A review of Chris Hero vs. Bryan Danielson

[JoeDirt 0]

CHRIS HERO vs. "AMERICAN DRAGON" BRYAN DANIELSON (IWA-Mid South, 8/21/04):

 

With all the hype this match got ahead of time, I thought I'd do a review of it here, since it's going to take me a while to get through the entire 8/21 IWA-MS show, which is over 4 hours long, with eleven matches.

 

I should note that the show starts with a cool segment where lots of IWA wrestlers predict who will win the match. Arik Cannon is great as a heel here, and predicts Dragon will make Hero "tap like a bitch at the 23 minute mark". Punk is even better, saying Dragon will win because "he has more international experience, he's more seasoned, and oh yeah...he actually goes to the gym once in a while. Try lifting some time Chris, it might help you." He winks and walks off screen.

 

Each man is introduced, and Danielson gets a standing ovation. Hero gets a mixed reaction. They shake hands and we're underway.

 

They tie up and Danielson takes Hero down and goes to work. They fight over some arm bars/holds. Dragon does a great bridging reversal and they break. They go to a knucklelock, and Hero runs through some usual stuff and goes to a cravat. The fans try the whole dueling chant thing again, but any attempts at that now just seem like trying to ripoff the Joe vs. Hero match. We get another clean break, and then another tie up. Danielson and Hero each do some reverals out of the knucklelock. Danielson tries a back slide and slowly takes Hero down and into a waistlock, and then back around, shoving Hero's shoulders to the mat for 2. Hero grabs Danielson's hand, so Amdrag just slaps it free. They are all twisted up like a pretzel on the mat and do this cool double hand stand double submission thing that is kind of hard to explain, and then get a break.

 

They tie up again, and Hero snapmares Dragon and goes to a chinlock and then a surfboard. Dragon fights out, but Hero keeps a hold of his left arm. Dragon rolls over and reverses into a hammerlock on Hero. Hero lifts Dragon off the mat, but Dragon rolls over with a sunset flip-type pin for 2. They circle each other, and Dragon teases Hero with a few jabs, and Hero responds with a big kick attempt. They tie up again and Hero gets a waistlock while Dragon hooks his left arm, and they fight for position. Hero slams Dragon, who holds onto his arm and rolls through into an arm bar. Hero gets back to his feet and shoves Dragon to the ropes, and hits a dropkick. Hero hits a floatover snap suplex for 2, and then goes back to an arm bar. Dragon gets the ropes and a break, but then hooks Hero by the arm and wrings it. He gets a monkey flip, but Hero lands on his feet and takes Danielson down with his legs.

 

Hero offers a handshake, so Danielson slaps him and hits some headbutts to a big pop from the crowd. He hits a big European uppercut and then some more. The match picks up in intensity as Dragon brings some stiff shots. Dragon keeps focusing on Hero's left arm, and they trade strikes before Dragon takes Hero down and snaps Hero's left arm around. Hero tries to fight back with strikes, but Dragon hooks his arm and takes him to the mat and into a mounted arm bar. Hero does anything to roll free, but Dragon keeps holding on. Dragon picks Hero up and hits a slingshot suplex to big cheers; Dragon has plenty of fans in Highland on this night. Dragon goes to a surfboard, which Hero escapes, but Dragon keeps him down with a dropkick and continues to work Hero over, even briefly applying a camel clutch while Hero is in the ropes.

 

Dragon goes back to a surfboard, stepping on the back of Hero's legs to take him to the mat. Hero fights back up, and Dragon takes him right back down. Hero fights back up again and tries to spin out, but Dragon goes right back to it. Finally Hero kicks himself free and misses a strike, but catches Danielson coming off the ropes with a powerslam.

 

Hero now realizes he needs to hit Danielson and hit him hard, and he brings the forearms and his twisting neckbreaker from off the ropes. He scoops Danielson up and slams him down, and then hits a senton. Hero tries a suplex, and has to switch sides before he can lift Danielson up, due to his shoulder. He gets a 2 count. Hero tries a powerbomb, but Dragon flips out and hits a roaring elbow to knock Hero down. Dragon does his airplane spin into a rolling slam on Hero, but then misses his headbutt off the top rope. They get back up and trade forearms. Danielson gets a rolling bridge for 2. Hero quickly rolls Danielson up for 2. Hero hits some forearms, and then makes a small mistake by hitting a forearm with his left arm, only to not sell it as hurting at all after the work Dragon did to it. He then powerbombs Dragon and goes to the Hangman's Clutch. Dragon fights to the ropes in a good sequence. Hero tries to Hero's Welcome, but Dragon is able to counter. Hero blocks the Cattle Mutilation and hits a backdrop driver on Dragon. Hero heads up top, but Dragon catches him and hits an armbreaker off the top rope right into the cattle mutilation for the finish at 23:00, just like Arik Cannon predicted.

