Match of the Day: Danielson vs Storm

ROH - Better Than Our Best, 1st April 2006

With my matches of the week, I've tried to have a variety to show different eras and, I suppose, different styles. I'm not too hot on describing the differences in styles, but hopefully I'll see it more and more clearly as the weeks go on and I see more and more matches.

I've got a few aims in doing this particular feature on the blog: I want to show my favourite matches and memories from my fandom. I also want others to have the opportunity to see these matches from different times - this is probably the most important part of it. I can imagine that I'm not alone in finding it extremely difficult in finding what to watch when it comes to wrestling. There is just SO MUCH to choose from from the last thirty years. There's obviously a lot of sh*t out there, but there's a hell of a lot more QUALITY to be found from the last three decades (and beyond).

So far, I have had matches from NXT, WWE from 2001, WWF from the early 90s and last week I began to watch the Flair-Steamboat matches from 1989 NWA. This week follows that [random] trend(?!) with a Ring of Honour match from 2006.

I was round a friend's house the other week and looking through his collection of ROH DVDs, I noticed a few matches that caught my eye: Bryan Danielson (probably better known by his current ring name, Daniel Bryan) against Lance Storm jumped off the DVD cover at me to start with.

I've already had a Lance Storm match on my 'Match of the Day' series and that's for good reason. I've heard so many good things about Storm over the years, listened to him on various podcasts, and read a few articles by him on his feelings of wrestling and how it should be approached and performed. From being a guy that I didn't really think about too much, he has become someone that I feel is a fountain of knowledge that should be listened to to further anyone's education in the world of wrestling.

This match is 28 minutes of pure enjoyment. It gives you a tonne of wrestling for your money and, in all honesty, probably hasn't been seen by as many people as it should have been.

Unfortunately, I've only been able to find a Youtube link to the highlights of this match. It's 5 minutes worth, so not too bad, but I would urge you to find the full match, either on DVD or if you have much better skills of finding stuff on the internet than me (hint: you probably have!).

I'm not too big on ROH (only watching a few of their weekly shows a few months ago), but someone like Lance Storm coming in and putting your champion over is a great thing in any promotion's history. Putting him over in a near-30 minute joy-to-watch, is even better. I'm not sure if the WWE were keeping tabs on Danielson back then, but showings like this, against proven guys, can't have been a bad thing for the guy's career.

@jimmosangle