ROH This Means War - ROH World Championship: Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong
After winning the 2005 Survival Of The Fittest tournament, Roddy immediately issued a challenge to Bryan Danielson, demanding a title shot as his reward. And that’s where we are now. Strong has had an incredible 2005, beating the likes of Matt Hardy and James Gibson, and putting on countless great matches too. Dragon is fresh off back to back victories over Austin Aries and Steve Corino in his first shows as World Champion. SEX! WANK! PORN! DIRT LAP DANCES! This match is like all those things rolled into one. This quite possible might be the psychological wrestling displays I’ve ever seen in my life. Dragon came to the ring expecting to dominate Roderick Strong. You could tell that from his t-shirt, his jocular, cocky demeanor at the outset. But with every chop Strong landed, punch or forearm, and every time he wouldn't just stay down and accept his beating, Danielson got more and more aggressive and started resorting to eye rakes, slaps, face-raking and more. Indeed, but before the cheap tactics he worked the neck to prepare for the Cattle Mutilation and Regalplex, he worked the arm to set up for the Crossface Chickenwing and eventual finish of a cross armbreaker. He worked the back almost to piss Roddy off more and one-up him. He started working the leg late into the match to again show off what a proficient wrestler he is, and to put a stop to Roderick’s assault on his back. And there was still more depth to this story, as the match marked Danielson’s character transition from Backlund-esque babyface to cocky tweener. I can't forget about Roderick Strong as he was great in this too his facials and selling were superb, and he worked pretty much 40 minutes from his back there, putting over his defiance in the face of a decimation from the American Dragon tremendously. Only real thing holding it back was that finish came out of nowhere as Bryan was so irate that Strong wasn't saying down so he knock him out cold with stiff elbows. ****1/2