 

THOUGHTS: This was an interesting match. The work was just beautiful, and everything was smooth and well done. The first 18 minutes are well worked and a great build, but a build for a LONGER match. My problem with the match is that the last 5 minutes seemed slightly rushed. After a slow, back and forth 18 minute opening, the match really should have gone at least 10 minutes longer than it did, at least in my opinion. It was like a match with a good start and a good finish, but no real middle to it. Maybe that was just me...I'd love to hear other's thoughts on it.

 

In all honesty, though, these guys had to live up to SO much for this match, so people giving it ***1/2 say it was a disappointment. I really don't think so. This was a beautifully worked match, and set the stage for a rematch down the road, a match in which each man has PLENTY left in the bag. Think about it: Hero didn't use the Hero's Welcome, Dragon didn't use his backdrop superplex, etc. I would LOVE to see a 45-60 minute match between these two sometime in the future.

 

Bryan Danielson is simply one of the best workers in the world. He's so damn fun to watch, and everything he does is realistic and hard hitting. I read Tim Cooke's review of the match on the DVD boards and agree that Hero needs to vary up his arm work a bit. But really, Hero didn't have much of a chance to do that in this match, as Dragon really controlled the large majority of it. If you think about it, the underlying story of the match is interesting: Dragon dominates the match, outwrestling Hero, and causing Chris to rely on strikes to get himself back into the match, but with Dragon catching him when he tries for a big move and hooking the Cattle Mutilation for the submission.

 

I liked this match a lot, just as I did in Dragon's match with Arik Cannon, which I gave ****. I have to put this match just slightly under that match at ***3/4, with hopes that Hero and Dragon get a 2/3 falls rematch or an Ironman match sometime down the road. I suggest you get the 8/21 IWA-MS show, sit back, relax, and enjoy this match, along with a lot of other great stuff on this tape.

 

Hopefully I can get a full review of the show out sometime soon. Thoughts, comments, opinions, etc...they're all welcome!

[Phoenix Fury Legdrop 0]

Thank you for being much less of a jackass than Tim Cooke was and just automatically assume that all of the match's faults are because Chris Hero "sucks". I actually like this format for you a bit better than your full show reviews; you fleshed out your points really well here.

[JoeDirt 0]

Thanks Tom, I really appreciate it.

 

I should add here that the postmatch Hero/Cannon/Dragon stuff is well done.

 

Hero refuses to shake Dragon's hand. Arik Cannon comes out and interrupts and does the whole "I beat Dragon and you couldn't, Hero!" Dragon punks out Cannon by pretending he's going to smack him, and getting Cannon to flinch and back away. Dragon leaves it at that, and heads backstage. Cannon tells Hero that he's going to do one more thing tonight that Hero couldn't do in Highland, and that's beat Homicide in the middle of the ring.

 

We get backstage interviews from Dragon and Hero. Hero talks about how he keeps telling himself he doesn't have a Highland curse, but...and walks off.

 

Another interesting thing is that the Highland fans are really turning on Hero. Cannon got a pretty good response when he ran down Hero after the match.

[Phoenix Fury Legdrop 0]

Yeah, you can almost tell just from walking in that there's a lot of people there who hadn't really seen IWA (or in some cases even HEARD of IWA) before IWA started coming to Highland who come for the big names from ROH, and see Chris Hero as someone who's "minor league" but being pushed as being on the same level as Dragon and Joe. It's almost like the Rocky Maivia push in the WWF in 1996, only the fans in Highland have no reason to be so uneducated.

 

The Cannon/Hero storyline is actually one of my favorites of the year, as it's absolutely based on the in-ring work, and the mic work, while helpful in following along, isn't absolutely necessary. The added touch of Hero saving Cannon's ass from being killed by Team Friday at that Highland show is one of the few twists in any storyline lately that's actually intrigued me, as you honestly cannot tell from that if Hero's turning heel, Cannon's doing a slow burn face turn, or anything. I might get shit for saying this since I'm a Wildside uber-mark at heart through and through, no matter what, (and Wildside does a lot of non in-ring development with their storylines) but it's nice to see a storyline that doesn't need "riots" or fireballs or goofy characters (my arm just got tired from all the ripping on ROH...) to get its point across.

