The Independent Mid-Card 05.22.07: Danielson vs. Azrieal
Posted by Samuel Berman on 05.22.2007
One of these competitors gets absolutely dismantled and I shouldn't have to tell you which one it is.
Hello all. It's another Tuesday, and that means another week of The Independent Mid-Card. A week-and-a-half ago, "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson returned to action after a nearly five month injury layoff from Ring of Honor competition. Competing in a number of different matches, Danielson proved that even after having serious surgery, he is still the same dominant competitor he has always been. In light of his return, I thought it would be nice to look back at Danielson systematically annihilating an opponent. Yep, this time around it's a squash-o-rific edition of the IMC.
Bryan Danielson vs. Azrieal
Ring of Honor – A Night of Tribute – Long Island, NY – November 19, 2005
The Wrestlers:
Bryan Danielson – Widely regarded as one of the top talents in all of professional wrestling, "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson is a trainee of the Texas Wrestling Academy, the wrestling school started by WWE superstar "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. Along with Low Ki and "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels, Danielson (then wrestling exclusively under the American Dragon name) competed in the main event of the very first ROH show in 2002. Though championship gold had long eluded him in Ring of Honor, Danielson returned from an extended hiatus in September of 2005 to defeat then-ROH World Champion James Gibson and finally achieve his destiny, taking his place amongst the select group of champions in ROH history. In the months that followed, Danielson would begin to become increasingly cocky and irritable, defeating his opponents with a variety of submission holds or simply by beating them until the referee was forced to stop the match. On this night, he was to face the winner of a three-way match between Daniels, AJ Styles and Matt Sydal, and claiming that he didn't want to be viewed as having an unfair advantage, chose to take part in a preliminary match of his own. Thus far in his reign, Danielson had defeated Austin Aries, Chris Sabin, Steve Corino and had twice bested Roderick Strong to retain his belt.
Azrieal – Originally a competitor in Ring of Honor under the name Angeldust as a part of the Special K faction, Azrieal was considered a potential breakout star for much of his ROH career. Though his contemporaries in Special K were primarily spot artists, Azrieal seemed to have a stronger grasp on psychology and was viewed as one of the faction members (along with Jay Lethal who was then known as Hydro) most likely to make the jump to being a successful singles competitor. He experienced mixed results after breaking from Special K and it's subsequent incarnation as Lacey's Angels, having actually found more success as a member of the Full Impact Pro roster in Florida.
The Match:
We start with ROH interviewer Gary Michael Cappetta in the ring. He introduces ROH World Champion "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, who had asked for some time to speak to the crowd. The Final Countdown starts up and Danielson makes his way to ringside in full wrestling gear, seemingly ready to compete. Cappetta introduces Danielson again and hands over the microphone before hopping out of the ring.
Danielson mockingly clears his throat a few times and then begins his promo. He condescendingly compliments the previous match (the #1 Contendership Three Way) and says it looks like he'll be facing Christopher Daniels in the main event. A "Fallen Angel" chant breaks out much to Dragon's chagrin, but then the other half of the crowd starts a dueling "Let's Go Dragon!" chant to counter (with Danielson humorously clearing his throat every time the crowd yells for Daniels). Finally, Danielson offers (magnanimously of course) to fight a preliminary match himself, seeing as how Daniels already had to wrestle Styles and Sydal. He claims to have set up a very tough match for himself and asks his opponent to come out to the ring.
Yellowcard hits and out to the ring walks Azrieal. The crowd is noticeably less than excited to see him. We cut to both men in the ring and the referee calling for a handshake. Danielson is more than willing to oblige and Azriel complies as well. The bell rings and we're off.
The two men circle and lockup in the center of the ring, but Danielson quickly grabs a full nelson and then switches things up and snapmares Azrieal down before rolling him up with a crucifix cradle for a one count. Azrieal pops right up, already frustrated by the champion, so Danielson mockingly begs off. Again they circle and lockup, but this time Azrieal grabs a waistlock. Danielson looks none too happy about that and quickly reverses to a standing armbar. Danielson all but walks him over to the ropes so he can break and then gives him a little shove in the chest, giving him a "clean" break. Another lockup and Danielson takes him down with an armdrag and then grabs him by the wrist and twists his arm around into unnatural positions that draw ‘ooohs' from the crowd.
Azrieal makes his way to his feet, but Danielson holds on to a hammerlock. Azrieal somersaults out of it and grabs a wristlock, but Danielson just walks around in the hold with a smile on his face. Azrieal tries to keep the wristlock on, but Danielson is just toying with him, waving to him while in the hold before doing a nice flipping sequence to reverse into what would be the position for a Northern Lights Suplex. Instead of hitting the move, however, Danielson just picks up Azrieal and puts him on the top turnbuckle. Danielson fakes a huge slap in the corner and Azrieal covers up, but Danielson just gives him another light shove in the chest and backs off.
Azrieal climbs down and the two men circle again. Azrieal ducks down on the lockup and goes to grab Danielson's leg, but can't get any momentum and Dragon just stands there with the man trying to take him down. Azrieal then tries a waistlock and then a full nelson, but they both get similar results. Azrieal then jumps on Danielson's back and grabs a sleeper, but Danielson no-sells that too before comically faking falling prey to the move. Danielson lets his arm drop twice before powering up, all the while having a big smile on his face. He powers Azrieal back-first into the corner to get him to release the hold and then hits him with a hard European uppercut to send him crashing to the mat.
