6. Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes, AEW 10/23
Pretty interesting match between a hybrid wrestler and an aging heavyweight star. Dustin is lower ranked, so Bryan was absorbing most of his moves and obviously the superior technician. It builds to a handful of excellent Dustin comebacks. Obviously the superplex felt like an epic moment, and when he hit that powerslam it felt like the whole match had built to that. Great cover after the reverse DDT as well. When Dustin hit the lariat, it felt like Jumbo on his last legs trying to shut down Misawa. Danielson was a bit go-go when he went back to offense, but Dustin kept edging out nearfalls so you knew Dustin was close to pulling off an upset. Really cool how they eschewed a traditional match structure and just had a really good match.
8. Josh Barnett vs. Tiger Ruas, Bloodsport 10/22
I thought this was well nomination worthy. Ruas was winning the match
through elite level grappling and superior conditioning, so Barnett was
left to rely on blasting him with suplexes and strikes. Mat section had a
number of slick moments and was extremely well executed. Ruas was
controlling and throwing strikes on the ground. Even after Barnett had
hit a big suplex and hit some strikes from mount, he looked pretty
spent. Ruas capeoeira kick was an amazing spot as not only was it cool
looking but also extremely well timed. Barnett was just making his big
comeback and then Ruas bounced back with THAT. It made Ruas look
unstoppable. Finish worked as an out nowhere bomb being dropped. Barnett
had been the biggest badass to walk the US indy scene so Ruas pretty
much destroying him made for an exciting match. Great stuff and probably
better than the recent Bryan/Suzuki match
10. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki, AEW 10/15
This had a bit too many Your Turn/My Turn exchanges for my taste. I get Suzuki probably has to do these because he has to be pretty banged up at this point but too much of this felt like a glorified Nagata match. I also don't by Bryans character engaging in that macho stuff since he is supposed to be a smart technician. Outside of that this was very good. Opening PANCRASE grappling was cool, dug Bryans fast shoot for the single leg, and there were plenty more great transitions and counters throughout the rest of it. I was a bit annoyed with Bryan doing things like the face stomps and elbows mid-match since I see those as finishers, but what can you do. Submission work was great and I dug all the pins.
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