This is the weekend where dreams are made. The most anticipated weekend in wrestling. Beginning tonight with Supercard of Honor IX, this weekend will be where careers are defined, memories are made, and lifetimes are changed. This is WrestleMania Weekend! It’s the pinnacle for all wrestling fans, the mecca of sports-entertainment. This year in southern California, multiple independent promotions are holding major events in conjunction with the WWE’s flagship premier event, “WrestleMania.” It’s been a tradition for Ring of Honor to do the same for over ten years. This article will break down and discuss the greatest matches in WrestleMania weekend history, rank them #10 through #1, and if needed, rebook history!
The very first event Ring of Honor event that could be considered a WrestleMania Weekend event was “At Our Best,” held in Elizabeth, New Jersey on March 13th, 2004. Held only mere miles from and the day before Wrestlemania XX, Ring of Honor put together one of the most star studded independent wrestling events ever seen! The two main attractions featured the hottest commodity in wrestling, AJ Styles, taking on one of the newest and highest rising stars, C.M. Punk. And the main event was a highly awaited steel cage match between ROH World Champion Samoa Joe and Jay Briscoe!
Before we begin our top ten, I will discuss two matches that deserve honorable mention. The first being the aforementioned Punk/Styles clash at “At Our Best” and also a forgotten and very under-appreciated hardcore Street Fight between Colt Cabana and Homicide at “Better Than Our Best” in 2006.
Honorable Mention #1:
AJ Styles vs CM Punk
3/13/2004 “At Our Best”
Pure Championship Tournament Finals
This match featured two men who had yet to reach their peak in professional wrestling but both were already household names. They were vying for the brand new “Pure Rules Championship,” which featured a distinct set of rules designed to limit the wrestling to the confines of the ring, focusing on traditional submission-based wrestling. Each wrestler possessed three “rope breaks,” but after that, there were no rope breaks allowed during a submission. Each man had advanced to the finals of a tournament, and it was AJ Styles who prevailed after 24 minutes and a discus lariat, adding yet another piece of gold to his championship gallery.
That is a match I highly disagreed with and would want to rebook. First, CM Punk was the hottest name in the company after a spectacular program with Raven in 2003. He asserted his character of a straight-edge champion, and because of that, he was better than you and me. Putting the Pure Rules Championship on Punk here would have immediately legitimized the championship and he could have used his character to “purify” the company and the division. Putting that character with that championship would have been electric, and the promos are salivating to think about, especially in the earlier, edgier days of Ring of Honor. Secondly, AJ Styles was a contracted wrestler to other promotions, notably NWA:TNA, where he was a regular challenger and champion in the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and X-Division Championship divisions. Putting a championship on him for name attraction ultimately failed when TNA pulled Styles from the company and made the booking decision look worse when the title was vacated months later.
Honorable Mention #2
Colt Cabana vs Homicide
4/1/2006 “Better Than Our Best”
Street Fight
The feud between Colt Cabana and Homicide raged from Final Battle 2005 to here. Both men, but mostly Homicide, intended to kill each other from then to here, no pun intended. At the time, Homicide was regarded as the biggest heel in the company as he generated legitimate heat for being a disrespectful, over the top, slime-ball bad guy in a company where skill, not character, often led to getting over with the fans. It was Homicide who poured Draino down Colt Cabana’s throat at Final Battle and tried to blind, stab, and choke him with a coat hanger, beating him to a bloody pulp at the Fourth Anniversary Show. He made Cabana’s life a living, and very dangerous, hell for months! Cabana cut the best promos of his career directed at Homicide and the Rottweilers (Homicide’s group of thug friends) and often wrestling beyond medical clearance (such as Unscripted II) to get his hands on Homicide. At “Better Than Our Best”, it was Colt Cabana who was standing tall after a 26 minute Street Fight and a Colt .45! It was an awesome match, a great feud, a big payoff, and a memorable moment for Colt Cabana and fans of wrestling, who got justification by having the bad guy get put down after months of antagonizing the fan favorite. That’s how wrestling is supposed to be!
