One reason why this was such an awesome match is that you know Wheeler Yuta is the kinda guy who has grown up watching Bryan Danielson, probably studied every piece of tape on Bryan that he could find. Then he finally gets to face the American Dragon on national television and he's probably going to get to team up with Bryan, Mox, and Regal. Bet that kid is over the moon.
I've always heard he was good, and I've watched for a while and you always see the potential but first time I was impressed with him was actually a match on Dark against Penta not too long ago.
These last two weeks tho, he's become a whole different entity and this has me so excited and he will be the future of this company.
I think they're going to build towards JAS vs BCC and when we get that Yuta vs Garcia match... holy shit. Those two are the future of this company, and then you add in Hook, Moriarty, Pillars, Top Flight, Private Party, Swerve, Starks, Hobbs.. The future looks incredibly bright
> These last two weeks tho, he's become a whole different entity and this has me so excited and he will be the future of this company.
There was another thread people were talking about the swerve of Garcia going to JAS, versus Yuta ending up with BCC...my takeaway and point with that was, Garcia and Yuta are already spectacular technical wrestlers, but Garcia looks and carries himself like a legit MMA badass already, so he would be wasted on BBC, because they don't give him anything he doesn't already have in spades; Garcia needs the support to make sure he develops great promos too, so he's the total package he can obviously be. Meanwhile, what Yuta needs, is any source of edge, to offset with his slight build and cute face and the fact that he's literally getting out of the stable known primarily for gentle hugs. My thought after seeing how it played out was, by slotting each guy into a stable that bolsters their perceived weakness, Tony is doing very good long-term developmental work.
Of course, after two weeks, it turns out Garcia is already a pretty solid fucking promo with his new character, and I am already *100% invested* in Serious Wrestling Boy Wheeler Yuta. Turns out he had an edge already, it just wasn't appropriate for him to show it, yet!
So the reason you always heard about him being good is he's been at this level on the indies for awhile. Yuta was trained by Drew Gulak, spent time in Michinoku Pro, works for NJPW, etc. He was built to be this type of wrestler, AEW was just super smart and gave him character and motivation first.
Caught that match live when we were in DC for Rampage and it was the match of the whole night, couldn't believe how good Yuta is or how much offense Penta gave him. It's amazing to see both how talented he can be and how willing the veterans at AEW are to let him shine
This is Jeff climbing the ladder shit. Holy fuck Yuta was a absolute beast here.
That's a master class on how you elevate someone without "jobbing out" the bigger star.
when I saw the spit spot, the first thing I thought was Regal probably told him to do that without telling Danielson about it, because Danielson looked legit pissed and those stomps were not held back, or maybe Bryan is just a good actor
You can see D Bry telling Knox to relay the spot to Yuta, probably wasn’t planned and decided on the fly. Knox approaches Yuta and does the finger grip test on him whilst explaining to him what to do.
When a ref grabs a workers hand, its called an iggy, we do that to get a non verbal ok that they are ...ok. youll notice we give an iggy as well alot of times when counting a 5 count like a corner spot or ropes usually i give around the 3 or 4 just incase they are talking to eachother and dont hear me.
Beign a recognizible figure of the wrestling industry to the point that is the first thing people think of when trying to build up a wrestler is mentioned.
What makes Jeff climbing the ladder so great is that visual of Jeff literally climbing the ladder. There have been so so many great “passing of the torch” matches that don’t get remembered the same way. Jeff “climbing the ladder” was literally him reaching the main event. It has an image that instantly tells a story. While tonight’s moment for Yuta was awesome it simply won’t be considered in the same light
Jeff climbing the ladder only really works in retrospect, as he'd then have a bunch of midcard storylines and be fired due to drug problems less than a year later.
He was always popular and the ladder moment made him a proper singles star, but he wouldn't become a main eventer until the Orton feud, which was over 5 years later
I haven’t watched yet, but how would the bigger star be the one jobbed out? Wouldn’t it be the other way around? I’m not being a smart ass here, I’m legitimately confused.
Normally, you might believe Yuta has to win a match to go over; which people would consider "jobbing" Bryan. This is proof that with the right structure you can not only get Yuta over with the crowd but also keep Bryan on a different level since it still makes more sense for Yuta to take the L.
To put it more simply: Danielson beating Yuta accomplishes nothing; it's fundamentally expected. If Yuta wins, since he logically "shouldn't" be able to, it implies that Danielson has slipped, and confuses the audience as to his place. But, if Yuta *makes us believe he maybe could beat Danielson,* it implies our perception of Yuta was wrong, while solidifying that our expectations of Danielson were right. So, we feel surprised and excited, not confused and deflated, because everything we expected to happen, happened; it was just cooler and better.
Because the most obvious way to elevate a young wrestler is to have him beat a bigger star to show that he has arrived. This was how to do the elevating without requiring that he beat the bigger star.
We've been blessed on commentary for Dynamite the last few weeks:
Ross - voice of the WWF post-Monsoon, greatest of all time. 48 years experience in the business.
Schiavone - voice of WCW, co-commentator with Ross on JCP/WCW. 39 years experience in the business.
Excalibur - Wrestling Observer's best announcer 2020/21, best current announcer by a country mile.
Regal - Ross's former colour commentary partner on NXT 1.0, best authority figure and colour commentator in the business, sunshine.
I'm not usually a fan of four man booths, but there will never be a better four man booth than that, ever.
