Bryan Danielson’s run of dream matches may be over

Last night (Jan. 18) on Dynamite, Bryan Danielson and Bandido had what a man who once beat Bryan in 18 seconds at WrestleMania would call a banger.

It was the latest match the American Dragon had to win in order to get an Iron Man match against AEW World champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman at Revolution (and a way to build Danielson up after criticism he was only putting people over for much of 2022... before he almost certainly puts MJF over on Mar. 5, 2023). Was it better than his tilt with Konosuke Takeshita last Wednesday? We’ll have time to debate that. For now though, it seems Bryan’s run of dream matches may be over.

That’s not even meant as shade against his opponent next week, Brian Cage. The Machine is a talented big man, and Danielson is Danielson — he’s had great matches with wrestlers much less less capable than Cage.

What it is is a concern after the World champ handed Cage and envelope full of “money” in exchange for a promise the ROH six-man titleholder will break the Dragon’s arm...

Is AEW about to kayfabe handicap Danielson by making him wrestle with one arm from her until, and maybe at, Revolution? He is a guy who likes to challenge himself...

Let us know what you think. And catch up on highlights from the first episode of the new look Dynamite below. We’ve put all the YouTube videos AEW has released as of this morning in a playlist, and since they don’t release everything that way at the same time, we’ve got Twitter clips of the other big moments and matches below that.

• Did Orange Cassidy Retain the AEW All-Atlantic Championship vs Jay Lethal
• Did Top Flight Score the Biggest Win of Their AEW Career?
• Was Ricky Starks Able to Overcome the JAS’ Numbers Advantage?
• Darby Allin or Kushida, Who Walked Away With the TNT Title?

For complete results and the live blog for Dynamite click here. To read a complete recap & review of all the night’s events click here.