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Post by [Darren] on Jan 5, 2024 0:04:09 GMT -5
I didn’t like their first match, but Dragon literally breaking his arm in that match is the setup for this one. He also broke his orbital bone in a tag match against him a couple months back, hence the eye covering.
Kinda dead start in the opening moments, but things really pick up after Okada dropkicks Bryan in the injured eye. Danielson begins to sadistically goes after Okada’s arm trying to repay the favor and break it. Okada does a great job selling the arm while Danielson takes most of the match to continue his attack. I love that there wasn’t a long drawn out finishing sequence. Absolute delight of a match.
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Post by club on Jan 5, 2024 7:16:49 GMT -5
I second this, and second the love that there was no drawn out overly contrived finishing sequence. I'm lower on Danielson that most folks in this corner of the internet but thought he did a fantastic job here.
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Post by [Darren] on Jan 5, 2024 8:57:27 GMT -5
I second this, and second the love that there was no drawn out overly contrived finishing sequence. I'm lower on Danielson that most folks in this corner of the internet but thought he did a fantastic job here. I bet you you’re not the lowest person active on this forum. I just popped over to cagematch and the two biggest complaints are that Bryan is working the arm on the ground too much and at least 6 folks have lamented that without the epic finishing sequence this cannot be 5 stars (I think 5 stars is the baseline to be considered a good match over there.)
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Post by kas on Jan 5, 2024 10:01:45 GMT -5
3rd. I thought this was fantastic.
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Post by club on Jan 5, 2024 15:06:56 GMT -5
I second this, and second the love that there was no drawn out overly contrived finishing sequence. I'm lower on Danielson that most folks in this corner of the internet but thought he did a fantastic job here. I bet you you’re not the lowest person active on this forum. I just popped over to cagematch and the two biggest complaints are that Bryan is working the arm on the ground too much and at least 6 folks have lamented that without the epic finishing sequence this cannot be 5 stars (I think 5 stars is the baseline to be considered a good match over there.) To be fair, if you're going to do an epic finishing sequence, a quasi-main event of the biggest show of the year is probably the time. And in terms of audience expectations I can see it. Personally though it's a silly trope that's been done to death that I need never see again.
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Post by [Darren] on Jan 5, 2024 15:52:32 GMT -5
It’s a grudge match that didn’t resort to grudge match tropes and did t try to be an epic instead of a grudge match. It stayed true. I loved the match.
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Post by nintendologic on Jan 6, 2024 15:46:55 GMT -5
This was head and shoulders above their match at Forbidden Door, which mostly consisted of them delivering their greatest hits with a bunch of inorganic transitions in between. The opening minutes here are nothing to write home about, although I did enjoy Okada repeatedly offering up his jaw to mock Danielson's lack of depth perception. Danielson cutting Okada off with a busaiku knee on the outside was a tremendous transition. Danielson's arm work was of course incredible, and it was pretty amusing how he got the crowd to pop just by bending Okada's arm. Okada's selling of the arm work was strong as well, and the way he sold his arm during the rainmaker pose was Rick Rude-esque. Danielson switching sides for the pin after hitting the busaiku knee so he could immediately transition into the LeBell lock if Okada kicked out was a brilliant touch. The hammer-and-anvil elbows and wrist control stomps pretty much always look terrible regardless of who does them (Danielson's are better than Moxley's, but that's a ridiculously low bar). Okada stomping on Danielson's injured eye seemed gratuitously prickish. The no-selling during the do-si-do finishing sequence was disappointing, but at least it was short. I really liked how Okada couldn't execute a proper pin at the end due to the damage to his arm.
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Post by microstatistics on Jan 7, 2024 17:58:37 GMT -5
The first 80% or so would stand alone as a genuinely great match. A really neat story here with the victor of the first encounter being the one with the vendetta due to the sustained injuries while the guy who had to win at all costs was cool and collected for the most part. Moreover, there were lots of high-end elements on display: cool opening matwork, compelling arm vs. eye psychology, consistent selling, strong transitions, a genuine aura of viciousness and malice.
Regrettably, I thought they fumbled it in the last 5 min and simply lost the plot, knocking this out of top tier contention. I am all for a decisive finish that curtails the "epic" back-and-forth stretch but this wasn't that. It was just generic main event wrestling with little purpose or organization, entirely removed from the focused work they had just done.
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Post by mrjmml on Jan 7, 2024 18:41:05 GMT -5
2nd. I agree with Micro most of it was great but the last few minutes weren't great.
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Post by [Darren] on Jan 7, 2024 20:52:05 GMT -5
I rewatched the last 5 minutes and thought it was fantastic and booked perfectly for the story they told. Really gets over the Rainmaker. Great little post match segment too.
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Post by tetsujin on Jan 8, 2024 3:52:03 GMT -5
Its basically a Bryan match until Okada forces him to do an Okada match near the end. And that's why the overall result is great, but not excellent.
It also explains why it was better than the first one, which was an Okada match until Bryan forces him to do a Bryan match near the end.
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Post by makaiclub on Jan 9, 2024 10:37:12 GMT -5
It'll be very easy to overrate this because of the two wrestlers in it, the arena and based on the fact that it’s actually good unlike many dream matches. In fact, their first match wasn't very good, due to injuries amongst other things. However, I thought this was a great match. Danielson working the arm was very compelling. Strong storytelling and great wrestling to boot. Danielson doing submissions can vary from interesting to boring and this is the former. He crafted some wonderful submission sequences and would occasionally throw a disgusting kick to the bicep. Danielson was doing some of his best work in that regard. He was excellent. Okada sold very well and helped enhance those submissions by doing so. Okada attempted to tell a story with Danielson's eye in return, but he lacked the aggression and follow through. It was a nice idea though, and Danielson did a good job at selling it himself. The closing stretch focused more on the rainmaker being hit (and a pin attempt to follow) than whether it'll get the three which is refreshing. And a preferable way to end the match, although they could've milked it a little longer. But enough of that, the faults are very little. And the highs are terrific. A strong MOTYC. ****1/4
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Post by elliott on Jan 16, 2024 0:49:02 GMT -5
Is this one available?
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Post by puroraisedme on Jan 16, 2024 1:05:23 GMT -5
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Post by elliott on Jan 16, 2024 19:44:10 GMT -5
Watched.
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