[2004-06-24-ROH-Survival of the Fittest] Bryan Danielson vs Jack Evans

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[supersonic]

 

2004 Survival of the Fittest Qualifier

Jack Evans vs. Bryan Danielson

A perfectly executed match and highly recommended for casual WWE viewers. In what is an extended squash, you get all the key elements of both characters – the entertaining side of Danielson, plus you also get a great taste of how vicious, barbaric, and even arrogant (sometimes blowing up in his face) he can be at times. It is a great showcase of his technical side also. For Evans, it gets over how obnoxious he is, and this match is very important in establishing the pain threshold that he has during the early stages of Generation Next. Not a MOTYC, but that isn’t the intention of this match; it did its job flawlessly.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This looks like an absolutely LOVELY pairing on paper. And the match does rule; it's pretty much a 10-minute squash with Danielson showcasing his submissions, but man what a blast it is. Bryan twisting & stretching Evans is all some superbly vicious stuff, and much of it is thanks to Evans' willingness to bend & twist his own body in visually stunning ways to make each hold look all the more brutal. And then there's that amazing bump he does off of Bryan's uppercut. If I was a wrestler, I would sure love to face that man, because he truly can make people look like a million bucks in there. What a fun-ass match. Also a shout-out to Evans bringing up Danielson's backyard-gimmick, THE DAGGER. Very amusing. ***1/2

[KB8]

Well this ruled like fuck. ROH is hardly the promotion that comes to mind when talking about great squash matches - for obvious reasons - but this is largely an extended squash, and an awesome one at that. I imagine this is the Bryan Danielson people are buzzed about seeing again in AEW. I mean, I mostly checked out of watching WWE a decade ago so there's a lot of WWE Bryan that I haven't seen, but I absolutely do not recall him being allowed to do this to someone at any point in that run. As a babyface he was always the underdog, often a goofy one at that, and even when he got to tap into his mean streak it felt like a fleeting foray into a past life. As a heel he leaned a little further into it, but I don't really remember anything like this. He tortured wee Jack Evans here and never before have I seen someone twisted and contorted into so many ridiculous shapes. Even for an extremely flexible young man this was some real nonsense. At one point Danielson had both of Jack's elbows about touching each other behind his back while his heel was connected to his neck. He put him in the nastiest version of an Argentine backbreaker you've ever seen and then he pretzel'd him with a stump puller from hell. Evans got a few licks in and once or twice mounted some offence, but it was always brief and only drove Danielson to make his life an even greater misery. Evans' bump off the European uppercut was amazing and the Boston Crab at the end is a disgrace. Total blast of a match.