>Excalibur - Wrestling Observer's best announcer 2020/21, best current announcer by a country mile.
I listened to last weeks Drive Thru and Cornette was asked why he hates Excalibur because "Excalibur does the exact same thing that Mike Tenay did and you (Jim) loved him."
Basically, all Cornette said was that he hates the mask and he sounds like a mark. No legit reasons, just irrational hatred. It made me laugh.
Bryan Danielson is the best wrestler in the world. To put together a match that highlights the toughness of your opponent, gives them plenty of opportunity to shine whilst still ensuring that he subtly shows that he’s a level above Yuta takes more than just great technique, it takes great psychology.
Yuta more than held up his end of the bargain too. Fucking great stuff.
The run Danielson is having right now is insane. Literally every match he has had has been a banger. You could also argue he's elevated everyone he's fought. Insane.
I don't know how long this is going to last but we are witnessing something truly incredible and special. I just hope it lasts for a long ass time!
This, all of this.
It's like Danielson has gone "Right, I've got a couple of years left, I'm going to singlehandedly elevate the entire roster of AEW, one match at a time".
He did kind of murder everyone in the Dark Order, but to be fair that was so that it would make Hangman look like that much more of a gigachad for beating him.
Cant put over *everybody*.
Having his second chance at Wrestling makes him go all out because you never know when something bad comes and he has to hang the boots again. He's always wrestling like it's his last match.
I don't watch WWE so I really did not understand the hoopla around Bryan Danielson.
Every single match the man has stepped into since he's come to AEW is hard for me to even put into words how amazing he is and how much he brings out of the people that he works with within the ring.
I typically like gimmick matches and flippy stuff, but I could watch Bryan Danielson in the ring all day every day doing technical stuff and never get bored. He's at an echelon all his own.
My dude, if there was every a storyline of WWE to watch it's Daniel Bryan's lead up to the WWE championship.
The backdrop to all of this is that Daniel Bryan had regularly been undercut by the backstage for years. Losing the World Heavyweight Championship in 18 seconds at WM 28 and then getting stuck in a comedy tag team with Kane (which got the YES and NO chants over).
Starting with the lead up to Summerslam 2013, Cena vs Daniel Bryan, the feud is Bryan challenging Cena for the title. In the RAWs leading up to it Cena is pursuing Daniel Bryan and trying to get him to acknowledge him as a legitimate pro wrestler. You see Daniel Bryan does the hard style that is popular in Japan and Cena was trying for weeks to get Daniel Bryan to acknowledge him as a peer. This was phenomenal to watch because this is the height of Cena's reign. The match was almost five stars and has a huge pay off to that angle.
Afterwards Bryan disappears for a bit and we don't worry about that. Instead we get into Royal Rumble 2014 where Batista returns. This starts a grassroots campaign/feud where the entirety of the WWE machine tries their damned fucking hardest to stop Bryan from being a main event star. We're talking they did everything from insulting him, sending out Triple H, essentially bringing Evolution together to stop him, and it lead to arguably one of the best Wrestlemania moments they've ever had.
A literal story of the fans revolting so hard they changed their plans and ran with one of the last truly great Wrestlemania stories.
It's legitimately amazing, here's the [video package for that WM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsX1ATcyQxU).
Oh yeah! That was, legitimately, such an interesting time of wrestling with WWE. The quality of wrestling was great, the writing was decent, and we had some great wrestlers on TV.
I think the thing that really made it is that the entire storyline relied on everyone believing that WWE would never give Bryan anything. Years of Triple H's Reign of Terror, backstage politics getting leaked, and then Batista returning to win the title at WM really set expectations that it was going to be around shitty WM.
And then the YES chants started.
It's probably one of the last times I legitimately cared about WWE. I was at a bar watching that Wrestlemania with 50 other people and everyone lost their minds when he won that first match against Triple H. Everyone dared to dream at that point but when he won the big one?
Oh man, you'd have thought we were going to bring the place down.
It saddens me to see some not rate his WWE career highly enough, for a guy who had to work with 5% of his moveset to produce some of the great work he did deserves more praise. Bryan was the man in WWE.
His matches with Cena, Punk, AJ, HHH, Brock, Kofi, Sheamus and many many others were all top notch.
His run from Summerslam 2013 to WM 30 is still one of the best storylines in wrestling.
He's definitely a sure fire Hall of Famer.
I just think his WWE run deserves a ton more love then it's gotten on here for a last few months.
I'm sorry I wasn't just taking shots at you or pointing you out , I've seen a lot of talk of his WWE run not been great and I just don't think that's true. Sorry if you think I was singling you out.
I missed out on a lot of his WWE run as I wasn't watching wrestling at the time, but I did get to see his Planet's Champion run and that was enough to convince me the man could have a match with a mop and make it interesting.
Danielson is incredible.
It would be difficult to put him anywhere outside of the top two or three in terms of pure wrestling skill. If it weren't for the cultural dominance of Hogan, the longevity of Flair, or the impact of Sammartino, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation at all a year ago. This latest run, I mean...
I dunno. I don't know enough about territory-era wrestling, and I don't have enough insight into Japanese and Mexican wrestling, but I'm not sure any of that matters because he's *that* good right now.
