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Bryan Danielson (born May 22, 1981 in Aberdeen, Washington) is an American independent professional wrestler, also known as American Dragon (sometimes shortened to AmDrag). He is the current reigning Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Champion. Danielson is the current head trainer of the ROH Wrestling Academy.

Career

Quest for the Title

Danielson is acknowledged as one of the "Founding Fathers" of Ring of Honor (ROH), along with Low Ki and Christopher Daniels, being one of the wrestlers who made the company prominent during its inception in 2002. On February 22, he main-evented ROH's debut show The Era of Honor Begins in a 3-way match against Low Ki, and Daniels, which quickly put the company on the map.

Danielson was long regarded as the best wrestler in ROH to have never held a title belt. Despite winning the company's inaugural Survival of the Fittest tournament in 2004 (defeating Austin Aries in the finals), championship gold constantly eluded Danielson's grasp.

In January 2005, Danielson would embark on a bitter feud with Homicide, culminating in a best-of-five series of stipulation matches. Homicide dominated early as Danielson lost the first two matches, a Submission match and a Taped Fist match. However, Danielson emerged victorious in the remaining three matches, winning a Falls Count Anywhere match, a Lumberjack match, and a cage match at The Final Showdown on May 13.

In April, Danielson participated in ECCW's 5th Annual Pacific Cup Tournament, a tournament he also participated in in 2003. Danielson once again advanced to the finals, losing a three-way dance to Puma and Aaron Idol. After the match, Danielson smashed the Pacific Cup trophy and said that New Japan Pro Wrestling was better than ECCW. He and Puma then attacked the Pacific Cup winner Aaron Idol. This started a brief feud between ECCW and NJPW, which was dropped.

In mid-2005, an ROH Newswire announced that Bryan Danielson had quit ROH after being frustrated by inability to defeat Austin Aries for the ROH World Championship. Danielson had in fact become frustrated in general with professional wrestling and planned to take time off to evaluate his career options. However, his official website revealed that Danielson had several dates booked in Europe, indicating that he was not done in the world of pro wrestling, and that the ROH Newswire was likely an excuse for Danielson's absence during his tour of Europe.

In May rumors started that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling was interested in signing Danielson, Samoa Joe, and CM Punk to contracts. A memo was allegedly put out to World Wrestling Entertainment Head of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis, telling him to sign the three before TNA did. Since then, Samoa Joe signed with TNA and CM Punk signed with WWE. However, Danielson has not committed to either promotion, and this may have something to do with the length of his current title reign.

ROH World Champion

Danielson would eventually make a triumphant return to Ring of Honor, where on September 17, he defeated James Gibson for the ROH World Heavyweight Championship. Danielson retained the title into 2006 with successful title defenses against Austin Aries, Steve Corino, Roderick Strong, Chris Sabin and Rocky Romero; including November 19 at A Night of Tribute, where he knocked out Christopher Daniels with a Roaring Elbow after a 30 minute bout, and at Final Battle on December 17, where he rolled up Pro Wrestling NOAH star Naomichi Marufuji for the win.

In early 2006, Danielson was embroiled in a feud with Chris Hero of Combat Zone Wrestling. They had been taking shots at each other over the internet, with their intense rivalry ending in two matches in Philadelphia on January 14. One was a "fight" in CZW, and the other was for the ROH World Title at Hell Freezes Over, with Danielson coming out victorious. Danielson also defended the World Title on January 28, at Dissension in Cleveland, defeating A.J. Styles.

Danielson next made two ROH World Title defenses against members of The Embassy, one against Jimmy Rave at the 4th Anniversary Show in Edison, and one against Alex Shelley at Arena Warfare in Philadelphia. This was due to the Embassy's win at Tag Wars on January 27 in Dayton, granting them each a match with any opponent. Danielson defeated both to remain the ROH World champion. He also gave former ROH champion Xavier his first rematch for the title on February 11 at Unscripted 2 in Long Island, and teamed with a returning CM Punk to defeat Jimmy Rave and Adam Pearce the same night.

On March 25, at Best in the World, Danielson and Samoa Joe teamed up in a dream match as they took on NOAH's GHC Jr. Heavyweight champion KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji in New York City, with KENTA pinning Danielson. On March 31, at Supercard of Honor, Danielson defeated Roderick Strong after almost going to a time-limit draw, in their third match-up for the ROH World Title, which Strong had earned by pinning Danielson in a Tag Team Title match at Tag Wars. The following night, Danielson defended the World Title against former WWE, WCW, and ECW Superstar Lance Storm, defeating him by submission (via the Cattle Mutilation). Storm had come out of retirement for this match in Chicago.

During April, Danielson became the head trainer at the ROH Wrestling School, taking over from Austin Aries. In Danielson's next match on April 22, he defeated Colt Cabana in Philadelphia, at ROH's 100th Show, with a roll-up after around 5 minutes, an unprecedented length for an ROH World Title defense. Later on the 100th Show he successfully defended against Delirious, when the referee stopped the contest after a series of MMA elbows. He also won the rematch on May 13. The feud came about after the pair lost a tag team match against The Embassy on March 30, at Dragon Gate Challenge in Detroit.

At Weekend of Champions, Danielson successfully defended against Jimmy Yang on April 28 in Dayton, but lost to ROH Pure champion Nigel McGuinness in a Pure rules match the following night in Cleveland. Both titles were at stake, but because Danielson lost by countout, he retained his ROH World Title since only the Pure Title can change hands by countout. The re-match is due to take place on June 29 in Cleveland. On May 12 in Long Island, Danielson teamed with Christopher Daniels against NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and Colt Cabana, with Cage pinning Daniels. On June 3, at Destiny in East Windsor, Danielson faced his old rival Homicide for the ROH World Title, again winning when the referee stopped the contest after a series of MMA elbows.

Recently rivals, including Colt Cabana, have been making fun of Bryan Danielson because of his pale, untanned complexion in an attempt to break his nerve. Danielson again successfully retained against Cabana on June 10 at Full Impact Pro Impact of Honor in Orlando.

On June 17 in Manhattan, Danielson competed in a non-title one fall three way, against KENTA and Samoa Joe, where KENTA pinned Danielson with the Go 2 Sleep, marking the second time KENTA has pinned Danielson. Afterwards, KENTA and Samoa Joe made clear their intentions to go after the ROH World title, along with Homicide, who made comments concerning the ROH World title earlier that night. On June 23 in Detroit, he was able to defend his title successfully in a 3 Way Elimination match against B.J. Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs. On June 24, he defeated Cabana with a small package in Colt's hometown of Chicago.

On July 15, at Death Before Dishonor IV in Philadelphia, Danielson defeated Sonjay Dutt, who had signed an open contract for any CZW wrestler willing to challenge for the ROH World Title. Later on in the night, he participated in the ROH vs. CZW Cage of Death match, having occupied the vacant fifth slot on ROH's team. He was the third member of ROH's team to enter the cage, and his presence gave them a huge advantage over CZW's team. However, just as CZW's third member was about to enter, Danielson revealed his true intention for entering the match as he attacked Samoa Joe and left the arena. Joe was rendered unable to continue in the match, and ROH's team would not fully recover until much later, when Homicide made a surprise appearance.

Danielson is set to face Samoa Joe for the World Title on August 5 in Edison, New Jersey, if he is still champion. He is also scheduled to defend the title on Ring of Honor's first UK tour, with defenses set for August 12 in Liverpool and August 13 in Broxbourne. After the June 24 match against Cabana, Danielson accepted Colt's challenge of a 2 out of 3 falls match on August 26 in Chicago.

In wrestling

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Bryan Danielson".

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