AEW WrestleDream review: The fall of Bryan Danielson

Most retirements in wrestling these days end on a good note. That’s probably why seeing AEW do the complete opposite was so surprising.

The end of Bryan Danielson’s full-time wrestling career ended at WrestleDream in one of the saddest stories you’ll ever see in modern pro wrestling. Danielson, hometown hero, passed out to Moxley’s rear naked choke, losing the AEW World title and thus, his career as we know it.

Moxley, who has spent the last month speaking in riddles and making demands, ordered the rest of what used to be the Blackpool Combat Club to attack Danielson. Darby Allin and Wheeler Yuta attempted to make the save, but Yuta showed his true colors by laying out Allin. Moxley then ordered Yuta to use the plastic bag on Danielson like Moxley himself did at All Out. Then Claudio Castagnoli stomped Danielson’s neck wrapped in a steel chair as more babyfaces attempted to make the save, but it was all futile as the damage had been done. The show ended with the announcers, the crowd, and the locker room sorrowful over what had just gone down.

This was bold to do in Danielson’s hometown, where most probably knew this was it for Danielson, but at least wanted the nice, happy farewell speech after he lost. But it didn’t happen. Management, Danielson, or whoever decided this was the way to end Danielson’s full-time career. It was a heat-heavy angle reminiscent of Vince McMahon’s last days in WWE where the heels dramatically overpowered the babyfaces in every which way. I don’t know if it’s the right move to do, but it’s what they did.

The match itself was very good, one of the better matches on the show. Before everyone went home utterly depressed, they were hot for Danielson and this match, getting into Danielson’s near falls. It was a smart, at times brutal match, about as brutal as you can get without spilling blood. The finish itself didn’t feel like the finish, but I guess it was a fitting one considering what they were about to do next.

Danielson choosing to end his full-time career this way was…a choice, to say the least. There’s this mentality in wrestling where you want to send people home happy, but sometimes for storyline purposes you just can’t. It wasn’t fun seeing Danielson being beaten this way, but that was the point. You can probably make an argument that it felt too much like WWE, which AEW can be guilty of at times, especially in recent years. I assume we’ll see Danielson down the line, maybe looking to avenge what his former friends did to him, but who knows.

And now, the rest of the show. There was plenty of good wrestling here, though honestly: does every AEW pay-per-view need to be over four hours? It’s a lot in an era where we get plenty of wrestling every week. By the last two matches, I felt like I was ready for this show to wrap up. But then those two matches were pretty good, so I can’t complain much.

• Jay White defeating Hangman Page was a surprise, but I figure we’ll see more between these two in the coming weeks. This was one of the better matches on the show, a hot opener with some really crazy bumps, including someone getting powerbombed on the steel steps. Yikes!
• I think Mariah May and Willow Nightingale was good, but now we’re at a point where we’re just waiting for Toni Storm to make her return, leading to what I assume will be one final blowoff match. Doesn’t seem immediate, so we’ll probably see at least one other person attempt to down May. Perhaps Britt Baker? As for Willow, not sure. I was kinda hoping for a title change here as Storm/May doesn’t necessarily have to be for the title and I think Willow would be fine as champion, but I guess they didn’t see it that way.
• Jack Perry defeating Katsuyori Shibata was fine, but the big story took place after the match. After Daniel Garcia made the save for Shibata, MJF made his triumphant return and attacked Garcia, but that was to set up the return of Adam Cole, who is now a babyface despite turning on MJF very meanly last year to set up a new stable that’s promptly gone nowhere. Well, I guess we’re just forgetting all of that. Maybe that’s a good thing, but between this and the Statlander turn, AEW has a bad habit of dropping things cold with zero explanation until they’re yelled at about it.
• The three-way bout where Konosuke Takeshita defeated Will Ospreay and Ricochet to win the International title was awesome, easily the best thing on the show. Ospreay is in a league above anyone else here in this company and should be the champion right now, but what can you do. He’s a lock for Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Year for sure. Takeshita also finally got his big win, his first title in AEW. It’s been a long time coming but well deserved, especially after the performance in this match.
• Hologram picked up another win, defeating The Beast Mortos in a two out of three falls match. The crowd was kinda sleepy on this at first, but it picked up in the end. I think Mortos is much better than his push and I hope he gets some attention as a member of this new LFI group because he’s better than being only slightly above a job guy. Hologram needs to go for a title as they are pushing this winning streak and yet, he’s just kinda facing the same guys every week.
• Based on the pep talk with trainer Amazing Red before the match and Matt Jackson making sure to bury them before the action, I thought Private Party might beat The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Team titles. They didn’t. I thought this was a good match, and the last few minutes were great. But where do Private Party goes from here? After being told for the last couple of weeks that they have been going nowhere for the last five years, Saturday kinda proved it all true with the loss. It looks like their future might revolve around Stokely Hathaway. Maybe after this loss, it’s time to change things up.
• The ROH title match was good. I like Mark Briscoe and he and Jericho ended up having a pretty good match with some weapons here and there, they told a good story. I enjoy seeing Briscoe on pay-per-view and being Ring of Honor Champion as he’s one of the best babyfaces in the company, so seeing him is always a plus.

And that covers the main card of WrestleDream! Full Gear is up next month, and one match seems to have been confirmed…and it involves the Costco Guy. Ok, cool! Or boom?

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