 

It's basically this: Cannon hates Hero, Hero hates Cannon. That's really all you NEED to know, though there's a lot more simplistic depth here, in that Hero sees a lot of himself in Cannon as a wrestler, and is trying to get Arik to try and rely on his incredible skills in the ring instead of being a stinky cheater. Then, you got the "Highland Curse" that Hero has, which gives his arch-nemesis Cannon fuel to make sure Hero can't escape his professional demons in the ring at the Lincoln Center, which has driven Chris to the edge that only his toughest foes in the past (Danny Daniels and CM Punk) have before. Cannon knows that Hero's not exactly succeeded in the past when his temper has the best of him (he lost the IWA Title to both Daniels and Punk at the hottest points of their rivalries), so Cannon knows he has to make the anger build in Hero longer and worse than either Punk or Daniels ever had, which makes Hero easy pickings leading into two of the biggest IWA shows of the the year (TPI and the Anniversary Show), which also happen to be in Hero's in-ring hell: Highland.

 

I hope that wasn't too confusing. Also, I agree a lot with your point of view in the article, in that it was a really good match, but it seemed like the build was building to a longer match. That's hopefully where a rematch would come into play...

[JoeDirt 0]

Great points. I like the Hero/Cannon storyline a lot, though it seems like the fans are going to force them to HAVE to turn Hero unless something changes. I love that I have no idea where exactly they're going with it, but I really think that Hero's going to go heel sometime soon, if only in Highland and nowhere else. It's hard to say...but the Hero/Cannon feud is so simple yet effective, I'm enjoying it a lot. I really wish IWA had several more slow-burning feuds and storylines taking place, as there's really only Hero/Cannon and Daniels' split from Fannin and company.

[Jack_Bauer 0]

I'd expect ****+ plus.

 

I suppose being a US indy fan not seeing much of Hero outside of the great Punk meetings, then I dunno. I'm from the UK so indy stuff isn't easy to find.

[JoeDirt 0]

I'd expect ****+ plus.

 

I suppose being a US indy fan not seeing much of Hero outside of the great Punk meetings, then I dunno. I'm from the UK so indy stuff isn't easy to find.

Isn't there something like Smart Mark UK or something like that?

[Tim Cooke 0]

"Thank you for being much less of a jackass than Tim Cooke was and just automatically assume that all of the match's faults are because Chris Hero "sucks"."

 

I was a jackass for laying out my views and backing them up with details that actually occurred in the match?

 

I re-watched the match again yesterday. It was a tad better than I initially had it, though Hero's faults are still there.

 

Tim

[Guest scottchrist]

Nice review, pretty much the same thing I thought overall.

 

I remember live, I watched the match really closely and it seemed to me that in the context of the match, they were presenting Hero as a step behind and a notch below Dragon throughout pretty much the whole thing. Hero's gameplan just wasn't working and he had to revert to the striking, perhaps something he wouldn't do if he weren't on the losing streak. The old Hero would have continued to ride out his gameplan and wait for the mistake; the frustrated Hero gets anxious and fucks himself over.

 

What I got out of it was that Hero was plainly beaten and outwrestled by Dragon in the match, which just continues to build on his months of frustration. Against B-Boy, he lost by a hair. Against Homicide, he lost by a nose. Nosehair? Against Joe, you could take out of it that he went in too emotional and made too many mistakes, one of them being trying to stand and trade with Joe. Against Cannon, he slipped up and got pinned by someone who wasn't supposed to be on his level. Cannon has since defeated American Dragon and Homicide, and now that Dragon beat Hero, you're to the point where Cannon can continuously flaunt his win over Hero, despite that Hero got it back at KOTDM weekend, because he's also beaten two guys Hero couldn't.

 

So just this year, we've seen:

 

1. loss to Danny Daniels in Highland and be forced to leave the promotion

2. return and loss to B-Boy in a score-settling match

3. loss to Homicide

4. loss to Joe

 

5. stopping the bleeding with the win over Joe in the six-man

6. loss to Punk

7. loss to Cannon

8. win over Cannon

9. loss to AmDrag

 

With that you've got a series of peaks and valleys, and mostly valleys. Start the year with the extreme valley of losing to Daniels and leaving, a peak for his return is quickly a valley losing to B-Boy, two more losses, the big six-man win which could have been used to take him back to where he was before - instead, they use it to deke you, and continue with him losing.

 

The six-man win was a flash of who Hero is, or at least USED to be before the breaks weren't going his way. They're now presenting a man who's increasingly desperate to become what he once was, while at the same time hinting with Hero's sassiness and ever-furthering pissed off nature that maybe if he gets there, he's not going to be the same guy he was when he was there before.

 

I think TPI is a perfect place to have Hero recapture the magic and win the tournament. You gotta have Cannon's continual egging backfire on him a little bit, and Hero started lobbing the mindgames back at him on 8/21, which was a very good bit of storytelling, I thought.