Bryan Danielson v Alex Shelley (ROH Arena Warfare, 3/11/06)
Okay so I guess I lied when I said I wasn't for watching this. '06 is maybe my least favourite year of Danielson's ROH run (or the part of that run I cared enough to follow. I stopped paying attention to ROH in 2008). Everything was just so LONG. I get that it was Gabe who booked his title run like that, but regardless of who was deciding he needed to go a full bastard hour with Colt Cabana I was burned out on him that year and haven't had much interest in revisiting it. I remembered this being another lengthy affair. I've been enjoying Shelley more than I expected though, and my friend told me it was thirty three minutes rather than a hundred and three. It was in fact just a shade over half an hour and honestly I didn't think it needed to even be that long. HOWEVER, they're in the old ECW arena here - a first for ROH - and Danielson explicitly says before the match that he's going to show these fucks a proper technical exhibition. He'll show them how a REAL wrestler does it, so a match like this in that context makes some sense. Prolly. The pre-match stuff was tremendous and Danielson was a hoot messing with the old ECW faithful. "That little girl can NOT fuck me UP!" He then threatens to punch the little girl in the face and backhand her mother, then a few minutes later nearly hops the rail and the little girl just looks at him in disgust. Some portly guy in the crowd says something or other and both Danielson and Shelley have a go at him. My favourite part of the match was the early matwork, which lasted about ten minutes or so. They interspersed that with Shelley throwing a rager on the mic about not telling the burger-flipper how to do HIS job so why is that guy telling Alex Shelley how to wrestle? I guess it's heel v heel as neither guy attempts to endear himself to the fans, and in fact both actively show contempt for them at several points. Shelley might be a mat wiz but he's not out-wizarding Danielson on the mat in the year 2006 and Danielson clearly finds great amusement in that. Shelley tries to work the leg and it lasts about a minute before Danielson puts him in his place again, then I guess just to show him how it's supposed to be done he starts picking apart Shelley's leg. Goes for the surfboard stretch, does the ooohhhh part as the crowd anticipate the payoff, then flips them the double bird and says "fuck you people" before just stomping Shelley's knees into the mat. Shelley eventually takes over and works the neck and shoulder for the Border City Stretch, and I guess this is ultimately used to set up Sliced Bread #2. Because he tries it at a few different points and can't hit it, but it's always looming in the background after Shelley's run through all of his other stuff. Danielson hucking both Shelley and Nana into the front row right by the little girl, her mother and the same portly guy from earlier ruled, as did his crazy somersault dive. That dive is one of the best ever because of how reckless and ungraceful it always looks. Finish is excellent with Danielson yet again having Sliced Bread #2 scouted and reversing it into a cradle (the exact same cradle Shelley scored a huge nearfall off of earlier, which is another awesome touch, particularly as Danielson's whole M.O. on the night was apparently to show up Shelley at every turn). So yeah, this was probably better than I expected. I don't feel like I wasted half an hour watching it and that...possibly counts for something?
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