Kind of been a lazy week for me. I'm sorry about not doing my part to produce any discussion for these matches.
NBIceman posted...
Iceman's Match Recommendation (Week 3) Bryan Danielson vs. Naruki Doi Dragon Gate USA, Open the Untouchable Gate - September 6, 2009 https://www.bilibili.com/video/av7554969/
A short-lived logistical nightmare and perhaps a little too ahead of its time to be a truly successful venture, DGUSA nonetheless will always be one of my all-time favorite promotions. Dragon Gate, as one of the most consistently great promotions in recent memory, crossed over with the American indies at arguably the height of the output match-wise, all with an inspired Gabe Sapolsky at the helm? It'd be hard to craft a company more perfectly tailored to my particular tastes. Johnny Gargano put himself on the map there. The Young Bucks learned much of what they know there. But before any of that, Daniel Bryan Danielson had one of his last indie matches before reporting to WWE there.
If you're wondering just how beloved American Dragon was in the minds of hardcore wrestling fans around this time, you need look no further than this match. In an age where even the most popular indie stars were relentlessly booed and mocked and had sellout chants directed at them for signing on the dotted line with WWE, Danielson still has the whole crowd behind him here. And I gotta tell ya, I always forget how much I miss indie AmDrag until I watch one of his matches. Everything he does is so purposeful and intense and violent. Just like all of his bouts around this time, it feels about half as long as it actually was because you just get completely sucked in. It's not even that he does anything especially unique; he just does it all so damn well.
But I don't want to undersell his dance partner. When the dust settles on Naruki Doi's career, for a lot of reasons, he'll probably be remembered first and foremost as a tag wrestler. When he found the right opponent for a singles contest, though, he could go with the best of them. Even more so than many of his company contemporaries, he always did a great job of merging the fast-paced Dragon Gate style with the more technical indie style of the time, and that's on full display here. Perfectly placed spots, high-impact moves that always look fantastic, and a lovely job of letting crowd hero Danielson get a lot of babyface shine without being an outright heel.
There's something for everyone here, and it's a real window into what DGUSA could've been had some things broken a different way. Here's the kinda funny part: this isn't even my favorite match on the show - the one that slightly edges it out involves a guy who's already shown up in a prior match for this project, though (and who's likely to show up often in the future if it continues long enough), and I'm trying to spread the wealth a bit. Besides, I'm the minority opinion there, considering a good number of folks would be inclined to call this the best match the company ever put on. Hope y'all have fun with it!
I want to get my negatives out of the way with this.
I've never been high on Doi as a singles guy. Unlike Tim Thatcher from the first week, I've never been able to exactly put my finger on why he never does anything for me. He's a phenomenal tag wrestler (he's part of my two favorite DG tag teams), he's charismatic, his matches are typically good-to-great, so why is he among my least favorite Dream Gate champions ever? Rewatching this match, I think I have at least one reason it doesn't work well for me - Doi's finishers have zero credibility. If you're a long-time DG fan, you know that the Doi 555 or the Bakatare Slide Kick are never putting anyone away on the first use (sometimes not even after the third or fourth and maybe not even when used sequentially). At least Danielson didn't kick out of the Muscular Bomb but I've seen Doi having to hit that multiple times in matches as well to put guys away. Doi's era of DG is particularly notorious for finisher spam (part of why so many guys there have so many) but it feels like he gets it the worst.
Relatively minor one here but this was also a reminder for why Lenny Leonard never gelled with me as a commentator. Lenny is really good at naming moves but awful at telling the narrative of the match. There's stretches of this match where he's just shouting moves and I guess I'm supposed to be excited by his tone, but he never conveys why these moves should be so important. That said, I'd take Lenny over anything on WWE television or the AEW Dynamites where JR is particularly checked out.
Now that I've got those points out of the way, go watch this match. Especially if you're only familiar with Daniel Bryan in the WWE. This is easily one of the best matches of his indie career. Hell, it might be a contender for one of his best matches ever. You never see Bryan work like this in the WWE with the exceptional, unique limb work and the crazy pacing. It's kind of a shame we didn't get too much more of him working with Dragon Gate guys because it's kind of a perfect pairing of styles. All of the higher end guys could easily match Danielson's pace and his style can keep them from falling too heavily into some of the problems people can have with watching Dragon Gate. Other than the issue I mentioned before, Doi was tremendous here and more than held his own. Only complaint I really have against him is that he isn't Danielson, which doesn't feel like too much of a knock against a guy to say he isn't one of the greatest ever. I'm so happy that this got shared because I had kind of forgotten how incredible Danielson can be when he's not hamstrung by the environment. Highest recommendation.