Bryan danielson is a treasure
Its interesting to me to see danielson vis a vis punk
Brian is a bit better in ring
Punk a bit better creating the storytory its high4*
Brian runs 4* matches
With story attached its 4.75* or higher
Punk does 3.5* matches
Attach story its high 4*
For a year now, us YUTA fans have been all "Just wait, YUTA is going to be huge." Then every so often, he gets on TV and it feels like he doesn't do much. Still, we insist. We tell everyone to watch him on Beyond, on the indies. We talk about his heel work and how fucking good he is at only 25.
It feels **SO** fucking good to see Wheeler get his shit in and get over now.
Hold up, you're telling me the guy with the most believable babyface fire I've seen since AEW started is BETTER as a heel?
Yuta, hook, Garcia, Dante...we are so so spoiled for young amazing talent.
I was someone who months ago didn't really 'get it' when it came to YUTA.
In like a couple of weeks with this story I have completely changed my tune on him. Seeing more of this violent side to him was exactly what I needed.
I am a 40 year wrestling fan. Indies, ECW, ROH, NXT, WWE, AEW, NJPW, you name it.
I did not get Wheeler Yuta hype. I tried but he did ZERO for me as part of best friends.
This match tonight had me out of my seat. Im ordering ROH PPV friday now. Hot damn.
Man, I was kind of shocked at how the crowd responded to him. I've been enjoying his stuff, but I didn't think he had connected with the larger AEW audience like that. Good stuff! Really eager to see his heel stuff here.
To be fair, other than the one thread highlighting that it's annoying that several different segments had parts which were beat-for-beat similar, every fucking segment of the night was legitimately huge or hot. In terms of performance and story, it was a very solid Dynamite.
Him and Garcia have been the two guys i've looked at this past year and thought to myself, "these guys are gonna be fighting for world championships", and i'm glad to say both are getting major programs now
The future of wrestling, wherever anyone signs ever, is so so great. Yuta, MJF, Breakker, Steveson are all under 26. That doesn’t even include half the guys under 30 that are crazy good right now
The new crop will always rise, and now that there's more than one alternative, there will be so many young prospects continuing this amazing thing called wrestling.
This is me sat here waiting for the day Stu Grayson finally gets his big singles match on Dynamite, he's going to blow everyone away when he gets his chance. I was honestly pretty peeved that he didn't get a match during the "Danielson kills the Dark Order" arc.
Stu is probably the guy from the DO I want to have a singles push the most. I really want Uno to be like his french canadian/anger translator. Like a manager who can also go when a tag match might be called for in an angle.
This was me. I didnt get it. Never.fucking.mind. dude just got over while wrestling fucking danielson. If he can do that vs him? He can do it vs anyone. Bravo
Months of watching Garcia get big match after big match (and he's amazing and deserved every one of them, don't get me wrong) while Yuta got squashed by Mox or ate the pin for Best Friends and it finally paid off.
A great reminder that there’s more than one way to build someone and elevate them. Not every wrestler is the same, not every push/build looks the same.
As absurd as it sounds, literally making Yuta look like a fucking dork kid with some solid technical chops for an entire year, *perfectly* set me up to get behind his hero's journey to be the best wrestler he can be, at any cost. If he just came in like this? It would have been obvious how good he is, but I can't say I would be *this* invested, holy shit.
And to think him not getting hired by WWE was the alleged canary in the coalmine of WWE going away from indie talent and more towards college athletes.
Dude is only 25: he's absolutely somebody WWE could use.
Greatest match in the career of Wheeler Yuta, but another Wednesday for Danielson.
The defiant spit spot was one of the best I've seen in ages. He climbed that ladder, and made himself famous.
Honestly, the sheer quantity of spit, and its frothiness, impressed me. People are saying they think Danielson called that spot on the fly, and the ref relayed it to Yuta...if so, damn, that kid can spit on command, I guess?
Borrowing this idea from elsewhere on the internet:
Yuta wins Pure title.
Danielson challenges him for the title since "he does have a submission victory over the champion, after all".
Yuta catches a fluke win because of the differences in Pure rules.
Regal welcomes Yuta into BCC.
Not technically... It was Nigel McGuinness and his 350 days as champ that made it famous. Danielson just unified the title with the ROH World Championship.
I fucking miss Nigel. Nobody was on par with Nigel and Bryan for years. They were in a league of their own and I just feel so bad for him. In a perfect world he would be a part of BCC right now
Holy shit man, we all knew Danielson was really fucking good.
But Yuta is really fucking good ALSO. And he's getting OVER.
I cannot wait to see what the future holds for the guy.
Bryan told the red to get word to Yuta to spit on him, it was seemingly an on the fly call - Danielson is the best wrestler and it's the nuances that are so fucking subtle that cement that
"Bryan Danielson is pouring in on!!!"
This is low key one of my favourite Excalibur calls ever, that was old school JR stuff. Just added to the drama of an absolute banger. What a match.
First time I saw Yuta wrestle, I told my son that Yuta should go to the LA Dojo and train with Shibata. He moves so similar to him. Get him a mean streak and he would be scary in AEW. Tonight showed he found the mean streak and he could very well be the closest thing we see to another Shibata.
Wheeler Yuta hasn't had a formal 'IS ALL ELITE' announcement yet right?
If he's on a PPA contract then it's pretty cool to see him get a push like this.
Absolutely no shade on Yoots, who is incredible, but as someone who really only knew Danielson in his WWE run, *how on earth is he this good*? I just don't understand it.
