Bryan Danielson won the AEW Men’s World Championship at All In London 2024 defeating Swerve Strickland. He was soon dispatched by Jon Moxley at WrestleDream in what is considered his final full-time wrestling match. Was it the right time for him to win?
Role-Players Realm is where GrapPro explores the “What if?” in wrestling discussion and analysis. Fantasy booking can often be mixed up in editorial analysis and I would like to try to separate the two. What I think could have happened or what could happen isn’t always the same as what I think should have happened or what should happen.
Danielson’s win was clearly something Tony Khan desperately wanted. He wanted to see this ROH legend and pro wrestling legend win his top championship before winding down his career. His hesitation to pull the trigger earlier led to him doing it at a time when Danielson’s body was breaking down and unable to handle the responsibility of being a reliable champion.
The other issue is that it cut right into the year long story of Swerve Strickland and Hangman Adam Page, a program that should have main evented All In instead of All Out. By taking the title off Swerve, it was no longer about Page ensuring Swerve was no longer champion. Page simply distracted Swerve in the Danielson match to build it into the story. It should have been about the title. Neither man has really had the same momentum since, despite both being top performers in AEW.
So here’s the situation we are running into. Tony Khan wants to say Bryan Danielson was a former AEW Men’s World Champion. The end of his full-time career was not a good time to do it. So when was? I’ll give three potential times they could have went with Bryan Danielson and decide the best.
Scenario One: Revolution 2022
Hangman Adam Page won the AEW Men’s World Championship from Kenny Omega at Full Gear 2021. He immediately ran into Danielson, having a 60 minute time limit draw followed by defeating Danielson to open 2022. It helped a lot to solidify Page as a credible world champion. AEW followed with Page defending against Adam Cole at Revolution before losing to CM Punk at Double or Nothing.
Danielson would face a returning Jon Moxley before forming Blackpool Combat Club with Moxley, where both men would play co-leaders under the guidance of William Regal. It was a fraught relationship, which almost fell apart when Regal quit the company. I could write an RPG Realm alone on how the Blackpool Combat Club should have broken up at that point, but that’s not for today.
It’s clear that Tony Khan, despite crowning a young in his prime AEW Men’s World Champion, he wasn’t as dedicated to Hangman as his fans were. He wanted to see his new toys get a shot at the title. So what if he just did that? What if instead of Page beating Danielson in the rematch on Dynamite, they pushed it to Revolution?
It would be disappointing to see, but Danielson was already playing the role of heel, and having William Regal come in to give him an advantage against Page to win the championship would have been a good way to get the title on the American Dragon. Does it hurt Page? Of course, but he’d be getting hurt anyway down the road against Punk. This just has it happen earlier. You also avoid (at least temporarily avoid, it was abound to fall apart inevitably) the issues that started between Punk and The Elite.
With Danielson now champion, Tony Khan can now book a big ROH/WWE match up in Danielson versus Punk for the AEW Men’s World Championship, which of course CM Punk would win. Punk wanted the title and he was going to get it as the shiniest of toys. So this wouldn’t be a long run for Danielson, but you could have still got him making some exceptional title defences between Revolution and Double or Nothing.
With Moxley no longer facing Danielson to eventually form Blackpool Combat Club, it allows you to feud the men against each other for All Out.
Scenario Two: Tournament of Champions
Page gets his run, Punk gets hurt for his run, returns, loses to Moxley, then beats him, then Punk gets in the Brawl Out and suspended.
AEW needed a new Men’s World Champion so AEW Owner Tony Khan launched the Tournament of Champions. Hangman Adam Page faced Bryan Danielson. Sammy Guevara faced Darby Allin. The winner of Danielson/Page faced Chris Jericho. The winner of Sammy/Darby faced Jon Moxley. The winner of the semi final matches faced each other in the final at AEW: Grand Slam 2022.
Remember, at this point the championship went from Hangman to Punk in May, Punk vacates, Moxley becomes interim champion, Moxley defeats Punk to become undisputed champion, the week later Punk beats Moxley to become champion, then vacates due to suspension, so now we’re crowning a new champion. The belt has been passed around a bit.
AEW decided to go with Moxley winning the championship again, only to drop to MJF at Full Gear. All the belt switching is likely why Tony decided to keep the AEW Men’s World Championship on Maxwell Jacob Friedman for over a year.
