Danielson vs. Thatcher leads to more dream matches

Bryan Danielson is trying to win his way to an Iron Man match with Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the AEW World title at Revolution on Mar. 4.

Last week, that meant facing Brian Cage. Danielson won, but in the process Cage and MJF injured the American Dragon’s arm. The only reason they weren’t able to do more damage was Konosuke Takeshita, Bryan’s first opponent in this gauntlet. Takeshita idolizes the Dragon, and vowed to have his back for the rest of this run.

During Danielson’s dream match with Timothy Thatcher (formerly of Evolve and WWE, currently of Japan’s NOAH, always one of the best technical wrestlers in the world), the referee was temporarily “knocked out”. The World champ figured he’d use that opportunity to make sure Thatcher won. But before he and his Dynamite Diamond Ring could make it to the ring, a hoodied individual made sure he couldn’t get there.

That wasn’t enough to save Danielson from Thatcher’s arm bar, however. His own skill and determination were, and after the ref recovered he made it to the ropes to force a break. It wasn’t long after that before a Busaiku Knee ended things.

The action was still taking place backstage, and that brawl led to Tony Khan booking an Eliminator match between Takeshita & Friedman for next Wednesday. If the Japanese star can beat Max, he’ll get a World title shot.

MJF wasn’t done there. He composed himself so he could head to RUSH’s locker room and offer him the same deal he offered Cage — a boatload of money in exchange for beating Danielson, and/or ripping his arm off.

AEW & MJF may lean on these gauntlet gimmicks a little too much, but it’s hard to complain about it when we get matches this good.

Get complete results and coverage of everything from tonight’s episode of Dynamite here.