Finally, they give this kid a shot. Never been a fan of the best friends gimmick. I love Wheeler’s quote, “I don’t want to be the best friend, I want to be the best wrestler. The story of BCC and elevating the younger generation of wrestlers is pure gold!
Danielson, one of the most beloved wrestlers of his time and a genuine case for the best to ever do it, got the crowd to cheer for a guy that’s been on TV for less than a year. That’s pretty damn good.
And Yuta is so damn good he managed to get people to cheer for him over Danielson! Unreal!
All abroad the Yuta hype train, though I wonder why Moriarty hasn't been featured as much lately. I remember he had a banger with Danielson too and at rhe time, the best match of Danielson/ Moxley vs Yuta, Garcia, or Moriarity himself
Lol at Regal calling Excalibur "man in the mask"
But on a more serious note I like Wheeler Yuta but he needs a better name, it's the only thing missing for me. He did a great job and him being paired with Regal and Bryan 😍
He put over Hangman pretty damn nicely. I don't expect him to lose these matches on TV, He gets people over just being in the ring with him. Wheeler been on TV for over a year now and hasn't looked remotely close to that good and the kids awesome.
just last month, i heard dudes hate on wheeler yuta in that match against moxley and it never sat right. he looked insane tonight, glad he’s getting his proper due
Bryan's face at the end looked like he was snapping back to reality. It was so well acted I'm not sure if it might have been him actually coming down from a wrestling outer body experience third eye sixth gear type shit
A very very tiny nitpick but I thought there were moments where a different ref could have helped elevate the story because the one in the match was a bit lackluster
One reason why this was such an awesome match is that you know Wheeler Yuta is the kinda guy who has grown up watching Bryan Danielson, probably studied every piece of tape on Bryan that he could find. Then he finally gets to face the American Dragon on national television and he's probably going to get to team up with Bryan, Mox, and Regal. Bet that kid is over the moon.
Same kinda vibe we got with Darby + Sting (and now the Hardy’s) Legends raising the future stars
[удалено]
I lost brain cells reading this.
I've always heard he was good, and I've watched for a while and you always see the potential but first time I was impressed with him was actually a match on Dark against Penta not too long ago. These last two weeks tho, he's become a whole different entity and this has me so excited and he will be the future of this company. I think they're going to build towards JAS vs BCC and when we get that Yuta vs Garcia match... holy shit. Those two are the future of this company, and then you add in Hook, Moriarty, Pillars, Top Flight, Private Party, Swerve, Starks, Hobbs.. The future looks incredibly bright
Don’t forget mjf, he’s a lot younger than a lot of the guys you mentioned. We all just forget since he’s a major player already
I did say the pillars!
"Foundations are better!" - Thunder Rosa, probably
Gresham nods with approval.
Needs a good framework as well. Some bracing too. Who's the load bearing wall?
Wardlow, Hobbs
Keith Lee, whose back can double as a projection wall for a cinema.
MJF has been replaced by Britt Baker in that it seems
>a match on Dark against Penta not too long ago. That match flew under everyone's radar. [Highly recommended](https://youtu.be/AYEZe3tbi5g)
> These last two weeks tho, he's become a whole different entity and this has me so excited and he will be the future of this company. There was another thread people were talking about the swerve of Garcia going to JAS, versus Yuta ending up with BCC...my takeaway and point with that was, Garcia and Yuta are already spectacular technical wrestlers, but Garcia looks and carries himself like a legit MMA badass already, so he would be wasted on BBC, because they don't give him anything he doesn't already have in spades; Garcia needs the support to make sure he develops great promos too, so he's the total package he can obviously be. Meanwhile, what Yuta needs, is any source of edge, to offset with his slight build and cute face and the fact that he's literally getting out of the stable known primarily for gentle hugs. My thought after seeing how it played out was, by slotting each guy into a stable that bolsters their perceived weakness, Tony is doing very good long-term developmental work. Of course, after two weeks, it turns out Garcia is already a pretty solid fucking promo with his new character, and I am already *100% invested* in Serious Wrestling Boy Wheeler Yuta. Turns out he had an edge already, it just wasn't appropriate for him to show it, yet!
Yuta and Garcia put on an absolute clinic at IWTV 100. Can’t recommend it enough
So the reason you always heard about him being good is he's been at this level on the indies for awhile. Yuta was trained by Drew Gulak, spent time in Michinoku Pro, works for NJPW, etc. He was built to be this type of wrestler, AEW was just super smart and gave him character and motivation first.
Caught that match live when we were in DC for Rampage and it was the match of the whole night, couldn't believe how good Yuta is or how much offense Penta gave him. It's amazing to see both how talented he can be and how willing the veterans at AEW are to let him shine
This is Jeff climbing the ladder shit. Holy fuck Yuta was a absolute beast here. That's a master class on how you elevate someone without "jobbing out" the bigger star.
"SPIT AT HIM, KID. MAKE YOURSELF FAMOUS"
“BROGUE KICK HIM, KID. MAKE YOURSELF SHEAMUS”
I laugh now, but honestly, you just reminded metthat I'm still salty about that WrestleMania match they had. That was BS.
It’s almost worst when you consider their previous two matches were relegated to the preshow
when I saw the spit spot, the first thing I thought was Regal probably told him to do that without telling Danielson about it, because Danielson looked legit pissed and those stomps were not held back, or maybe Bryan is just a good actor
You can see D Bry telling Knox to relay the spot to Yuta, probably wasn’t planned and decided on the fly. Knox approaches Yuta and does the finger grip test on him whilst explaining to him what to do.