#10
Samoa Joe vs Jay Briscoe
3/13/2004 “At Our Best”
Steel Cage
ROH World Championship
Coming in at number ten is one of the most notorious matches in company history which was used as a major attraction for the event. Jay Briscoe, and his brother Mark, were considered some of the company’s top heels at the time. The older brother was placed against the face of the company, and year long reigning World Champion, Samoa Joe. Jay Briscoe had wrestled on the very first show in February 2002, but starting in November 2003, The Briscoe Brothers became a thorn in Samoa Joe’s side, costing him wins, attacking him with tennis rackets and leaving him laying on several occasions. Joe would challenge the Briscoes for the ROH World Tag Team Championships multiple times, failing with different partners to win the titles each time. The blow off of the feud was held here, in a steel cage match, which was, and still is, a rare event in Ring of Honor. Samoa Joe retained the championship and became the first man to hold a coveted World Heavyweight Championship for more than a year in North America in almost a decade. The match was notorious because of how bloody Jay Briscoe was beaten, mere minutes in to the match. The mat was stained red, and both wrestlers were covered in the blood of the challenger after only 14 minutes of pure warfare. It was a cage match for the ages, one remembered for its barbaric ending.
#9
Kevin Steen vs El Generico
3/30/2012 “Showdown in the Sun: Night 1”
Last Man Standing
This match was the continuation of the best feud in Ring of Honor history. Their rivalry began at Final Battle 2009 when Steen feigned retirement, only to attack his best friend with a steel chair. The two waged war through 2010, when they met with Kevin Steen’s career and El Generico’s mask on the line at Final Battle 2010. El Generico won, banishing Kevin Steen from Ring of Honor until June 2011. Steen eventually made his return, claiming he was going to kill the company. He won his career back by defeating his “sponsor” Steve Corino, and saying he was a changed man. El Generico had not forgotten or forgiven Kevin Steen for his treachery as the two continued their feud here. Jimmy Jacobs had sided with El Generico heading into the match, but, at the end of the night, Jimmy Jacobs stuck a railroad spike in Generico’s head, Steen put Generico down with a chair shot to the head sending Generico away on a stretcher. The era of SCUM had arrived in Ring of Honor, and the Age of Steen had begun. I ranked this match so highly for its importance to the weekend’s event, as it was a continuation of arguably the best program in company history, as well as spawning the faction known as SCUM.
#8
Michael Elgin vs Jay Lethal
4/5/2013 “Supercard of Honor VII”
#1 contender to the ROH World Championship
This match wouldn’t be ranked so high if it simply wasn’t as good as it was, and that’s the honest truth. It’s one of my favorite matches of all time. Michael Elgin was the company’s hottest name and their top rising star (thanks to a match we will discuss later!), and Jay Lethal was a top name in wrestling going through his second tenure in the company. Both had opportunities for the World Championship slip through their fingers in 2012, but they were determined to get another shot. Authority matchmaker Nigel McGuinness gave them the chance to do so here. Both men brought out all the stops and had the crowd in the palm of their hands, chanting “this is wrestling” not even ten minutes in. Throughout the match, Lethal teased a diving elbowdrop but was thwarted by Elgin each time. Both men went back and forth with signature spots but couldn’t get a three count. After a devastating reverse hurricanrana (which looked like it broke Elgin’s neck) followed by the Lethal Combination, Lethal was able to connect with the Hail to the King elbowdrop as the fans were on their feet! It was a great moment, timed perfectly, and a tribute to Randy Savage who had passed away the year before. But Elgin kicked out. Lethal tried for a death blow, but Elgin reversed into a top rope powerbomb, a backfist, a buckle bomb, and an Elgin Bomb for the win after nearly 20 minutes of absolute classic wrestling. The fans were on their feet, eating up every near fall and big spot. The two men put on a great display of in-ring psychology and were on top of the world, covered in confetti and streamers, neither able to stand.
#7
Do Fixer (Dragon Kid/Genki Horiguchi/Ryo Saito) vs Blood Generation (CIMA/Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino)
3/31/2006 “Supercard of Honor”
Six Man Tag – Dragon Gate Challenge
Some fans regard this as the best match in Ring of Honor history, others have it in the top five ever. I have it #7 on our list here. I respect how intriguing it was, and at the time it was groundbreaking, but there are far better and historically important matches to come on this list. Time hasn’t been friendly to this international dream, opposed to a match like Kobashi/Joe which still stands the test of time. In 2006, Ring of Honor secured a working relationship with Japanese promotion Dragon Gate, founded by Ultimo Dragon, and would fly in talent for shows. Many wrestling fans knew CIMA from his stint in WCW as Shiima, but the other five men were relatively unknown to the casual fan. This match featured the teams of Do Fixer, and Blood Generation, two factions that were rivals in Dragon Gate. The match was absolutely electric, fast paced, high flying, hard hitting, fighting spirit wrestling, with hardly any tags (as was the tradition in Dragon Gate). All six men looked incredible by the end of the match, but Dragon Kid got a huge win when he pinned Naruki Doi with a Dragonrana off the top rope after 20 minutes. The double and triple teams were well-timed and original, giving American fans a different type of wrestling that not even Ring of Honor talent was able to replicate. Six man tags had been lost to history, and this match was significant in the fact that it brought the format back to the spotlight to American wrestling fans. I feel the company absolutely dropped the ball though, through no direct fault of their own. This match was a show stealing, middle of the card spectacle (I have it at ****1/2), but, seven years later, they brushed over it, ignoring its importance, and even though the talent would return for multiple dates throughout the next couple years, the company never managed to make these guys household names after an absolute spectacle.