I think this should have been the time for Bryan Danielson. Danielson was MJF’s first major PPV opponent at Revolution 2023. I think this is where you have Danielson defeat Moxley to become AEW Men’s World Champion, and then keep him champion beyond Full Gear. You have him stay champion until Revolution 2023 where you still do the Iron match against MJF and have Danielson drop to MJF.
This gives you essentially a September 21, 2022 to March 5, 2023 title run. More than enough time for Danielson to have several great title defences, including on pay per view with Full Gear. He was originally in a four way match for the ROH Men’s World Championship. You can have MJF face him and do the rematch as an Iron match so it feels like MJF really earned the championship.
It shortens MJF’s reign a little but that’s fine. A five month run is a healthy amount of time for Bryan. MJF can still get his run. Danielson gets his.
Scenario Three: Revolution 2024
Danielson ended 2023 losing the Continental Classic and then going to New Japan Pro Wrestling to begin 2024. He lost to Kazuchika Okada in a dream bout and later had another dream bout against Zack Sabre Jr. in February. He would follow these losses to one against Eddie Kingston for the AEW Continental Championship at Revolution.
Meanwhile, Samoa Joe beat MJF at World’s End because MJF needed to drop to someone with the failure of his Devil storyline. Joe didn’t really have a well built number one contender, but the Hangman Page/Swerve Strickland storyline was the hottest in the company, so it made sense to have the two men collide again, this time with the AEW Men’s World Championship on the line. Joe would win the match at Revolution, but later drop to Swerve Strickland who was the hottest wrestler in AEW at the time.
What if Danielson kept his losses in NJPW over there and went on a tear to start 2024 to become number one contender and faced Samoa Joe at Revolution? This allows Page and Swerve to have more of a number one contenders match. Danielson can beat Joe to become AEW Men’s World Champion at Revolution, beginning his victory run earlier.
You can either have Danielson keep the title all year and have him drop it at WrestleDream like what happened, or you can have Danielson lose the title before All In. Having him lose the title before All In allows you to do the Nigel McGuinness match in Wembley instead of Grand Slam. It allows the focus to be on Swerve and Hangman in the main event, and gives you a period of Danielson being healthier for his title run.
The only issues with it are the fact that Danielson, like Joe, weren’t the hottest acts in AEW at the time. Neither should have been champion at that time. Danielson winning might also take some of the magic away from Sting’s final match in the main event, which Revolution 2024 was built around.
I would be perfectly fine even if they had Danielson win the title before Revolution (have Danielson face Samoa Joe as a Dynamite title defence instead of Hook) you just can’t have it interfere with his NJPW and CMLL bookings at the time.
Worth Changing The Past?
The first scenario is sort of a damage control scenario. The hope is if you don’t have Page doing a program with Punk then maybe you can avoid the problems between Elite and Punk. But those issues were absolutely inevitable. You’re just delaying the inevitable and cutting Page’s legs while you do it. It’s unnecessary.
Scenario three is hard to execute due to Revolution 2024 being about Sting’s retirement and Danielson fulfilling some dream match scenarios in NJPW and CMLL. 2024 was just a bad year to try it, and we saw the results.
Scenario two? Scenario two works. Moxley didn’t have to win the title again. Even if Danielson wins just to drop it to MJF at Full Gear, which isn’t as ideal as keeping him champion until Revolution 2023? It still makes more sense than just going with Mox again.
Danielson also had his first match in AEW at Grand Slam 2021, so it would have felt good if a year after he won the AEW Men’s World Championship at Grand Slam 2022. That period in AEW really could have used a good story like Danielson being world champ with the Brawl Out crap all in the air.
AEW brought back Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks from suspension at some point too, so you could have done a rematch between Omega and Danielson for the AEW Men’s World Championship again before Danielson dropped back to MJF.
I do think if Danielson already had a quality run between 2022 and 2023, then in 2024 you’re not rushing his full-time retirement in the way they did. The Nigel match can happen at All In London, Danielson’s final match to Moxley is the focal point of WrestleDream without the championship on the line, and is actually the heat that Moxley uses to get himself his match for the title at Full Gear. Everything breathes better.
I think this is a place where history changing would be a good thing.