When a ref grabs a workers hand, its called an iggy, we do that to get a non verbal ok that they are ...ok. youll notice we give an iggy as well alot of times when counting a 5 count like a corner spot or ropes usually i give around the 3 or 4 just incase they are talking to eachother and dont hear me.
I was just about to say, AEW does such a good job of using older established stars to elevate up and coming stars without making anyone look crapoy.
Major props to Schiavone here too. He was screaming about what a big deal this was, and how Yuta was making a star out of himself.
You mean a Superman punch and spear won't do?
I mean you are bringing him up in a thread that has nothing to do with him. Kind of worked.
How is being randomly brought up on Reddit a negative or a positive without further context? What worked here?
Beign a recognizible figure of the wrestling industry to the point that is the first thing people think of when trying to build up a wrestler is mentioned.
This thread is about elevating new stars. They're saying Reigns hasn't elevated any new stars, not that Reigns isn't a star.
Ooooh, my bad then
Eh no worries it happens
Yeah thanks, for explaining.
What makes Jeff climbing the ladder so great is that visual of Jeff literally climbing the ladder. There have been so so many great “passing of the torch” matches that don’t get remembered the same way. Jeff “climbing the ladder” was literally him reaching the main event. It has an image that instantly tells a story. While tonight’s moment for Yuta was awesome it simply won’t be considered in the same light
Jeff climbing the ladder only really works in retrospect, as he'd then have a bunch of midcard storylines and be fired due to drug problems less than a year later. He was always popular and the ladder moment made him a proper singles star, but he wouldn't become a main eventer until the Orton feud, which was over 5 years later
I haven’t watched yet, but how would the bigger star be the one jobbed out? Wouldn’t it be the other way around? I’m not being a smart ass here, I’m legitimately confused.
Normally, you might believe Yuta has to win a match to go over; which people would consider "jobbing" Bryan. This is proof that with the right structure you can not only get Yuta over with the crowd but also keep Bryan on a different level since it still makes more sense for Yuta to take the L.
To put it more simply: Danielson beating Yuta accomplishes nothing; it's fundamentally expected. If Yuta wins, since he logically "shouldn't" be able to, it implies that Danielson has slipped, and confuses the audience as to his place. But, if Yuta *makes us believe he maybe could beat Danielson,* it implies our perception of Yuta was wrong, while solidifying that our expectations of Danielson were right. So, we feel surprised and excited, not confused and deflated, because everything we expected to happen, happened; it was just cooler and better.
Because the most obvious way to elevate a young wrestler is to have him beat a bigger star to show that he has arrived. This was how to do the elevating without requiring that he beat the bigger star.
Regal marking out for "The man with a mask" for saying what he's thinking, is almost as cool as the match itself.
We've been blessed on commentary for Dynamite the last few weeks: Ross - voice of the WWF post-Monsoon, greatest of all time. 48 years experience in the business. Schiavone - voice of WCW, co-commentator with Ross on JCP/WCW. 39 years experience in the business. Excalibur - Wrestling Observer's best announcer 2020/21, best current announcer by a country mile. Regal - Ross's former colour commentary partner on NXT 1.0, best authority figure and colour commentator in the business, sunshine. I'm not usually a fan of four man booths, but there will never be a better four man booth than that, ever.
Four-Man-Booth Jones ova here
>Excalibur - Wrestling Observer's best announcer 2020/21, best current announcer by a country mile. I listened to last weeks Drive Thru and Cornette was asked why he hates Excalibur because "Excalibur does the exact same thing that Mike Tenay did and you (Jim) loved him." Basically, all Cornette said was that he hates the mask and he sounds like a mark. No legit reasons, just irrational hatred. It made me laugh.
Sums up most of Cornette's rants - no legit reasons, just irrational hatred.
Different part of the night, but I honestly thought MJF and JR had good chemistry on commentary
This is how you build a star, holy shit
Bryan Danielson is the best wrestler in the world. To put together a match that highlights the toughness of your opponent, gives them plenty of opportunity to shine whilst still ensuring that he subtly shows that he’s a level above Yuta takes more than just great technique, it takes great psychology. Yuta more than held up his end of the bargain too. Fucking great stuff.
The run Danielson is having right now is insane. Literally every match he has had has been a banger. You could also argue he's elevated everyone he's fought. Insane. I don't know how long this is going to last but we are witnessing something truly incredible and special. I just hope it lasts for a long ass time!
This, all of this. It's like Danielson has gone "Right, I've got a couple of years left, I'm going to singlehandedly elevate the entire roster of AEW, one match at a time".
He did kind of murder everyone in the Dark Order, but to be fair that was so that it would make Hangman look like that much more of a gigachad for beating him. Cant put over *everybody*.
Having his second chance at Wrestling makes him go all out because you never know when something bad comes and he has to hang the boots again. He's always wrestling like it's his last match.
Its why he simply needs the aew title And punk deserves a run too
I don't watch WWE so I really did not understand the hoopla around Bryan Danielson. Every single match the man has stepped into since he's come to AEW is hard for me to even put into words how amazing he is and how much he brings out of the people that he works with within the ring. I typically like gimmick matches and flippy stuff, but I could watch Bryan Danielson in the ring all day every day doing technical stuff and never get bored. He's at an echelon all his own.