#6
Worlds Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas)
vs The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli)
4/1/2011 “Honor Takes Center Stage: Chapter 1”
ROH World Tag Team Championships
Benjamin and Haas made their debuts in Ring of Honor as a special attraction at Glory by Honor IX in September 2010. They lost to the Kings in an absolute classic tag team match when Chris Hero needed to resort to using a loaded elbow pad to get the win. They would defeat the Kings in a non-title match in early 2011, and beat the Briscoe Brothers for the #1 contendership in the main event of the 9th Anniversary Show to get another shot here. What made this match important was the fact that, after their stints in the WWE, many regarded the team as old, but they proved they were anything but that. It was one of the first times that fans of Ring of Honor embraced “sports entertainment” superstars crossing over into the company. They were embraced here, with dueling chants for both teams at the start. The Kings tried and failed to sneak victories away, but the World’s Greatest Tag Team snatched their cheap win attempts away. At the end, Haas dropped Castagnoli with an Olympic Slam, followed by the Haas of Pain, Hero tried to save with a loaded elbow pad, but Benjamin countered with a running belly to belly suplex off the top rope, and Castagnoli submitted. We had new champions after 22 minutes of classic and edge of your seat tag team wrestling. These two teams allowed fans to remember how great tag-team wrestling could be, in an attraction that was long buried in WCW, TNA, and WWE, Ring of Honor put the Tag Team Titles on as the main attraction at the biggest weekend in wrestling. After the win, Charlie Haas could be seen visibly crying and embracing the ROH World Tag Team Championship as a testament to not only how important the quest for the championships had become, but for the fact that at a time when many thought Charlie Haas could no longer wrestle at an elite level, he and Benjamin once again proved they were the world’s greatest tag team.
#5
Jimmy Jacobs vs BJ Whitmer
3/31/2007 “Supercard of Honor II”
Steel Cage
The contribution of these two men to Ring of Honor should NEVER be discredited. These two men have been with the company since the early days, and each can say they were pivotal characters in different eras. When you talk about the history of Ring of Honor with any wrestling fans, the names BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs need to be remembered. BJ Whitmer fought for Ring of Honor during the CZW/ROH war in 2006, and Jimmy Jacobs led the nefarious Age of the Fall faction which turned the company inside-out in 2008. But long before those events, these two men were two time ROH Tag Team Champions as a part of “Lacey’s Angels.” (BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff were reigning ROH Tag Team Champions when Maff left the company, and Whitmer named Jacobs his heir). They had great chemistry as a team, becoming fan favorites in a short order of time.
But dissension grew between the men as BJ Whitmer noticed that Jacobs’ infatuation with Lacey was costing them matches. Whitmer and Jacobs would wage war against each other in bloody brawls, but it was Jimmy Jacobs who put Whitmer on the shelf after Jacobs Pillmanized Whitmer’s ankle with a chair at the orders of Lacey in August 2006! Lacey continued to manipulate Jacobs even though she was disgusted with him behind his back. It was alluded that Lacey was having a personal relationship with Colt Cabana which led to a short team-up between he and Jacobs and eventually a feud between them. All the while, Jacobs fought for Lacey and “pure love”, but Lacey continued to reject him. It was the best work of his career to that point. Lacey ordered Jacobs to break Cabana’s ankle, but BJ Whitmer made the save, and the feud between the two continued. The feud encompassed Whitmer, Jacobs, Cabana, Brent Albright, Adam Pearce, Daizee Haze, and others, and it culminated here in a Steel Cage. They wrestled in the main event on Wrestlemania Weekend and delivered one of the best Steel Cage matches in wrestling history. It was as personal as you could get. Both men were beaten, broken, and bloody at the end, but Jimmy Jacobs prevailed after a senton splash through a table after 25 minutes, winning the heart of Lacey for “finally ending BJ Whitmer.”. At the end of the night, Becky Bayless found Jacobs and Lacey embraced together on the locker room floor, both covered in Jacobs’ blood, staring into each others eyes. Notably, Jacobs would tear his ACL in this match, which put him on the shelf for months. The time off helped him develop the groundwork for “Project 161.”.
