His 2021 match with Hangman Page and Wheeler Yuta’s progression is what Danielson is most proud of in AEW.
In the middle of December 2021, AEW hosted their ‘Winter is Coming’ special which was weeks out from Dynamite’s move to TBS. At the event, Bryan Danielson challenged Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World Championship and they went to a 60-minute time limit draw.
That is a match that Danielson is very proud of when looking back at his run in AEW and in addition to that, he told Robbie Fox of ‘My Mom’s Basement’ that it was his idea to go the 60 minutes.
Bryan went on to state that he’s also proud of everything that has transpired with Wheeler Yuta. Bryan said Wheeler’s match with Jon Moxley on the 4/8 Rampage is possibly his favorite match he’s seen this year.
The hour-draw with Hangman Page [is one of my proudest AEW moments]. I mean, so I think and especially… I don’t think he’d done a singles match over 30 minutes and I hadn’t done an hour-long match in many, many years. Many moons, it’s been many moons since I’ve done an hour draw or an hour-long match and I was also wasn’t convinced with the way wrestling had evolved that people would enjoy it and because it’s a — it’s not ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You have to be patient with it and patience isn’t necessarily something everybody has in bundles these days but, I was really pleased. I was really pleased with it. It was also like the first time Hangman and I ever wrestled so it was like, you know, that’s a bit of a daunting task like, hey, you guys have never wrestled before, he’s never gone over 30 minutes in a singles match. Why don’t you guys go do an hour? And it was kind of my idea [Danielson laughed]. It was my idea but yeah, that was something I was very, very proud of. I’ve also been proud of the — it’s not just my stuff with him, it’s also [Jon] Moxley’s stuff with him. But I’m proud of everything that’s happened with Wheeler Yuta and his performances in those things, because we didn’t know — when we started, we didn’t know that’s where we were going, but I think we were doing a tag match or something like that and I did something and he fired up and in that moment, you’re like, oh, there’s something here and then you do the singles and oh, there’s more here. Then he does the match, it was on Rampage with Mox and it was beautiful. It was, I think… maybe my favorite match I’ve seen this year, just because there’s a guy that literally the month before, not many really knew about him or were talking about him and he had a whole arena, you know, just going nuts and you have to think Rampage is taped after Dynamite so it’s like, it’s been a long day for that crowd, right? And so, I’ve been really, really, really proud of all that but that’s not like proud of what I’ve done. It’s been a collective effort, including Tony [Khan] because a lot of times, it’s not easy to see somebody who doesn’t necessarily have a name or you hadn’t planned on pushing to that degree. Tony just went with it and saw it and he saw it too and was like, ‘Dude, this is working, this is working’ so I was just really proud of Wheeler’s performance, I’m proud of being a part of it, I’m proud that — you know, I’m proud to be in a company where you see that and then yeah, let’s let him run with it so that and the hour-draw are the two things I’m proudest of.
Bryan is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club with Yuta, Moxley, William Regal and newly crowned ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli. Danielson said that came together organically and it was not set in stone that a group was coming together when he and Moxley had their singles match at Revolution.
When it comes to Yuta being added to the group, Bryan said had it not been for injuries, it could have been someone else in Yuta’s spot.
It’s all just kind of been organic [formation of Blackpool Combat Club]. It wasn’t like we even knew we were going to be a group. When I first wrestled [Jon] Moxley at the pay-per-view, it wasn’t like, okay, now we’re gonna form a group, right? It was like, we just batted things around and things evolved naturally and then Wheeler [Yuta], adding that evolved naturally and it could’ve — honestly, if it weren’t for a couple of injuries that happened, it might have been somebody else in Wheeler’s spot but Wheeler was put into that position and stepped up to the plate huge and he’s been a great addition. I mean same thing with Claudio [Castagnoli]. If I hadn’t gotten hurt, I don’t know that Claudio would have been in the Blackpool Combat Club per se, you know? But yeah, now I really like the dynamic.
After being out of action since the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing, Danielson returned to the ring at Fight For The Fallen but was defeated by Daniel Garcia via referee stoppage in the main event.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ‘My Mom’s Basement’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