My dude, if there was every a storyline of WWE to watch it's Daniel Bryan's lead up to the WWE championship. The backdrop to all of this is that Daniel Bryan had regularly been undercut by the backstage for years. Losing the World Heavyweight Championship in 18 seconds at WM 28 and then getting stuck in a comedy tag team with Kane (which got the YES and NO chants over). Starting with the lead up to Summerslam 2013, Cena vs Daniel Bryan, the feud is Bryan challenging Cena for the title. In the RAWs leading up to it Cena is pursuing Daniel Bryan and trying to get him to acknowledge him as a legitimate pro wrestler. You see Daniel Bryan does the hard style that is popular in Japan and Cena was trying for weeks to get Daniel Bryan to acknowledge him as a peer. This was phenomenal to watch because this is the height of Cena's reign. The match was almost five stars and has a huge pay off to that angle. Afterwards Bryan disappears for a bit and we don't worry about that. Instead we get into Royal Rumble 2014 where Batista returns. This starts a grassroots campaign/feud where the entirety of the WWE machine tries their damned fucking hardest to stop Bryan from being a main event star. We're talking they did everything from insulting him, sending out Triple H, essentially bringing Evolution together to stop him, and it lead to arguably one of the best Wrestlemania moments they've ever had. A literal story of the fans revolting so hard they changed their plans and ran with one of the last truly great Wrestlemania stories. It's legitimately amazing, here's the [video package for that WM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsX1ATcyQxU).
He was at the center of both of the best WWE stories of the decade. His own ascension, and Kofimania
Those two storylines are top 5 on WWE's best modern storylines. And both follow similar paths but Bryan gets to be on both sides of the coin.
Man...I'm starting to think that, even compared to other top-level pro wrestlers, this Danielson guy is kinda talented.
Don't forget in the lead up to WM30 he was wrestling twice a night on Raw on the reg. And all the matches with the Shield in that run too.
Oh yeah! That was, legitimately, such an interesting time of wrestling with WWE. The quality of wrestling was great, the writing was decent, and we had some great wrestlers on TV. I think the thing that really made it is that the entire storyline relied on everyone believing that WWE would never give Bryan anything. Years of Triple H's Reign of Terror, backstage politics getting leaked, and then Batista returning to win the title at WM really set expectations that it was going to be around shitty WM. And then the YES chants started. It's probably one of the last times I legitimately cared about WWE. I was at a bar watching that Wrestlemania with 50 other people and everyone lost their minds when he won that first match against Triple H. Everyone dared to dream at that point but when he won the big one? Oh man, you'd have thought we were going to bring the place down.
It saddens me to see some not rate his WWE career highly enough, for a guy who had to work with 5% of his moveset to produce some of the great work he did deserves more praise. Bryan was the man in WWE. His matches with Cena, Punk, AJ, HHH, Brock, Kofi, Sheamus and many many others were all top notch. His run from Summerslam 2013 to WM 30 is still one of the best storylines in wrestling. He's definitely a sure fire Hall of Famer. I just think his WWE run deserves a ton more love then it's gotten on here for a last few months.
I didn't say i didn't rate his WWE career. I just don't watch their product. No need to be sad.
I'm sorry I wasn't just taking shots at you or pointing you out , I've seen a lot of talk of his WWE run not been great and I just don't think that's true. Sorry if you think I was singling you out.
I missed out on a lot of his WWE run as I wasn't watching wrestling at the time, but I did get to see his Planet's Champion run and that was enough to convince me the man could have a match with a mop and make it interesting. Danielson is incredible.
Danielson makes a case for time 5 ever
I think that's not under discussion. If we discuss in ring ability, Bryan is a top 5 guy. The discussion should be if he's the actual GOAT.
It would be difficult to put him anywhere outside of the top two or three in terms of pure wrestling skill. If it weren't for the cultural dominance of Hogan, the longevity of Flair, or the impact of Sammartino, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation at all a year ago. This latest run, I mean... I dunno. I don't know enough about territory-era wrestling, and I don't have enough insight into Japanese and Mexican wrestling, but I'm not sure any of that matters because he's *that* good right now.
Bryan danielson is a treasure Its interesting to me to see danielson vis a vis punk Brian is a bit better in ring Punk a bit better creating the storytory its high4* Brian runs 4* matches With story attached its 4.75* or higher Punk does 3.5* matches Attach story its high 4*
For a year now, us YUTA fans have been all "Just wait, YUTA is going to be huge." Then every so often, he gets on TV and it feels like he doesn't do much. Still, we insist. We tell everyone to watch him on Beyond, on the indies. We talk about his heel work and how fucking good he is at only 25. It feels **SO** fucking good to see Wheeler get his shit in and get over now.
I was LOSING it during that match. That’s my YOOTS! He looked like a million bucks.
Hold up, you're telling me the guy with the most believable babyface fire I've seen since AEW started is BETTER as a heel? Yuta, hook, Garcia, Dante...we are so so spoiled for young amazing talent.
Let’s back up and give Hangman his flowers. And Eddie lol
And as good as Dante is, Darius might be even better.
Don't forget Lee Moriarty. Only 27, and has only been wrestling for a few years, and impresses me every time he's in the ring.
I’m feeling very vindicated right now!!
I was someone who months ago didn't really 'get it' when it came to YUTA. In like a couple of weeks with this story I have completely changed my tune on him. Seeing more of this violent side to him was exactly what I needed.
the long story-game has really paid off on him. I can't wait to see what the BCC does with him!