#4
Adam Cole vs Jay Briscoe
4/4/2014, “Supercard of Honor VIII”
Ladder War V
ROH World Championship
The feud between these two men began in May 2013 after Jay Briscoe won the ROH World Championship at Supercard of Honor VII (spoiler alert!). Nigel McGuinness named Adam Cole the number one contender and gave him a match against Jay Briscoe at Global Wars. Jay Briscoe won after an accidental distraction by Steve Corino. Adam Cole would let that moment fester for months, eventually turning on the fans during the summer. Jay Briscoe would need shoulder surgery, with the championship being vacated for the first time in ten years. A sixteen man tournament was made, with Adam Cole coming out on top becoming the new World Champion. After the match, Briscoe awarded the championship to Cole, who then superkicked Jay in the back of the head! Jay Briscoe would make his return to the company in October, claiming he was the “Real World Champion,” stating he was never beaten for the championship. Briscoe debuted his own belt and defended it in matches. Briscoe and Cole would continue their feud at Final Battle 2013, where Cole pinned Michael Elgin in a triple threat for the ROH World Championship. Briscoe still claimed he was the champion, because Elgin was the man pinned. Briscoe pinned Cole in an impromptu non-title match at State of the Art in February 2014. McGuiness made a unification ladder match. Like Steel Cage matches, ladder matches are rare in Ring of Honor, with this match being only the fifth ladder match in company history. Jay Briscoe had a history in them, wrestling in the first two as part of a tag team. Early on, Jay Briscoe was busted open badly, showing the intensity and hatred these two had for each other. The match saw the interference of Matt Hardy, Michael Bennett, and Mark Briscoe, as those men tried to elevate (literally) Adam Cole and Jay Briscoe to victory. Jay Briscoe would deliver Jay Drillers to Bennett and Hardy, Mark Briscoe was thrown off a ladder through a table, and Briscoe would eventually plant Cole with a second Jay Driller, and climbed the ladder. Cole met him half way, and after a duel at the top of the ladder, Cole pushed Briscoe off, claiming the ROH World Championship for his own after 30 minutes! They echoed Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon twenty years before this match. This was one of the most violent matches in Ring of Honor history, in an era where violence and bloodshed were curbed back. Both men almost killed each other with unrelenting chair shots, and they let loose on each other with hard punches, kicks, and whatever else they could use to maim their opponent. It was a classic war, which violently ended (for the moment) a deep feud between the men and restored the lineage of the disputed ROH World Championship.
I think Jay Briscoe should have won here though, since the story had been that Jay Briscoe was the undisputed champion who never lost his belt. After Cole won, it was an odd feeling to see a bad guy stand tall with the championship, especially on WrestleMania weekend. Had Jay won, it could have rivaled the emotional storyline from the year before. (At the conclusion of this match, Jay Briscoe should be known as “Mr. Supercard of Honor”, as I have his involvement in a match ranked four times in my top sixteen ROH WrestleMania Weekend matches. He delivers in big moments, and gives us emotional stories, much like the famous “Mr. WrestleMania,” Shawn Michaels.).
#3
Davey Richards vs Michael Elgin
3/31/2012, “Showdown in the Sun: Night 2”
ROH World Championship
I originally had this matched ranked second overall, but bumped it down because the emotional closure of the next match was far superior to this match, but this match is my personal favorite Ring of Honor match of all time. It happened at a time when I questioned my love for professional wrestling. I was in a rut, complaining on a weekly basis about the direction the WWE continued to go down. The year before, the single most revolting attempt at WrestleMania (XXVII) was held, and it left a sour note in my mouth about wrestling. There was no alternative. The WWE had signed Bryan Danielson away from Ring of Honor in late 2009, and the company was in a funk at this point of the Jim Cornette Era. Many people criticized the initial announcement of this match, where Elgin, an unproven, was given an ROH World Championship match against an in-ring wizard and technical master in Davey Richards.
