Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima (ROH - 12/27/2008)

It’s baffling to me as to why this one isn’t already nominated. It’s easily the best match of the best feud in ROH history. I might go as far to say that it’s Bryan’s best match ever.

It plays off the previous matches perfectly but doesn’t require those to appreciate. Which is how great wrestling matches should be. It allows them to
Be appreciate on staggered levels.

Bryan jump starts this one, coming to so goddamn hot and we’re brawling. Morishima focuses on the eye which is what this entire feud was about. Bryan is so enraged and desperate to beat Morishima. It’s a fiery babyface performance that borders on madness because he knows he has to win. He has no choice. He brings out the chain (I’m a sucker for chains) he’s mauling Morishima with elbow shots and groin kicks. It’s almost overkill to the point you’re pretty sure that Bryan might end up killing him self in the process.

When I finish watching a match, in order for me to call it one of the greatest ever, I have to stop and say “that’s pro wrestling”

Bryan Danielson v. Takeshi Morishima 12/27/2008…. That’s pro fucking wrestling.

This is actually the first match I watched in 2022, but I was busy and didn't came up with a review here. So just gotta say that the start of this match is among the best ever, legendary stuff. Definitely a contender for anyone's top 100, people need to start giving more credit to this one instead of just focusing on the Manhattan Mayhem one: this one is more violent while significantly less difficult to watch.

These Bryan matches do absolutely nothing for me. I'm ready for like Kane or Giant Gonzalez at this point. At least it'd be over quickly.

This was the best of their feud for me, though that's kind of damning with faint praise coming from me given that I had the Manhattan Mayhem match at ***3/4 last I watched it a few months ago and I didn't think the rematches later in the year were that great. This seems like another ROH Bryan match where there's a weird disconnect between me and a bunch of other people who see this as up there with the best matches ever. Unlike most ROH Bryan matches, I would say the awesomely creative opening, nice selling and bleeding from Bryan, and an improved Morishima performance compared to their prior matches pushed this into legit great territory. Also a nice plus that Bryan doing the hammer-and-anvil elbows with the chain wrapped around his arm makes the spot look a lot better than usual. Beyond that, I could nitpick about how some of the chain stuff feeling contrived and Bryan's loose AF triangle took me out of the finish run a bit, which would be true, but really it just didn't hit that next level of intensity that I get from stuff like Sangre Chicana/MS-1 or Fujiwara/Choshu. Kind of hard to put it into words beyond that.

I'm kind of curious about when this started getting re-evaluated as some MOTDC. Looking at the posts about it on WKO at the time, the reaction seems kind of middling.