Another European uppercut follows from the champ, but Azrieal is able to duck a clothesline off of an Irish whip and hits a springboard cross-body for two. He stays on the champion with a body slam and then a slingshot somersault senton, but that only gets a one count as Danielson now looks really perturbed. Azrieal grabs a cravate, but Danielson pushes him into the corner to break and hits a series of five hard chops to the chest off the break. Danielson picks Azrieal off the canvas and hits his Judo DDT before just standing on Azrieal's head for a bit. Dragon jaws with the crowd (Danielson: "Who's the champion!") for a bit and then grabs a knucklelock on Azrieal. Azrieal hits some forearm shots to come back and springboards out of the corner in the knucklelock, but botches what looked like a Tornado DDT attempt. The move takes Danielson down regardless and Azrieal pushes him into the corner for another couple of strikes. Of course, Danielson no-sells the chops while Azrieal shakes out his hand and yells "Oww!".
Azrieal tries a cross-corner whip, but Danielson reverses him back into the corner and hits some hard chops of his own. Danielson then gets a cross-corner whip, but runs into a boot on a blind charge. Azrieal pops up to the top, but misses a try at a double-stomp to the back of Danielson's head and gets dropped on his head with a released German Suplex. Danielson butterflies the arms and flips over into Cattle Mutilation and Azrieal is forced to tap at 5:54. Azrieal's feet were near the ropes, but clearly he wasn't on Danielson's level, so the near-immediate submission obviously made sense. Danielson releases the hold and nips up as he is announced as the winner. Danielson shakes Azrieal's hand while he's still lying face down on the mat and The Final Countdown begins to play again as we fade out.
The Analysis:
While it's certainly not the most important match of his reign, this contest was a microcosm of Danielson's developing persona at the time. He did things that seemed admirable on the surface (volunteer to take part in a preliminary match), but then would quickly make it clear that he was really just a smarmy jerk (choosing to face Azrieal and then no-selling most of his offense).
Beyond being a nice introduction to Danielson's new character, it was a solid enough bout on its own merits, though was far too short to be of any real consequence. Azrieal was made to look far inferior to the champ, but then that wasn't exactly news to anyone in the crowd.
The one thing that the match did do very effectively was make the 185 pound Danielson look like an absolute killer. In an industry traditionally dominated by guys much bigger than the American Dragon, Danielson was being made to look like a competitor who could completely dominate an opponent despite not being the biggest competitor. Even though Azrieal was a smaller competitor, the message was clear: Danielson could, at any moment, dismantle his opponent at will.
The Aftermath:
Bryan Danielson defeated Christopher Daniels in the main event and would go on to hold the ROH World Title for fifteen months in total before losing it to Homicide at Ring of Honor's Final Battle 2006. Having severely injured his shoulder during a match with Colt Cabana in August of 2006, he was forced to take time off from competition in the wake of losing his title. Surgery kept him out of ROH competition for nearly five months before he was able to make his return to the ring on May 11th in Hartford, CT. He seems to have already set his sights on Takeshi Morishima and becoming the first-ever 2-time ROH World Champion.
Azrieal would continue to have mixed results in Ring of Honor before leaving the company for good in early 2006. Since leaving the company, he has continued to work in other Independent promotions, most notably Jersey All Pro Wrestling. He would not receive a rematch with "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson in an ROH ring.
The Final Word:
I have written elsewhere and will repeat here that I see Danielson's return to ROH as the spark that may light a truly special Summer for the company. With their first Pay-Per-View taping in the can and the impending trip to Japan, Ring of Honor officials must be ecstatic that Danielson has returned from injury still the competitor he was when he left. If anything, Danielson's resolve to put on the best performance he can in every match may have been hardened, as he seems focused on regaining any ground he may have lost during his time off. The next scheduled hurdle for the American Dragon is June 23rd in Chicago Ridge, IL, as that night he will go one-on-one with KENTA.
If you're interested in seeing this week's match, A Night of Tribute is available at rohwrestling.com. Elsewhere on the card is the Danielson vs. Daniels title match as well as a #1 Contendership match between the teams of Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal and Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. The show also serves as ROH's tribute to the recently deceased Eddie Guerrero, a major player on the company's first couple of shows.
Other things you should check out on 411 this week include Ari's Column of Honor, Stu's Friendly Competition and Bayani's Truth B Told. You should also be sure to read Buy or Sell which has some really good discussion from Michael Bauer and Brad Garoon on FIP and ROH. There are also new DVD reviews from JD and Brad & Jake that are must-reads for any ROHbot.
Oh, and I finally got around to doing another edition of The Box in the Attic, and this time it's an unexpected companion piece to last week's IMC. Check it out if you have a few minutes.
All that being done, I also want to take a second and note that as I'm writing this (on Monday for publishing on Tuesday), it is May 21st. Happy anniversary to Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit, as on this day six years ago they up-ended Steve Austin & Triple H to win the WWF Tag Team Titles in one of the greatest matches in RAW history and one of my personal favorite wrestling moments off all-time. And happy anniversary to me for a bunch of other reasons.
With everything now out of the way, I'm actually off to get a tattoo. Spurs in 6, Pistons in 5, and I'm not watching any of it. U'v'chartah V'chaiim. Huzzah.
