Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli (PWG - 05/20/2006)

One of the most unique & ambitious matches to ever take place in the indies. It's a 15 minute match where over 10 minutes of it are spent in a HEADLOCK. The match starts off with some tight technical exchanges between the two, and then during a sunset flip pin attempt, Claudio counters that by ringing Bryan's bell, and Bryan immediately grabs his ear afterwards. Then the next time they lock up, Claudio gets the headlock in. Claudio has an awesome headlock, very tight & overall good looking. They tease Bryan getting out of it masterfully w/ him doing atomic drops & back bodydrops, only for Claudio to still keep a hold of that head. The PWG crowds reaction to it is pretty fascinating; they clearly are a little baffled by it, and there's even a few "we want wrestling!" chants by the non-headlock lovers, but overall as the match went on & Claudio kept that headlock locked in tightly while Bryan tried to fight out of it, the majority of the vocal crowd was very into it. The climax comes at the perfect time, and their reaction to Bryan FINALLY fighting his way out of the thing & getting the roll-up win is awesome. I love it so much - as mentioned in the opening line of the review: it's unique, it's ambitious, it's ballsy, and it's a masterpiece of simple, old school storytelling. One of my all-time favorites.