Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #MouthingOff (with MikeJC) and this week, something a little different. Instead of a full on Dynamite review. This will be a review of one match, the one everyone is talking about, Hangman versus Dragon, Adam “Hangman” Page vs. “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. This is a special match and instead of no review at all these week because of life getting in the way I figure you all deserved something so why not just my true feelings on this very special match. So, this is going to be more of an analysis of a match that took up more then half of this weeks Dynamite.
AEW World Championship: “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson
This is one of the best one hour broadways I’ve ever seen. There was so many layers to this match. It started off as Bryan and Page testing each other, each guy trying to get the upper hand, then the pace picked up and Bryan started working on multiple body parts but exclusively the right shoulder. Then things started looking grim for Hangman when he gets busted open and Bryan is completely in control, to the point where doctors and referees are checking Hangman throughout one commercial break to assure he can still compete and Bryan is taunting the fans while that is happening. Then Hangman turns on another gear and completely flips the momentum regaining control and working on the knee of Bryan. So at that point over forty-five minutes into the match we are once again at an impasse.
Both guys are spent, fighting for control once again, Adam Page is at a point where he was once bleeding a lot during the match and now he’s not bleeding at all. The story is back to where it was at the beginning of the match, they are jocking for position once again and neither man can put the other away. The crowd is spent, both competitors are spent, Bryan is now getting more aggressive in his offense, going for his arm trapped stomps that he’s brutalized so many with and after we are told there’s five minutes remaining, Bryan goes to attempt another move and Page turns it into the Dead Eye which fully got me believing the match was over there but Bryan kicks out. Here is where Page gives Bryan a taste of his own medicine and does his own arm trapped stomps to Bryan and goes to set up for the Buck Shot Lariat.
This is thwarted as Bryan turns this into the LeBell Lock, at this point we are at two minutes remaining and Bryan has the the submission on for more then a minute and Page is fighting it off and Bryan is trying to keep locking it on, once Page finally fights out of it he hits a huge clothesline and then, goes for and hits a huge Buckshot Lariat, but we reach a time limit draw before Page can capitalize and get the cover. There’s so much good to talk about in this match and not enough words to put down to explain it. I love the story of the match, I love everything about both guys offense, especially Bryan’s constant changing of his offense and finding different ways to hurt his opponents, especially the Cattle Mutilation, and the Regal Plex my god, what a match.
Match Rating: 9/10
There is so much good to say about this match and it’s almost perfect, but there’s a few reasons that it isn’t, number one, the draw, I’ve seen a Bryan Danielson draw before, and that one made sense, his draw with Kenny made too much sense because Kenny was the champion at the time it was non-title, and Bryan couldn’t afford to lose that match being that early in his AEW run. This match could have solidified Page’s reign as champion by beating the guy that hasn’t been beaten, and Bryan didn’t need to be protected here. Sure, have a rematch down the line but do we need that rematch? Absolutely not, not even a little bit. Number two reason why this match isn’t perfect, the commercials, now I get it, you have sponsors that pay for ad time, that’s the whole point of commercial breaks, but with a match like this you need to get a single sponsor that sponsors the whole hour so you don’t have to go to commercial during this match, I don’t care if every twenty minutes Excalibur goes “this special first hour of Dynamite is brought to you by ‘insert sponsor name’ “, to keep from going to commercial during a match like this. There was five commercial breaks during this match and that hurt it, not by much but it did, watch this match it’s worth it.
So that’s gonna do it for this very special edition of #MouthingOff (with MikeJC): Hangman Versus Dragon. Let us know if you like this kind of stuff maybe they will happen more often when things can’t be as they were and life gets in the way of a full article of a full episode of Dynamite, maybe you enjoy this more then a full analysis of the whole show? Let us know in the comments.
What are your thoughts on this huge world title match on the 2021 edition of Winter is Coming? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling.
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