Top 10 AEW Debuts

3. Bryan Danielson

AEW All Out 2021 being the best damn Pay Per View in AEW history and possibly ever: Part 3

Where were you when the landscape of pro-wrestling changed and Bryan Danielson debuted for AEW?

Like I said, AEW knows how to listen to their audience and mightily deliver the goods.

So, when at the end of All Out, when the crowd expected Danielson but got Adam Cole instead, it was still pretty good and satisfying. Although it meant the heels would be on top at the end of a PPV and the crowd wouldn’t go home happy.

In fact, Kenny Omega was about to do exactly that, send the crowd home happy. He was about to bid the crowd goodbye and goodnight when the opening note of the Flight of the Valkyries, or as it’s now repackaged as “Born for Greatness” hit, and the crowd went nuts!

Surely, they can’t be doing this. Two giant debuts? Back to back? It’s never been done before.

Well, it happened, it damn well happened. Because the fans wanted it. Danielson debuted right after Cole and helped the babyfaces fend off the heels. After the show went off the air he cut a goosebump-inducing promo in which he promised that he was here to Goddamn wrestle!

What we’ve got in AEW so far from Danielson is his American Dragon persona from his ROH days. An intense pro-wrestler who stretches kicks and tortures his opponents. This guy knows he’s the best wrestler in the world and he’s going to stretch anyone who dares to say otherwise.

His first match was against Kenny Omega himself, although crucially, it wasn’t for the title, because title shots in AEW are earned.

Danielson and Omega put on a wrestling clinic that only two wrestlers of their caliber can. Two of the greatest wrestlers of this generation going at it with a level of intensity rarely seen before. They threw everything at each other, both of them refusing to go down. They wrestled a 30-minute draw that earned Danielson his first 5-star rating for Dave Meltzer.

I have to say this. Danielson’s first match outside of WWE received 5-stars? Meltzer’s critics would’ve had a field day.

Anyway, Danielson followed this performance by twisting Nick Jackson into a pretzel and submitting him to the Cattle Mutilation.

There’s going to be a rematch between Omega and Danielson soon, and I’m predicting it. The Meltzer 5-star scale is going to be broken once again,