[2005-05-14-ROH-Nowhere To Run] Bryan Danielson vs Austin Aries

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[supersonic]

 

ROH Title Match

Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson

The usual fantastic match from these two of course. Just incredible pacing and storytelling, working on the arms and shoulders of each other. Perhaps my favorite moment was Aries attempting the Cattle Mutilation a few times, but Danielson being so familiar with his own finisher that he kept rolling out of it. These two brutalized each other though, and while the simple one-time sequence for Aries over Danielson may have seen a bit anticlimatic, it was necessary - sometimes the finishing sequence should actually be the finishing sequence.

The post-match is quite important. First, Danielson refuses to shake hands and walks away.

Then, Samoa Joe comes out to the ring with his Pure Title, punking out Aries. Aries sucker-attacks him, but ends up eating a vicious muscle-buster. I'm guessing this is Joe getting payback for what happened during the Mick Foley situation earlier in the year, although it was never said outwardly. It would explain why Joe attacked Aries after a grueling title match though.

Danielson is caught backstage as he's leaving the gymnasium (that's what the Frontier Fieldhouse actually is), and announces that he has quit ROH out of shame because for him it's ROH Champion or bust.

Rating: ****

[WingedEagle]

Aries really belongs in the conversation as one of Danielson's best opponents. They killed it at closing out Survival of the Fittest '04 and I'll eventually get around to posting thoughts on their 2/3 Falls marathon match that summer, but needless to say I thought it was great and a likely high-level MOTY without the concussion.

 

They do a great job letting this match develop, opening with a series of holds and counters reminiscent of an old-style world title match, but a bit quicker. Not that its a detriment here as there's not much to sell in these battles for control, but worth noting for pace junkies. Things escalate from there with Danielson channeling Tenryu as he throws short kicks and is talking trash, working like a legit heel. He even breaks out an Earthquake Splash! Danielson is criminally underrated for how he could incorporate comedy spots into a match without letting it take over from what the actual purposes.

 

Awesome spot I hadn't seen before with Aries connecting on a kneebreaker and immediately backdropping Dragon to the floor, then paying him back with his own Tenryu tribute throwing the short kicks. He goes to work on Danielson's arm which becomes a factor when he can't keep the Cattle Mutilation locked in due to the damage. Simple, effective and logically playing off of what preceded it in the match. Aries gets greedy and tries for Cattle Mutilation but that's countered and Danielson now works over his arm with great armbreakers followed by a butterfly suplex and strikes that eventually set up the Flying Headbutt for a big near fall. Airplane Spin is countered and the action spills to the floor for a bit before they return where Danielson uses an atomic drop as a big move and perfect set-up to put Aries in position for his backdrop superplex. Really impressive how rather than just throwing out a bunch of random spots, they'd be chained together in a fashion that makes sense and looks like part of a coherent strategy to follow through on each other. The big moves are coming now and we get one of the longest Airplane Spins I remember seeing from Danielson during this time, which ends up leading to the finish.

 

The finish? Clean as a sheet and strongly putting over the reigning world champion. My only issue with it, and the match in general, is that the transition from the spin to the finish came off a bit awkwardly. Still, this was a really good match and strong follow-up to their matches from the year before.

 

****1/4

[ohtani's jacket]

This was okay. They were always going to have a hard time following up the 75 minute match, so they didn't really try. Instead, the focus was on whether Danielson would win the belt. ROH is really toying with the fan expectation that Danielson is going to be the champion at some point. They tease that here fairly effectively, but then Aries puts him away with his 450 splash, which is about as definitive of a finish as it gets. Danielson is clearly beaten in a bout where a bit more ambiguity might have helped. The altercation with Joe after the bout doesn't really make it feel like ROH has moved on from Joe and kind of defeats the purpose of Aries going over Danielson so cleanly.