[2003-02-08-ROH-One Year Anniversary Show] Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Their first ever ROH 1-on-1 meeting from the month prior was already bordering on it, but this one I thought was totally great. It's just filled with fantastic wrestling, coming with great feeling of caution, urgency, one-upmanship & pride. In the early going, they just go at it, locking each other in submissions any chance they got, while also busting out those vicious strikes to one another for good measure. It's great stuff, and once we move on to Joe's control seg, it's also great stuff; he just completely brutalizes Danielson & it's awesome. Danielson has to fight from underneath from that point on, and as I'm sure most of us know, he is excellent at that role. All of his comebacks are terrific, and so are Joe's cut-offs of those, continuing the trend of violence that this match is full of. Pure excellence. Also a fun sidenote is that this was actually the first time Bryan used the ring-name of "Bryan Danielson" in ROH. ****