Bryan Danielson

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Bryan Danielson


Statistics
Ring name(s)	American Dragon Bryan Danielson
Billed height	5 ft. 10 in. (178 cm)
Billed weight	185 lb. (84 kg)
Born	May 22, 1981 (1981-05-22) (age 27) Aberdeen, Washington
Resides	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Billed from	Aberdeen, Washington
Trained by	Texas Wrestling Academy Rudy Boy Gonzalez Shawn Michaels William Regal Tracy Smothers Bobby Eaton Masato Tanaka Grant McKee
Debut	1999

Bryan Danielson (born May 22, 1981)^[1] is an American independent professional wrestler, also known as the "American Dragon". He is currently competing in Ring of Honor, Full Impact Pro and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Danielson has held the top titles of all three promotions (the ROH World Championship, FIP Heavyweight Championship, and PWG World Championship), and is a former head trainer of the ROH Wrestling Academy.

1 Career
- 1.1 Ring of Honor
2 In wrestling
3 Championships & Accomplishments
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

Similar to CM Punk, Mick Foley and Matt Hardy, Bryan Danielson was a backyard wrestler well before he became a professional wrestler; he competed in Backyard Championship Wrestling (BCW), where he won its Heavyweight Championship.^[2] Danielson had intended to train at Dean Malenko's wrestling school, but (due to its subsequent closure) he instead trained under Shawn Michaels at the Texas Wrestling Academy.^[3] He embarked on his first tour in Japan with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling on December 1,1999 with fellow wrestler Lance Cade due to Shawn Michaels.^[4] He won his first professional championship belt, the TWA (Texas Wrestling Alliance) Tag Team title, on March 21, 2000 with Spanky.^[5] Danielson was signed to a WWE developmental deal where he worked for Memphis Championship Wrestling.^[6] The territory closed down, however, and Danielson left the WWE system.

Bryan Danielson performed on a few occasions for World Wrestling Entertainment's Velocity and Heat programs as a jobber. He once wrestled future WWE Champion John Cena on a 2003 episode of Velocity.

[edit] Ring of Honor

In 2002, Bryan Danielson joined Ring of Honor, where he is acknowledged as one of the "Founding Fathers" (along with Low Ki and Christopher Daniels),^[7] as he was one of the wrestlers who made the company prominent during its inception. On February 22, he main-evented ROH's debut show The Era of Honor Begins in a three-way match against Low Ki, and Daniels, which quickly put the company on the map. In January 2005, Danielson would embark on a bitter feud with Homicide, culminating in a best-of-five series of stipulation matches. Homicide dominated early as Danielson lost the first two matches, a Submission match and a Taped Fist match. However, Danielson emerged victorious in the remaining three matches, winning a Falls Count Anywhere match, a Lumberjack match, and a cage match at The Final Showdown on May 13.^[8]

Danielson was long regarded as the best wrestler in ROH to have never held a title belt; despite winning the company's inaugural Survival of the Fittest tournament in 2004, championship gold constantly eluded Danielson's grasp. It came to the point where in mid-2005, an ROH Newswire announced that Bryan Danielson had quit ROH after being frustrated by his inability to defeat Austin Aries for the ROH World Championship. Danielson had become frustrated in general with professional wrestling and planned to take time off to evaluate his career options.^[9] However, Danielson had several dates booked in Europe, thus the ROH Newswire was likely a storyline claim for Danielson's absence during this period. In May rumors started that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling was interested in signing Danielson, but Danielson remained with ROH.

[edit] World Champion

Danielson would finally end his uncrowned albatross by defeating James Gibson for the ROH World Championship on September 17 at Glory by Honor IV.^[10] After this, he would not compete in an ROH ring until a month later (due to competing in IWA-Mid South), but he would make his return to successfully retain the championship against his arch nemesis Austin Aries on October 14.^[11] Danielson also made a successful defense against Christopher Daniels during ROH's A Night of Tribute show, where he knocked him out with a Roaring Elbow after a 30 minute bout. On December 17 at Final Battle 2005, he defeated Pro Wrestling NOAH star Naomichi Marufuji with a roll-up.^[12]

In early 2006, Danielson was embroiled in a feud with Chris Hero, as they had been exchanging words over the internet. This all culminated in a match on January 14. After invading Combat Zone Wrestling and brawling with Hero, the two wrestled at Ring of Honor's Hell Freezes Over, where Danielson retained the ROH World Championship. Following the match, Prince Nana offered to buy the ROH World Championship from him. When he refused, he was attacked by The Embassy (Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave).

