Bryan Danielson Achieves Incredible Milestone At AEW Revolution 2023

Written by Craig Ballantyne • Published 10th March 2023
Bryan Danielson

The 60-Minute Iron Match between Bryan Danielson and MJF at AEW Revolution has gone down a storm with fans and critics alike.

The seeds of the bout were planted when Maxwell Jacob Friedman brutally assaulted Danielson’s friend and mentor, William Regal. The attack wrote Regal off television to explain his departure from the company while also kicking off the rivalry between The American Dragon and the Salt of the Earth.

The match itself saw Friedman use all of the dirty tricks he could think of to try to take out Danielson. This included low blows, using the ring post, and even an elbow drop through a table. However, Danielson was able to use his technical prowess to take MJF down on multiple occasions and got one of his three falls by forcing the champion to submit to a Regal Stretch submission hold.

By the time the bout reached the end of the 60-Minute time limit, Friedman had also reached three falls, leading Tony Khan to order the match to continue under sudden death rules. MJF quickly rammed an oxygen tank into Danielson’s head before locking in the LeBell lock for the submission victory at just over 65 minutes.

Although Danielson lost, he still achieved a personal best as Dave Meltzer awarded the bout 5.75 stars in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This is the highest-rated match in Danielson’s career so far.

Prior to this, he had achieved three 5-star ratings, all in AEW. These were his matches against Kenny Omega at the 2021 Grand Slam, against Adam Page at Winter Is Coming the same year, and the Anarchy In The Arena match at Double Or Nothing in 2022 which saw Danielson team with Eddie Kingston, Jon Moxley, Santana and Ortiz to take on Chris Jericho’s Jericho Appreciation Society.

Bryan Danielson said it was “time to go home” after loss

In an emotional promo filmed after his loss at Revolution, Danielson admitted that he had lost sight of what was important in his desire to fight.

He explained that when he was in the LeBell Lock, he had lost the feeling in his arms and leg, at which point he realised he was putting himself before his family.

When I woke up from being unconscious and I’m in the LeBell Lock, my first instinct was to f*cking fight. Then as I was fighting I realised I can’t feel my arms and my left leg didn’t have any strength anymore and when Max said after the Iron Man match I wouldn’t be able to play with my kids, it dawned on me – he’s right. I was putting myself before my family.

More than tapping out, that made me more ashamed than anything else. It’s time for me to go home.” (h/t TJR Wrestling)