Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson Approaches Pro Wrestling Perfection
Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson Approaches Pro Wrestling Perfection
For two years, the Ring of Honor roster worked to solve Samoa Joe.
I imagine that most anybody reading this has at least heard of the reputation of Samoa Joe’s ROH World Championship run. As of this writing, it remains the longest reign in the title’s history. It is perhaps one of the greatest championship reigns in pro wrestling history, and not just because of its extended duration. A large part of what made the reign so fascinating is how challengers took various different approaches to knocking off the champion, and the varying degrees of success they achieved.
Homicide’s heel turn saw him try to use straight violence as a technique, dragging Joe into brawls and gimmick matches, that saw Joe stand tall at the end. CM Punk famously utilized the rope-a-dope to bring Joe into the deep waters of the 60 minute time limit, but Joe’s stamina held up and he held strong for the hour. The only real dents in Joe’s armor have been from quick cradle pinfalls, such as from Colt Cabana at the first Survival of the Fittest.
This comes at the tail end of his reign, and it’s here that he’s faced with one of his most formidable challengers in Bryan Danielson. While these two have enough respect for each other to have partnered in the past, there’s always been a competitive streak to both men. Nothing really illustrates this better than the many pre-show vignettes that saw Danielson and Joe competitively stretch out trainess with all the spite and malice of Stu Hart.
Danielson’s a fascinating opponent for Joe at this point in the reign. He’s easily the most technically adept of Joe’s challengers so far. Dragon’s already well into his development as an untouchable in-ring force, and as such feels like a far more complete in-ring competitor than most of Joe’s challengers. Danielson’s also already shown how far he can go in deep waters in ROH, having won a 40+ minute Survival of the Fittest finals match, and having a strong if losing effort against Austin Aries in a 70+ minute two out of three falls match.
That means that Danielson has the stamina to drag Joe into an epic, much like Punk, but also has a far stronger mechanical base to wear down the champion. As such, the opening segment of the match plays out very cautiously from both men. Do not confuse that for boring though. The mat work these two execute has the timeless grit and grime of a Lou Thesz NWA Title match, simple but infused with constant struggle. For Danielson, that means wrenching back on holds, always searching for the opening to tangle up Joe. For Joe, that means powering through, countering holds, or simply just hitting Dragon so hard that he’s forced to let go.
While Joe’s definitely no slouch on the mat, Danielson’s work is enough to frustrate him into making a big mistake though. Joe exerts himself trying to pound Danielson into the dust.
Joe even takes the fight to the floor where he goes for his signature Ole! Ole! Kick that leaves him open to Dragon attacking the leg. This serves a double purpose of making the Ole! Ole! Kick a little more purposeful within the narrative than just being a crowd-pleasing signature spot that can at times negatively affect the flow of Joe’s matches.
There’s a real subtlety to Joe’s leg selling in this match that I appreciate so much. If you’ve watched enough pro wrestling over the years, there are many obvious elements of leg selling that come to mind. Often referred to by fellow critic Simon of Handwerk Reviews as “nerdbait,” one thinks of limping, grasping at the injured limb, or crumbling when placing too much weight on the bad leg.
Joe does none of these, at least not in any overt manner. As soon as Danielson makes his opening play on the leg, Joe’s clearly feeling the effects of it. There’s a small stutter in his step, he has to rub some feeling back into it, but he’s never falling over himself in a parody of selling. Joe’s also able to overcome because Danielson shifts his focus away from the leg as the match proceeds.
When Danielson returns to the leg attack later on though, that’s when we see how mindful Joe is of the injury.
At one point, Danielson drapes Joe’s leg over the second rope and dropkicks the knee. As Joe crumbles to the mat, his face expresses both frustration and pain. It’s Fujinami-esque in how Joe’s able to convey an anger directed inward, he’s annoyed that his body could fail him in this way.
Later on, we also see Joe go for his standard combination of the folding powerbomb turned into a high angle Boston crab, that he often transitions into an STF afterwards. When Joe attempts the same combo here, his leg is unable to support his weight for the Boston crab, so he elects to go straight into the STF instead. Again, that same frustration on his face, a reaction far more emotional than just physical. It’s amazing stuff.
Danielson’s no slouch in the selling department either. Much of the latter half of the match sees Joe attack Danielson’s midsection. At one point, Joe hits a GTS-style knee to the gut that the challenger sells by basically coughing his guts out. The move is amazing to see, but its value gets amplified tenfold by Danielson selling it like absolute death.
Outside of that though, we also have these great little heel stooge sells that Danielson throws in for Joe’s bigger strikes. It’s that kind of wonderful ragdoll-physics selling that really puts over that Joe hits hard enough to separate a man’s soul from his body. It deftly walks the line between silly and expressive in the way only the true masters do.
All these elements come together to tell a rather simple narrative. Danielson’s a canny and dangerous challenger who moves with precision and purpose, but Samoa Joe’s explosive power always undoes so much of the groundwork that Danielson lays. It’s one of the purest examples in pro wrestling of “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
It’s an amazing match, one of the best in Ring of Honor’s history. It is a testament to that company’s roster and portfolio of great matches that this doesn’t even get brought up as one of the most iconic matches of the company’s history, let alone the most iconic matches from this year of ROH. It definitely has its ardent supporters, but it often gets lost in the canonical 04 classics like the Joe/Punk trilogy or the Survival of the Fittest finals.
But really, how could this be anything less than what it is?
Samoa Joe in the mid-2000s arguably hit the highest peak that any professional wrestler ever has in history. There is a very reasonable case to be made that this era of Samoa Joe is the best that any pro wrestler has ever been. And against him, the man who would grow into the greatest professional wrestler of all time.
It’s as close to pro wrestling perfection you can get without actually achieving it.
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? Kawada and Misawa probably have better bombs (doesn’t get much better than that Tiger Driver ‘91), but boy do they miss out on the micro scale. I’ve said this about both King’s Road legends in the past, but their mat work does very little for me whereas both Danielson and Joe excel in that regard here. This also just has so much care put into tying together every segment in a way I don’t think can be said of 6/3/94. Joe and Dragon get the win here.
Rating: ****3/4