Bryan Danielson

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Bryan Danielson


Statistics
Ring name(s)	American Dragon Bryan Danielson
Billed height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Billed weight	185 lb (83 kg)
Born	May 22, 1981 Aberdeen, Washington
Resides	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Billed from	Aberdeen, Washington
Trained by	Texas Wrestling Academy Rudy Boy Gonzalez Shawn Michaels William Regal Tracy Smothers Bobby Eaton Masato Tanaka
Debut	1999

Bryan Danielson (born May 22, 1981 in Aberdeen, Washington) is an American independent professional wrestler, known as American Dragon. He is the current head trainer of the ROH Wrestling Academy.

1 Career
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

[edit] Career

Much like Mick Foley and Matt Hardy, Bryan Danielson was a backyard wrestler well before he became a professional wrestler; he competed in Backyard Championship Wrestling (BCW), where he won the heavyweight championship. In 1999, he was trained by Shawn Michaels at the Texas Wrestling Academy, and embarked on his first tour in Japan with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in December 1999. His first championship belt came in the form of the TWA (Texas Wrestling Alliance) Tag Team titles on March 21, 2000, as he and Spanky defeated Jeromy Sage and Ruben Cruz.

[edit] Ring of Honor

In 2002, Bryan Danielson joined Ring of Honor, where he is acknowledged as one of the "Founding Fathers" (along with Low Ki and Christopher Daniels), as he was one of the wrestlers who made the company prominent during its inception. On February 22, he main-evented ROH's debut show The Era of Honor Begins in a three-way match against Low Ki, and Daniels, which quickly put the company on the map. In January 2005, Danielson would embark on a bitter feud with Homicide, culminating in a best-of-five series of stipulation matches. Homicide dominated early as Danielson lost the first two matches, a Submission match and a Taped Fist match. However, Danielson emerged victorious in the remaining three matches, winning a Falls Count Anywhere match, a Lumberjack match, and a cage match at The Final Showdown on May 13.

Danielson was long regarded as the best wrestler in ROH to have never held a title belt; despite winning the company's inaugural Survival of the Fittest tournament in 2004, championship gold constantly eluded Danielson's grasp. It came to the point where in mid-2005, an ROH Newswire announced that Bryan Danielson had quit ROH after being frustrated by his inability to defeat Austin Aries for the ROH World Championship. Danielson had become frustrated in general with professional wrestling and planned to take time off to evaluate his career options. However, Danielson had several dates booked in Europe, thus the ROH Newswire was likely a storyline claim for Danielson's absence during this period. In May rumors started that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling was interested in signing Danielson, Samoa Joe, and CM Punk to contracts, which resulted in a memo allegedly being put out to (World Wrestling Entertainment Head of Talent Relations) John Laurinaitis to sign the three before TNA did; Samoa Joe signed with TNA and CM Punk signed with WWE, but Danielson remained with ROH.

[edit] ROH World Champion

Danielson would finally end the "best wrestler in ROH to have never held a title belt" albatross by defeating James Gibson for the ROH World Championship on September 17 at Glory by Honor IV. After this, he would not compete in an ROH ring until a month later (due to competing in IWA-Mid South), but he would make his return to successfully retain the championship against his arch nemesis Austin Aries on October 14. Danielson also made a successful defense against Christopher Daniels during ROH's A Night of Tribute show, where he knocked him out with a Roaring Elbow after a 30 minute bout. On December 17 at Final Battle 2005, he defeated Pro Wrestling NOAH star Naomichi Marufuji with a roll-up.

In early 2006, Danielson was embroiled in a feud with Chris Hero, as they had been exchanging words over the internet. This all culminated in a match on January 14. After invading Combat Zone Wrestling and brawling with Hero, the two wrestled at Ring of Honor's Hell Freezes Over, where Danielson retained the ROH World Championship. Following the match, Prince Nana offered to buy the ROH World Championship from him. When he refused, he was attacked by The Embassy (Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave).

Jimmy Rave challenged Danielson for the title at the Fourth Anniversary Show, after the Embassy won the 2006 trios tournament at Tag Wars 2006. In an effort to not be out done, Shelley challenged him for it on the show prior to the Anniversary Show, but it would not occur; the north east suffered a blizzard, so Prince Nana was unable to secure the flight for Shelley (who in reality had been pulled along with all the other TNA contracted wrestlers from the show, so they would not miss the TNA pay-per-view the following night). As a result, former ROH Champion and Embassy member Xavier faced Danielson in a losing effort, with Danielson eventually defeating Rave at the Fourth Anniversary Show and Shelley at Arena Warfare.