Jimmy Rave challenged Danielson for the title at the Fourth Anniversary Show, after the Embassy won the 2006 trios tournament at Tag Wars 2006. In an effort to not be out done, Shelley challenged him for it on the show prior to the Anniversary Show, but it would not occur; the north east suffered a blizzard, so Prince Nana was unable to secure the flight for Shelley (who in reality had been pulled along with all the other TNA contracted wrestlers from the show, so they would not miss the TNA pay-per-view the following night). As a result, former ROH Champion and Embassy member Xavier faced Danielson in a losing effort, with Danielson eventually defeating Rave at the Fourth Anniversary Show and Shelley at Arena Warfare.

During April, Danielson became the head trainer at the ROH Wrestling School, replacing Austin Aries.^[13] In Danielson's next match on April 22, he defeated Colt Cabana in Philadelphia, at The 100th Show, with a roll-up in only six minutes (an unprecedented length for an ROH World Title defense). He came out later in the show and, after getting in a battle of wits with the CZW fans (who were there for the ROH vs. CZW six man war), he defeated Delirious when the referee stopped the contest after a series of MMA-style elbows.^[14] He would go on to defeat Delirious again in a rematch on May 13.

On July 15, at Death before Dishonor IV in Philadelphia, Danielson defeated Sonjay Dutt, who had signed an open contract for any CZW wrestler willing to challenge for the ROH World Title. Later on in the night, he participated in the ROH vs. CZW Cage of Death match, having occupied the vacant fifth slot on ROH's team. He was the third member of ROH's team to enter the cage, and his presence gave them a huge advantage over CZW's team. However, just as CZW's third member was about to enter, Danielson revealed his true intention for entering the match as he attacked Samoa Joe and left the arena. Joe was rendered unable to continue in the match, and ROH's team would not fully recover until much later, when Homicide made a surprise appearance.^[15]

On August 5th, during Fight of the Century Danielson fought with Samoa Joe to an hour draw to retain the ROH World Championship. On August 12, during Ring of Honor's first UK tour, Danielson defeated Nigel McGuinness to unify the ROH World and ROH Pure Wrestling championships.^[16] He then successfully defended the title twice the following night in Broxbourne, first against NOAH wrestler SUWA and second against Roderick Strong. On August 25 and August 26, he competed in two 2/3 falls matches (one against Nigel McGuinness and the other against Colt Cabana) that ended in a one hour draw, these two matches would be his 2nd & 3rd one hour draws in ROH in 21 days. During his match with Cabana, Danielson fell outside the ring and landed on his right shoulder, separating it around the ten minute mark of the match, Danielson continued the match for another 50 minutes until the match was announced a draw. He tore two tendons in the shoulder and tore another tendon in his chest. As a result, his ROH World Championship match with Austin Aries on September 15 was postponed, and his FIP Championship match against Davey Richards on September 8 was cancelled. Danielson returned to wrestling at Glory by Honor V: Night 2 and retained the ROH World Championship in a match against KENTA. He defeated Austin Aries on October 7 in their rescheduled match to retain the title.

[edit] Losing the titles

Danielson lost the Full Impact Pro Heavyweight Championship on November 10, 2006, in Inverness, Florida, to Roderick Strong. A week later, Danielson debuted in Pro Wrestling NOAH, teaming with Bison Smith and Eddie Edwards to defeat KENTA, Ricky Marvin and Akitoshi Saito after making Marvin submit to the Cattle Mutilation. Danielson's last match of the tour took place on December 2 at the Yokohoma Bunka Gymnasium in a losing effort against KENTA. On December 8, Danielson defeated Samoa Joe in a Steel Cage match in Chicago, Illinois when Samoa Joe was standing on the top rope, with the choke on Danielson who was hunched over the cage trying to escape. Bryan Danielson just fell off the top of the cage out of the choke and was declared the winner.

On December 23, at Final Battle 2006, Danielson faced Homicide in a competitive bout that featured Danielson attempting to get himself disqualified twice, but he ultimately lost the match after a lariat from Homicide.^[17] Following the match, Danielson presented Homicide with the ROH World Championship, and subsequently took time off from wrestling in order to heal his shoulder.

