Bryan Danielson: where does he rank?

[cobainwasmurdered]

With Bryan's full-time career seemingly nearing its end, it seems like a good time to talk about where he ranks on the list of all-time greats.

Personally I think its hard to argue that he's right up in the top. He's had over 20 years of being one of the top 5-10 in-ring workers, he developed into one of the best promos in the business, he turned into a legit big draw at a time when essentially no one was. The diversity of his work is amazing.

 

[Valeyard]

Top three, at least, is inarguable. He's had the story Bret deserved, the double life of Shawn, and work ethic of a Pillar while being able to cut good to great promos. Went from people-- who loved him-- saying he couldn't make it in the bigs because his style wouldn't translate to redefining what the style is. Main evented Wrestlemania 30 and won the AEW title in Wembley Stadium. Used the pandemic dead years to help put people over. He's no less than three.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Higher end of the top 20 GOATs easily.

 

[Hawk 34]

He’s not Terry or Dusty or Eddie but he’s number four.

 

[snuffbox]

I don't know enough about the Japanese wrestlers on his level but, from what I do know, I think he's at the pantheon level with Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Terry Funk, and Shawn Michaels.

 

[Dandy]

So hard for me to even rank wrestlers because even though Hogan is a piece of shit and didn’t show much technical work during his big run, you cannot deny him being one of the largest draws ever. You cannot deny Flair’s longevity and going out there for broadways and having an amazing character that people still talk about and love. You cannot deny Bret’s technical masterpieces and how he seemed to legitimize the sport as champion. You cannot deny HBK’s performance over such a long period of time. You have Andre as he was larger than life. You have Funk’s amazing career reinventing himself many times over. You have The Undertaker and his aura. And so many more massive draws like Austin and The Rock plus countless others.

But the point is I would put Danielson up against all of them for his matches; personalities; fanbase appreciation; etc. The ONLY difference is the major companies presented all of those other names—except Funk, arguably—as being stars of stars and seemingly bigger than the industry at times. I never felt like the major promotions ever got behind Danielson like those others got. That unfortunately plays into an all-time ranking for me because all of those others became household names that even people that didn’t watch wrestling knew by name and appearance. That is all that is missing from Danielson’s career in my opinion and it was out of his control. His performance forced their hands to get behind him as much as they did.

 

[Brocklock]

I think he's my number 1. It always teetered on Hansen or Terry, with Kobashi right there. But, Danielson has them beat by just the sheer number of all time great matches he has compiled. And, he's excelled at nearly every style from Hardcore to WWE Main event style to European style to ROH technical style to the intensity of AEW's style. He can do comedy stuff, he can do bullshit matches. He can do anything. That puts him there for me.

 

[tekcop]

There's a chance it's Bryan for all of the reasons Brock stated, but I almost don't want to admit it.

I'm willing to argue there are a handful of wrestlers whose peak Bryan hasn't quite matched, but that's by a couple of hairs at most, and no one has excelled in so many different areas as he has.

So maybe it's Bryan?

 

[tekcop]

Like, could Misawa have been The Dazzler? Yes. But did he?

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Top 10, easily. He's in my personal top 5 favorites (surrounded by brawlers who could talk), but if we're taking all of the metrics into account? Drawing ability, industry impact, promos, ringworm, endearment, etc.? I don't think he's top 3.

That being said, he's one of a very, very shortlist of talent over the last decade where I'd actively seek out his work.

 

[Super Leather]

Not sure where I'd rank Bryan Danielson in the all-time best conversation, but he is certainly my #1 pick for the best of the past 20 years. I feel like I'm watching the best aspects of wrestling's most talented come together as one whenever Bryan steps into the ring. There's nothing he can't do and I wonder if a bad Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan match actually exists. He even dragged something watchable out of Big Cass that one time in WWE. There's that match circa 2002 against Kamala (Kimala, maybe?) that was better than anyone probably ever thought it would be too.

 

[Valeyard]

I was thinking his worst match must be Kamala, however with that said it's the best match Kamala had after at least 1986 too.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I'm trying to think of what his worst matches were and there's not a lot coming to mind.

 

[Hawk 34]

Probably the classic “he fucked on me” six man tag with Bryan, Sin Cara and ZEKE vs Cody, Dibiase Jr and Barrett.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

His worst match is either from when he was still training, the 6-man that Hawk suggested, or some random mud show that none of us will ever see.

He's practically the definition of a broomstick wrestler.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

There was one or two matches with Orton that I thought didn't click during the Authority angle but it wasn't bad or anything, just below Bryan's usual level.

He made one of my least favourite acts of all-time in Kane, not only watchable but actually entertaining at times.

 

[Brocklock]

I looked up other sites to see what his worst matches are considered to be, and a lot of people hated his match against AJ Styles at the 2019 Rumble. Iirc it was paced as the cool down match, and they wrestled a more basic old school style match. I remember chat being down on it too. I need to rewatch cause I remember it being a decent deliberate match.

The first Big Cass match at Backlash 2018 might be it. The good match they have was at the 2018 Money In The Bank. Their first match had Cass looking really bad, and the crowd didn't buy him.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

ok yeah I remember being really let down with that AJ match.

 

[strummer]

Bryan and Flair both had to deal with terrible booking and the people in power backstage actively trying to make them look bad. I can't think of many (if any) all time greats that had to deal with that

 

[AA484]

I looked up other sites to see what his worst matches are considered to be, and a lot of people hated his match against AJ Styles at the 2019 Rumble. Iirc it was paced as the cool down match, and they wrestled a more basic old school style match. I remember chat being down on it too. I need to rewatch cause I remember it being a decent deliberate match.

The first Big Cass match at Backlash 2018 might be it. The good match they have was at the 2018 Money In The Bank. Their first match had Cass looking really bad, and the crowd didn't buy him.

I haven't seen it, but his lowest-rated singles match on Cagematch is the Satnam Singh match from Dynamite

 

[Brocklock]

There was one or two matches with Orton that I thought didn't click during the Authority angle but it wasn't bad or anything, just below Bryan's usual level.

He made one of my least favourite acts of all-time in Kane, not only watchable but actually entertaining at times.

Also carrying 2014 Kane to good matches is a mega achievement. I can't think of any other good Kane singles matches after the Bryan ones in 2014.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I'd probably put him Top 10 definitely but then it kind of gets a bit murkier. Guys like Austin and The Rock are probably superior for the "peak" factor though and I'm biased towards Bret/Shawn because I literally grew up with them as a kid. Flair was the perfect package and Hogan's drawing power can't be denied for what he did for wrestling. Then you start getting into guys like Liger, Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada, Tenryu, Baba, etc. and I'd put Akira Hokuto & Manami Toyota up there from the Joshi spectrum (with Asuka being an interesting female counterpoint to DBry in terms of modern wrestling over the last 10-15 years and her influence).

I'd lean towards the bottom of the Top 10 but that's not necessarily a knock against DBry as it is my own biases/preferences coming into play.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

The worst Bryan match has to actually be the WM bullshit with Sheamus, and it's not even the fault of the players but of the booking.

 

[Valeyard]

See I can't say that counts only because it's the most important match of Byan's career and ended up making him for life.

 

[tekcop]

Yeah. It's an angle not a match. And the follow up the next PPV is probably Sheamus's best match.

 

[Hawk 34]

Yeah. It's an angle not a match. And the follow up the next PPC is probably Sheamus's best match.

Hmm, I’m going to give that honor to the Gunther matches.