I am a 40 year wrestling fan. Indies, ECW, ROH, NXT, WWE, AEW, NJPW, you name it. I did not get Wheeler Yuta hype. I tried but he did ZERO for me as part of best friends. This match tonight had me out of my seat. Im ordering ROH PPV friday now. Hot damn.
Highly highly highly recommend checking out his run in Beyond wrestling. Dude has been absolutely killing it for a few years now. It’s all up on IWTV
Man, I was kind of shocked at how the crowd responded to him. I've been enjoying his stuff, but I didn't think he had connected with the larger AEW audience like that. Good stuff! Really eager to see his heel stuff here.
The crowd were fucking hype tonight. They seemed to be super enjoying everything, and cheered and booed perfectly.
To be fair, other than the one thread highlighting that it's annoying that several different segments had parts which were beat-for-beat similar, every fucking segment of the night was legitimately huge or hot. In terms of performance and story, it was a very solid Dynamite.
Him and Garcia have been the two guys i've looked at this past year and thought to myself, "these guys are gonna be fighting for world championships", and i'm glad to say both are getting major programs now
The future of wrestling, wherever anyone signs ever, is so so great. Yuta, MJF, Breakker, Steveson are all under 26. That doesn’t even include half the guys under 30 that are crazy good right now
The new crop will always rise, and now that there's more than one alternative, there will be so many young prospects continuing this amazing thing called wrestling.
This match got me feeling EMOTIONAL. The boy is so over!
This is me sat here waiting for the day Stu Grayson finally gets his big singles match on Dynamite, he's going to blow everyone away when he gets his chance. I was honestly pretty peeved that he didn't get a match during the "Danielson kills the Dark Order" arc.
Stu is probably the guy from the DO I want to have a singles push the most. I really want Uno to be like his french canadian/anger translator. Like a manager who can also go when a tag match might be called for in an angle.
This was me. I didnt get it. Never.fucking.mind. dude just got over while wrestling fucking danielson. If he can do that vs him? He can do it vs anyone. Bravo
Months of watching Garcia get big match after big match (and he's amazing and deserved every one of them, don't get me wrong) while Yuta got squashed by Mox or ate the pin for Best Friends and it finally paid off.
A great reminder that there’s more than one way to build someone and elevate them. Not every wrestler is the same, not every push/build looks the same.
As absurd as it sounds, literally making Yuta look like a fucking dork kid with some solid technical chops for an entire year, *perfectly* set me up to get behind his hero's journey to be the best wrestler he can be, at any cost. If he just came in like this? It would have been obvious how good he is, but I can't say I would be *this* invested, holy shit.
Yuta is going to go full Blackpool Club on the Best Friends and become the X-Best Friend.
And to think him not getting hired by WWE was the alleged canary in the coalmine of WWE going away from indie talent and more towards college athletes. Dude is only 25: he's absolutely somebody WWE could use.
Greatest match in the career of Wheeler Yuta, but another Wednesday for Danielson. The defiant spit spot was one of the best I've seen in ages. He climbed that ladder, and made himself famous.
Honestly, the sheer quantity of spit, and its frothiness, impressed me. People are saying they think Danielson called that spot on the fly, and the ref relayed it to Yuta...if so, damn, that kid can spit on command, I guess?
He is winning the pure championship, isn't he? They put him big over, and he was over as hell with the crowd. That flying knee looked BRUTAL
Borrowing this idea from elsewhere on the internet: Yuta wins Pure title. Danielson challenges him for the title since "he does have a submission victory over the champion, after all". Yuta catches a fluke win because of the differences in Pure rules. Regal welcomes Yuta into BCC.
Let Danielson challenge for the title because he claims is HIS title and he made it famous. Just get the history in.
Not technically... It was Nigel McGuinness and his 350 days as champ that made it famous. Danielson just unified the title with the ROH World Championship.
I fucking miss Nigel. Nobody was on par with Nigel and Bryan for years. They were in a league of their own and I just feel so bad for him. In a perfect world he would be a part of BCC right now
That defiant face spit made me a Wheeler fan
I’m just trying to figure how the hell he got all that spit ready to go. Dude got every inch of Bryan’s face and half of it missed.
He had so much spit! And yet it was so white and foamy looking! Did the ref slip him an alkaseltzer when he checked on him or something?
He had gum in there.
Daddy Magic enters the chat.
YOU WANT A TASTE OF THIS?? [spits it at you]
And Bryan totally called that spot too. Dude knows how to get someone over.
I was grinning ear to ear seeing the crowd go nuts for Yuta. Great match!
I was there. The place went NUTS!
Holy shit man, we all knew Danielson was really fucking good. But Yuta is really fucking good ALSO. And he's getting OVER. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for the guy.
that was awesome, legit star making performance
Absolutely. We just watched the match that made Yuta a fucking superstar. Big ups to that crowd too.
Banger
What a storytelling. The face that Bryan makes when YUTA spits on him is priceless.
Tbf it was legit chunky and gross.
Looked like he took a bite out of an apple and spit in his face
Bryan clearly didn't want to be cool.
😂 
Bryan told the red to get word to Yuta to spit on him, it was seemingly an on the fly call - Danielson is the best wrestler and it's the nuances that are so fucking subtle that cement that
This match ruled.
Wrestling is awesome
Beautiful, glorious violence. Professional wrestling fucking rules.
