the greatest, and he wasn't positioned that way in 2022.

Things might actually be looking up for him, in that he's a good bet to work the Revolution '23 main event, before which he is all but guaranteed to enjoy a huge night at Dynamite's Seattle debut on January 4 - but that doesn't excuse an uneven year in which he lost too many big matches. Danielson likely volunteered to perform one too many jobs, given that he's a selfless and easy-going fellow more interested in building new talent than starring atop the show, but encouraging this lack of ambition is almost as bad as a promoter indulging the worst spot-hungry egotists. It's the other side of that extreme, and while he has entered many outstanding performances, using your imagination, it could have been better. Far better.

Danielson was nothing less than an incredible killer working weekly MOTY candidates last year, but this year, it's almost as if he has skipped several pay-per-view main events and settled into the respected scalp role before his value as a star in and of himself was truly maximised. The other issue with under-utilising a talent like Danielson is that it makes the fans question those who beat him and who enjoy more flattering creative.

Was it too early to push Daniel Garcia? Was Danielson a better candidate to steward the TNT title than Wardlow?

It's another suboptimal byproduct of the greedy roster expansion; Khan has created much too many viable alternative fan-cast booking scenarios, and Danielson is at the centre of most.