I think I actually preferred their first match to this one, which isn't something I'd have expected prior to watching them considering one match lasts an hour and the other does not last an hour, and also one has tonnes of blood and the match that lasts an hour only has half that much blood. But this was pretty great, even the parts that didn't have all the blood! I liked the opening stretch a lot. Danielson has wrestled a goodly amount of sixty-minute matches in his long and acclaimed career while Page has wrestled exactly one. If it goes the distance this time it'll be decided by the judges, and even if the last match ended with Page on top, Danielson is obviously confident that the same won't happen again. His jumping jack horse shit was just about my favourite part of the first match so I loved him doing it straight out the gate here, killing some time while riling up Page into the bargain, even doing it right in front of the judges while Jerry Lynn scribbles something in his wee notepad. It had the feel of Mayweather almost toying with someone he knew he'd dominate on points by the end. Then Page decided none of that would be happening and melted him with a tope. Page in control is good stuff, but the match goes up a level when he tries another tope and Danielson chucks him into the guardrail. Danielson is Danielson working the arm and of course it's good, then Page takes a header into the steps and the match goes up a level again. Danielson was a demon attacking the cut and trying to draw as much blood as possible, leaving a small puddle of it on the immaculately shiny steps. I thought the strategy shift from him played out great. He went after the arm when that opportunity presented itself, which of course made sense because it takes away the stupid slingshot lariat thing that's way too stupid for a name as cool as Buckshot, but then an even better opportunity arose and Danielson let his vicious side take over. When Danielson gets cut open as well (with a nice ode to Unified, but not idiotic as fuck) you maybe question that strategy shift. Danielson never blazed his trail engaging in bloodbaths and ripping at cut open foreheads. He's a technician, he operates with precision, he'll pick you apart limb by limb and in the end, one way or another, you will submit. Playing Hangman's game was RISKY BUSINESS, DADDEH. Prolly. Either way the home stretch is super dramatic and had about as good a duelling headbutt exchange as you can get without it veering obviously into the sort of demented headbutt carry on someone with a history of concussions should not be doing. The bit where he collapsed in a heap to avoid the lariat ruled, mostly because it wasn't played as an Omega avoiding the Rainmaker moment but rather because three seconds later he was rolling Page up in the small package. Truly a moment of playing possum that even Bret Hart would've been proud of. Coincidentally these two had a third match on Dynamite the other night so I'll probably watch that this weekend. I'd also be happy if they just gave Danielson the belt and let him have an AEW equivalent of the ROH run. But cap every match at like 12 minutes or something. I would like that.
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