[edit] 2007

On March 3, the National Wrestling Alliance published a video of Danielson stating his intent to challenge for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.^[18] On March 19 ROHWrestling.com released the following statement: "The days are counting down for Bryan Danielson's return to ROH."^[19]

On May 11, Danielson made his return to Ring of Honor a month ahead of schedule at the Reborn Again event in Hartford, Connecticut. He defeated Shane Hagadorn and Adam Pearce in separate matches, then was attacked by the No Remorse Corps after he declined to join the group. Matt Cross and Erick Stevens made the save, and Danielson teamed with them in a losing effort against the NRC. On May 12 Danielson teamed with ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima to take on Nigel McGuinness and KENTA at the Respect Is Earned event at the Manhattan Center in New York City . Danielson scored the win for his team after making KENTA tap out to the Cattle Mutilation. The event was a taping for Ring of Honor's first pay per view. On May 13, the National Wrestling Alliance vacated the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and announced a tournament would be held to crown a new Champion. Danielson defeat Nelson Creed in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 16 in the tournament's first match.

On May 25 in Brisbane, Australia he defeated Mark Hilton at the AWF (Australian Wrestling Federation) Brisbane Bash, on Sunday May 27 at the Gold Coast AWF Showdown he has challenged AWF Heavyweight Champion TNT for his title. During Danielson's Tour of Australia he also managed to claim the vacant World Series Wrestling Heavyweight Championship by defeating Nigel McGuinness in Sydney, Australia. He went on to successfully defend the title in a rematch against Nigel the following night in Melbourne before losing it to Billy Kidman the next night in Newcastle. On July 29, Danielson managed to defeat El Generico, who had just beaten Pac and Roderick Strong with Kevin Steen for the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Tag Team Title, for the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Title.

On August 18, Danielson defeated Adam Pearce in the semifinals of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship tournament. He was scheduled to face Brent Albright for the title in Puerto Rico on September 1. However, on August 25, Danielson fought Takeshi Morishima in an attempt to regain the ROH World Title. He lost in what was immediately described as one of the best matches in the promotion's history. During this match, he suffered an orbital fracture and a retina injury. ^[20] The NWA announced on August 27th that due to the injury, Danielson would be unable to compete in the September 1 title match, and Adam Pearce fought in his place against Albright. Danielson was later chosen to be the special referee for the bout as announced on August 30 at NWAWrestling.com. Danielson made the pin with supposedly both men's shoulders on the mat, yet awarding the win and thus the belt to Adam Pearce.

[edit] 2008

On January 5th, 2008, Danielson lost the PWG World Championship to Low Ki. He has also recently failed in his attempts to gain the FIP World Heavyweight title when he lost to Erik Stevens.

On June 6 Danielson teamed with Austin Aries in ROH's one night tournament to crown new world tag team champions. They defeated Roderick Strong and Davey Richards before being eliminated by eventual winners Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black via DQ.

One night later Aries and Danielson failed in their bid to win the titles from Jacobs and Black.

He wrestled a dark match on June 9th edition of WWE RAW from Oakland, California. He defeated Lance Cade via Submission with his Cattle Mutilation finisher.

[edit] In wrestling

Finishing and signature moves
- Cattle Mutilation / Arms Across America (Bridging grounded double chickenwing)
- Repeated elbow strikes to the side of the opponent's head while holding the opponent in a grounded crucifix hold
- Crossface chickenwing, sometimes with body scissors
- Triangle choke, sometimes with repeated elbow strikes to the top of the opponent's head
- Small package
- Roaring Elbow (Discus elbow smash)
- Multiple suplex variations
  - Regal–Plex (Bridging leg hook belly to back)
  - Dragon
  - Tiger
  - Cravate
  - German
  - Snap underhook
  - Belly to back, sometimes from the top rope
- Airplane spin, sometimes followed by a rolling fireman's carry slam
- Tornado DDT followed into a Fujiwara armbar
- Diving headbutt
- Rolling fireman's carry slam
- Running big boot
- Springboard suicide senton onto an opponent who is in the crowd
- Surfboard
- Diving European uppercut from the second rope
- Roll-through counter into a single-leg Boston crab
- Indian deathlock

As "The Dagger" Bryan Danielson
- Dagger Bomb (Vertical suplex powerbomb)
- Dagger Driver (Spinning sitout belly to belly piledriver)
- Dagger–Plex (Bridging leg hook belly to back suplex)

Nicknames
- "The American Dragon"
- "The Dagger"
- "Mr. Small Package"
- "The Best in the World"
Entrance music
- "Self Esteem" by The Offspring
- "Lysergik Funeral Procession" by Down
- "Self-Esteem (instrumental version)" by The Offspring
- "Dragon Empire" by DJ Al Kohal
- "Obsession" by Animotion
- "Last Resort" by Papa Roach (NOAH)
- "The Final Countdown" by Europe (ROH / NWA/ NOAH)