The Best Of The Rest 11.22.08: Volume 66 – The Forgotten Ones – Danielson vs. Hero

For several years ROH and CZW run their shows in relatively the same area around the same times, but thoughts of resentment towards one another were never made public. It was all about to change however, because in the later months of 2008 both CZW and ROH announced that they would run a double-header. CZW would run the afternoon show and ROH would take the evening. Well Chris Hero wasn’t too psyched about this. Hero found it insulting to have to share with ROH, much less go on before them. So at Cage of Death in 2008 Hero challenged Bryan Danielson to a match and to show up at the CZW show. After this Danielson accepted and the match was to go on at the ROH show. During the afternoon of 1/14/2006 Bryan Danielson interrupted the CZW show and gave the fans, and the company, an enormous verbal beat down. Hero ran out and the two began to brawl. In from the crowd comes some ROH regulars to the rescue of Danielson, out comes CZW wrestlers and absolute madness ensued. The crowd was going absolutely nuts and the whole ordeal came off amazing. Then came the night show. Chris Hero was finally in ROH, for this alone the match holds some importance. “The guy who wasn’t good enough for ROH” was there and trying to take title. He came to the ring, from the crowd, to the CZW theme song. HEEL TACTICS!!! Out comes American Dragon. There are CZW and ROH fans going nuts. The moment was there, and the match was on.

The two immediately faced off in the middle of the ring and the animosity was on clear display. This had such a big feel about it. The match started with Dragon getting the better of Hero in the exchanges, and Hero playing his heel character perfectly. A series of “YAY-BOO” spots and we’re back to wrestling. There was a bit of brawling on the outside, but nothing much of note. Once back in the ring the two hit the match and engaged in a technical battle like only they can. Hero took over and was repeatedly working the arm of Dragon. PSYCHOLOGY!!! Dragon began working his comeback, but Hero cut him off and trapped him in the Hangman’s Clutch. Dragon got out and began fighting back, eventually getting Hero in the Cattle Mutilation. Hero escaped. More back-and-forth action until Hero landed a series of Cravate Busters and re-applied the Hangman’s Clutch. You can see here that some of the ROH fans were beginning to get a bit nervous and thought that Hero might actually take the strap over to the dreaded yellow and black. Danielson got out again only to fall into the Hero’s Welcome; some reacted like they thought it was over, but not yet. Dragon was able to harness enough energy to fight back with a series of forearms and apply the Crossface Chicken Wing. He sat back with the hold, wrenched, and Hero has no choice but to tap. The battle with CZW was over… for the time being.

With the significance this matches holds it’s strange to see it go forgotten, but much of it makes sense. As good as this match was it wasn’t the best outing these wrestling wizards have had so some of the wrestling purist may not give it much recognition for that reason. With the amazing work that ROH was putting out at the time set the bar very high, therefore this match was deemed simply mediocre. While that may be the case, the story told in this match, and the significance it holds, makes it one that shouldn’t be forgotten. Also at the time this match occurred it didn’t seem like many felt there was going to be a CZW-ROH feud, it was just more or less going to be the companies taking advantage of the situation so many may not remember the true significance this matches hold. No matter the reason, this match is a classic and an excellent match for the old-school, 80’s style wrestling fan in all of us.

Well that’s all for me this week. Come back next time for more delicious wrestling banter.

*This Week’s YouTube Sendoff*

Can NOT fuckin’ wait.

Take Care and I’ll see you back here next time.

-Alex