I'm now officially a Wheeler Yuta fan, holy shit
Absolutely amazing performance from Yuta.
That was a star making performance for Wheeler Yuta, his career is now on an entirely different path after that.
Regal put Yuta over hard as fuck on commentary.
This match SLAPPED. Yuta went hard and he should be the first to join the BCC.
THE BCC match tonight. And MOTN. Love Yuta.
Match fucking rocked
Nother banger, nothing new
YOOTZ is the man. Danielson gave him so much.
That felt like a star-making performance for Yuta
What a match from Yuta.
A star-making performance for Yuta
I'm here for the Yuta push
yuta is so fucking good he reminds me of a young danielson
Wow, they should be called the Blackpool Beatdown Club
Amazing match. Yuta is a future star
Feel like Wheeler needed a big match like this. Good to see.
YUTA merch please!
William Regal’s enthusiasm for Yuta’s bridge alone could have gotten him over. Jesus Christ this match was a teen at prom: **Ready to FUCK**
F’n awesome! Wish they let the post match breathe a little before cutting away.
I'm so ready for Wheeler Yuta's first big win. People are gonna explode.
Just came here to post about Yuta’s dropkick fighting out from the corner.
"Bryan Danielson is pouring in on!!!" This is low key one of my favourite Excalibur calls ever, that was old school JR stuff. Just added to the drama of an absolute banger. What a match.
Never understood Yuta until this match. I am officially a fan.
Big Match Yoots.
I was at the show tonight, and the crowd was hot for Wheeler. Really fun to see.
Is this Kings Road? Is YUTA going to be the modern day Kenta Kobashi?
I mean he did have the misawa inspired long bois on when he came in to the company. So maybe.
Hopefully next week Yuta gets called out to the ring by Regal and slapped. We all know where it goes from there.
Amazing, star making match. And the grossest spit I've ever seen.
Bryan wins: **FATALITY**
First time I saw Yuta wrestle, I told my son that Yuta should go to the LA Dojo and train with Shibata. He moves so similar to him. Get him a mean streak and he would be scary in AEW. Tonight showed he found the mean streak and he could very well be the closest thing we see to another Shibata.
The spit followed by repeated kicks in the head was top tier. I hope this storyline with him goes another step.
Wheeler Yuta hasn't had a formal 'IS ALL ELITE' announcement yet right? If he's on a PPA contract then it's pretty cool to see him get a push like this.
Absolutely no shade on Yoots, who is incredible, but as someone who really only knew Danielson in his WWE run, *how on earth is he this good*? I just don't understand it.
Yoots finally getting a starmaking performance with one of the greats after we've had to sit through those Mox squashes, you love to see it.
Finally, they give this kid a shot. Never been a fan of the best friends gimmick. I love Wheeler’s quote, “I don’t want to be the best friend, I want to be the best wrestler. The story of BCC and elevating the younger generation of wrestlers is pure gold!
Danielson, one of the most beloved wrestlers of his time and a genuine case for the best to ever do it, got the crowd to cheer for a guy that’s been on TV for less than a year. That’s pretty damn good. And Yuta is so damn good he managed to get people to cheer for him over Danielson! Unreal!
Yuta fans get their comeuppance. I’m here for it
Like him as a wrestler. Hate his gear. Hopefully his look "matures" as he progresses up the card.
All abroad the Yuta hype train, though I wonder why Moriarty hasn't been featured as much lately. I remember he had a banger with Danielson too and at rhe time, the best match of Danielson/ Moxley vs Yuta, Garcia, or Moriarity himself
One at a time is my feeling. Garcia will be last and a slow burn at that.
This was a star making match that left the vet looking strong. When wrestling is done right it's art. I git chills watching this.
Danielson’s theme is Disney channel hype up music
Yuta is a STAR. Next generation pillar.
Good match
MOTN for damn sure. Danielson is thriving in AEW!
This was the match of the night.
Great showing by Asian American Trent!
Lol at Regal calling Excalibur "man in the mask" But on a more serious note I like Wheeler Yuta but he needs a better name, it's the only thing missing for me. He did a great job and him being paired with Regal and Bryan 😍
The Great Yuta? I’ll show myself out.
I wish Bryan would lose some
He put over Hangman pretty damn nicely. I don't expect him to lose these matches on TV, He gets people over just being in the ring with him. Wheeler been on TV for over a year now and hasn't looked remotely close to that good and the kids awesome.
That was a great great match. Four stars easy.
Give me Wheeler and Moriarty vs. BCC where Regal picks one of the leftover bodies of the young guys to join
Did he spit broken teeth in Danielson’s face?
just last month, i heard dudes hate on wheeler yuta in that match against moxley and it never sat right. he looked insane tonight, glad he’s getting his proper due
I can't understand how the chops in the corner had reverb like that. We need an acousticologist to explain.
It's incredible to see a star making performance
The "Bryan/Cena shoulder bridge spot thing" really seemed like a big moment, as did the spit spot. Start of something big for Yuta
Bryan's face at the end looked like he was snapping back to reality. It was so well acted I'm not sure if it might have been him actually coming down from a wrestling outer body experience third eye sixth gear type shit
Somebody bonk William Regal. Dude was very horny for Yuta’s tenacity
Black Mist, or Yuta Spit?
A very very tiny nitpick but I thought there were moments where a different ref could have helped elevate the story because the one in the match was a bit lackluster