MOTW 40: American Dragon Bryan Danielson vs Shingo Takagi

“MOTW #40: American Dragon Bryan Danielson vs Shingo Takagi” - ink & digital illustration

Hi pals! We’re back for the big 40th edition of our ‘Match of the Week’ illustration series & this one was a TOUGH choice!

This incredible Professional Wrestling bout took place on July 24th, 2010 at Dragon Gate USA’s 1st Anniversary Show; 'Enter The Dragon' on the hallowed grounds of the ECW Arena.

So in preparation for the big rematch at All Elite Wrestling’s Forbidden Door event this past week, I did a rewatch of one of my very favourite matches.

As background, I was a massive fan of DGUSA back in the day (having been totally in love with Gabe Sapolsky’s Ring of Honor prior to that). In hindsight, I really feel this match was the pinnacle of the promotion.

Now I did really enjoy the rematch this past week, but for a variety of reasons, if I’m being real, it just couldn’t match the first one. The intensity, the emotion, hitting the absolute perfect crescendo & most importantly, the crowd! At the end of the day, I think it was the crowd atmosphere & card-positioning of this match that made all the difference. (Which is unfortunate, as if anything I feel that Danielson & Shingo are somehow even better now - 14 years later!) One took place like 3rd on the card, in a massive basketball arena, in front of many fans who for much of it, seemed kind of indifferent towards the incredible match they were witnessing. The other occurred in a small, legendary ‘cult-wrestling’ venue, in front of a hardcore audience of wrestling maniacs who knew they were witnessing a likely once in a lifetime dream match that was a truly epic main event.

There are so many things I can rave on about this match but in summary, it’s properly awesome. If you haven’t seen it in a while, please do! It can be easily found on YouTube.

ENJOY!!

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