During April, Danielson became the head trainer at the ROH Wrestling School, replacing Austin Aries. In Danielson's next match on April 22, he defeated Colt Cabana in Philadelphia, at The 100th Show, with a roll-up in only six minutes (an unprecedented length for an ROH World Title defense). He came out later in the show and, after getting in a battle of wits with the CZW fans (who were there for the ROH vs. CZW six man war), he defeated Delirious when the referee stopped the contest after a series of MMA-style elbows. He would go on to defeate Delirious again in a rematch on May 13.

On July 15, at Death before Dishonor IV in Philadelphia, Danielson defeated Sonjay Dutt, who had signed an open contract for any CZW wrestler willing to challenge for the ROH World Title. Later on in the night, he participated in the ROH vs. CZW Cage of Death match, having occupied the vacant fifth slot on ROH's team. He was the third member of ROH's team to enter the cage, and his presence gave them a huge advantage over CZW's team. However, just as CZW's third member was about to enter, Danielson revealed his true intention for entering the match as he attacked Samoa Joe and left the arena. Joe was rendered unable to continue in the match, and ROH's team would not fully recover until much later, when Homicide made a surprise appearance.

On August 12 during Ring of Honor's first UK tour, Danielson defeated Nigel McGuinness to unify the ROH World and ROH Pure Wrestling championships. He then successfully defended the title twice the following night in Broxbourne, first against NOAH wrestler SUWA and second against Roderick Strong. On August 25 and August 26, he competed in two 2/3 falls matches (one against Nigel McGuinness and the other against Colt Cabana) that ended in a one hour draw. During his match with Cabana, Danielson fell outside the ring and landed on his right shoulder, separating it. He tore two tendons in the shoulder and tore another tendon in his chest. As a result, his ROH World Championship match with Austin Aries on September 15 was postponed, and his FIP Championship match against Davey Richards on September 8 was cancelled. Danielson returned to wrestling at Glory by Honor: Night 2 and retained the ROH World Championship in a match against KENTA. He defeated Austin Aries on October 7 in their rescheduled match to retain the title.

[edit] Late 2006

Danielson lost the Full Impact Pro Heavyweight Championship on November 10, 2006, in Inverness, Florida, to Roderick Strong. A week later, Danielson debuted in Pro Wrestling NOAH, teaming with Bison Smith and Eddie Edwards to defeat KENTA, Ricky Marvin and Akitoshi Saito after making Marvin submit to the Cattle Mutilation. Danielson's last match of the tour took place on December 2 at the Yokohoma Bunka Gymnasium in a losing effort against KENTA.

On December 8, Danielson defeated Samoa Joe in a Steel Cage match in Chicago, Illinois when Samoa Joe was standing on the top rope, with the choke on Danielson who was hunched over the cage trying to escape. Bryan Danielson just fell off the top of the cage out of the choke and was declared the winner.

On December 23 at Final Battle 2006, Danielson faced Homicide in a competitive bout that featured Danielson attempting to get himself disqualified twice, but he ultimately lost the match after a lariat from Homicide. Following the match, Danielson presented Homicide with the ROH World Championship, and has since been taking time off from wrestling in order to heal his shoulder.

On March 19 ROHWrestling.com released the following statement: "The days are counting down for Bryan Danielson's return to ROH."

[edit] Early 2007

In March 2007, Danielson made it clear that his intentions are focused towards the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This coincides with the fact that the National Wrestling Alliance and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling are in the process of a split that will require TNA to return the title along with the NWA World Tag Team Championships back to the NWA. Since Danielson's announcement, many top stars from various NWA territories have also issued challenges to the NWA World Heavyweight Title, suggesting a title tournament similar to those set up to crown a new champion after the withdrawal of World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling. If such a tournament happens, Danielson would be tipped the favourite to win the World title.

[edit] In wrestling

Finishing and signature moves

Cattle Mutilation / Arms Across America (Bridging grounded double chickenwing)
Crossface chickenwing, sometimes with body scissors
Regal-Plex (Bridging leg hook belly to back suplex)
Repeated elbow strikes to the side of the opponent's head, while one of the opponent's arms is trapped between Danielson's legs and the other is held back by his other arm
Small package
Dragon suplex
Roaring Elbow (Discus elbow smash)
Airplane spin
Diving headbutt
German suplex
Release underhook suplex
Rolling fireman's carry slam
Running big boot
Surfboard
Tiger suplex
Top rope belly to back suplex

Nicknames

"American Dragon"

Quotes

"I am Mr. Small Package!"
"The best champion in wrestling today!"
"I have 'til five, referee!"
"Best wrestler in the world!"
"Tap!"
"Pain is temporary. Pride is forever."
"It's the Final Countdown!" (Said with audience in unison in synch to theme music The Final Countdown)