Bryan Danielson v Roderick Strong (ROH 5/11/05)
--First Strong match I saw was with Davey Richards where he was pulling shit out of his arse all over the place, so watching him in a match that has so much good stuff in it I had to take notes to write it all down i's great. Don;t think I've ever seen Danielson as a heel either so that was also great, and he was really, really damned great. I knew crap was gonna go down right from the slap to Strong's face and him retaliating with chops and and stuff to Danielson's already red chest. Danielson going to the outside and kicking the barricade was a cool little bonus. I thought for a while Danielson was kinda getting to crowd-invloved, but I guess the fact he's a heel means he wouldn;t mind the 60 minutes expiring, so he might bide time to get there. Then he blames crowd for it and asks "if they're done" verbally abusing him. When he got back inside and they started tussling around, I noticed how Dragon was going for a more slow match (good mat worker and, again, probably trying to bide time) and Strong was full force in-your-face trying to kick the living shit out of Danielson and get it over with, and whenever the pace was slow/fast, the control ususally swapped between Dragon and Strong respectively. Like when Strong would use a flurry of chops and forearms, and take one moment to walk a circle around the ring, Danielson woul greet him with a headbutt. The first slow Danielson domination part is really where I started loving him as a heel, he was putting on the usual "I'm the best wrestler in the world and this is why" submissions that have pretty much never been seen before, but he was using cheat tactics and yelling at the "I got 'til five". I gotta note how it didn;t look stupid him overpowering a bigger guy. He's like the opposite of Barry Windham in which you almost forget how small he is. Strogn didn;t lookk tiny either, though, he was a demon throwing out the chops and making Dragon flee for his life (and his chest look like someon had rubbed berries all over it). He was a good face where he would mock Dragon by mimcking the "I got 'til five" line when he was using the ropes on offense. Danielson getting back in control is really what I loved, though, and he was getting to be more and more of an arse the longer the match went, he even started his own "Roderick" chant. Strong suddenly had this awesome surge of frustartion where he was desperate as hell to get the win NOW so he tries to break Dragon's back and slap on the Stronghold. After that a weird back-an-forth exchange near th ramp that was probably the worst part of the match but really by no means "bad". Awesome moment #871529 came when Strong was choping at Danielosn, who was spitting in his face after every chop, and when he couldn't take it anymore he got on his knee and made one of the best facial expressions ever. LOVED how chnaged his stragedy throughout too, at this point he figured he needed to slow down the fast-moving prick and lay him down with a sleeper, then Strong's suplex almost kills him so he figures THAT doesn't work either. Danielson kinda got back in offense too quickly here, but that could be tied to the fact Strong took too long, and Danielson wanted that slow pace like I said. He tries ANOTHER route to victory and tries to knock him out with a belly-to-back from the toop, which Strong counters into a nifty little crossbody, so THAT didn;t work either. He figures "hell with it- CATTLE MUTILATION", but that one fails too. This was awesome, they were both at their desperation point where Danielson had tried amost everything and String was just throwing stuff left and right. None of it looked like "HEY CROWD I CAN DO THIS AND THAT" either. I guess Danielson's standing bringing Indian Deathlock kinda did, but given he forced the announcer to announce him as "The Best Wrestler in the World", it was awesome. Strong gets busted open and Danileosn obviously goes straight for it, and throws in a Dragon Suplex for good measure. Still doesn;t work. Danielson's furious and stomps around like the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, then uses a crossface chickenwign, which, doesn't work. It's Strong's turn for fury so he tries put him Dragon away with a superplex and the Stronghold, and it was real cool that he couldn;t get it locked on the first time because of his screwed leg and fatigue. Dragon goes back to the Corssface Chickenwing (duh, it;s Backlund's move), and when String gets ti the ropes, he's all, "that's it, Roddy dies today" and hits the top rope belly-to-back he couldn't hit earlier. STILL wasn't over. Strong's back to going into all-out awesome mode, and they have a forearm exchange. One move kater and Strong's eating elbows he canlt take it (ref stops it) and the Dragon picks up the win and looks like Ivan Drago after he'd killed Apollo Creed. Fucking tremendous, the pace swapping was done picture perfect and it didn't get boring after a billion zillion minutes, best match of 05 behind Eddie/Rey 23/6.
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