The fans gave Elgin a tepid “no heat” reaction during his entrance, even though he was accompanied by Truth Martini, who could traditionally get the fans to hate anyone associated with him. Elgin had won the Survival of the Fittest in 2011, cashing in his opportunity here. Richards was the champion, but in physical size, Richards stood well beneath Elgin, and the power difference didn’t need to be spoken. Richards tried to up the pace of the match early on, but it was Elgin who destroyed the champion. After some brutal head drops and stiff kicks to the back and face, Elgin showed that he would not be put down easily on this night. At that moment, the fans started to appreciate Elgin, and it was hot cakes from there on. Every move Elgin took created “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd as Richards threw everything he had at Elgin, but Elgin would not be pinned. Elgin’s fighting spirit resulted in the crowd turning on Richards, and urging Elgin not to tap out during an anklelock, Elgin reverses into a crossface, while Richards holds on to the ankle lock. Elgin finally escapes as the crowd is on their feet with excitement. Richards tried to kill Elgin with a knee to the face, but Elgin kicked out at 1! It was unbelievable! Richards hit a running death blow, which pinned the challenger after a fantastic 25 minute battle, which no one was expecting.
HOW DO YOU NOT CHANGE THE DECISION TO KEEP THE TITLE ON RICHARDS DURING THIS MATCH?! I don’t understand how whoever was booking this wasn’t yelling in the referees ear to tell them to change the finish. It was the most mind numbing thing I had ever seen in wrestling. It took 25 minutes for me to not give one crap about Michael Elgin, to cheering him on, hoping he would win the most coveted and respected championship in wrestling! The fans were eating out of Elgin’s hand, and wanted to see the title change. There is no way Davey Richards couldn’t have known, and keeping the title on him hurt the overall match. The only thought I could have is that by putting the championship on Elgin would have changed their long-term plans with Kevin Steen the next month, but even that could have been briefly delayed (as the summer could have played out the same way, with Steen beating Elgin at Glory by Honor XI for the title instead).
#2
Kevin Steen vs Jay Briscoe
4/5/2013, “Supercard of Honor VII”
ROH World Championship
This match had significant connections to several matches on this list, including match #9 and the previous match. There are some people who will lament my decision to rank this higher than Whitmer/Jacobs or the six man Dragon Gate tag match, and that’s fine, but the story in this match is disregarded easily by fans. At the previous years WrestleMania Weekend show, Kevin Steen aligned with Jimmy Jacobs (and eventually Steve Corino) to form the villainous stable known as SCUM. Kevin Steen would defeat Davey Richards for the ROH World Championship at Border Wars 2012 in a street fight, and the group’s reign of dominance continued through the end of 2012. Steen had defended the championship against all comers, Eddie Kingston, Rhyno, Jay Lethal, Michael Elgin, and El Generico, laying claim to being the most dominant champion of all-time. Jay Briscoe led the coalition of Ring of Honor talent who opposed SCUM, leading the “Honor Lives” movement. At the 11th Anniversary Show, Steve Corino infused the group with new talent, showing that the SCUM movement was indeed growing in the locker room, something that Kevin Steen took an objection to. Steen created SCUM, and Steen wanted to kill Ring of Honor, but Corino did not consult Steen about the group’s new members, leading to the first sign of discontent among the group. Steen was shown staying aback from the group at the conclusion of 11th Anniversary, but never wavering for his desire to kill Ring of Honor.
Nigel McGuinness anointed Jay Briscoe as the company’s savior and the #1 contender to the championship, and the match was made for SCOH VII. It continued a long and storied rivalry between the men, who fought and delivered classics in the tag team division over the coveted ROH World Tag Team Championships. Steen, along with his partner El Generico, faced off against Jay Briscoe and his brother Mark Briscoe in the first ever Ladder War, as well as a Steel Cage, Falls Count Anywhere, and Two out of Three Falls matches for the tag titles in the summer and fall of 2008. “Steenerico” could never beat The Briscoe Brothers, and that fact simmered in Kevin Steen for years. At the conclusion of 11th Anniversary, Jay Briscoe injured his shoulder, which required it to be taped up for the duration of this match, which Steen meticulously tried to injure throughout the opening part of the match by targeting it as part of his offensive strategy. Near the end, Kevin Steen countered a Jay Driller into a Package Piledriver, but Briscoe kicked out at two and a half! Briscoe couldn’t move his arm by the end of the match, which saw the interference of SCUM members. Kevin Steen gave Matt Hardy a low-blow and told the crowd he wanted to win the championship honorably, and threw him out of the ring as the fans in attendance rose to their feet! Kevin Steen had been redeemed in their eyes for his refusal to allow Steve Corino to kill his creation. Frankenstein wanted to kill the monster he created, himself. Kevin Steen tried to cripple Jay Briscoe with a crossface, attempting to rip the shoulder right out of Briscoe’s socket, but Briscoe refused to submit. The fans were on their feet as Jay Briscoe showed fighting spirit as he got to his feet immediately after a german suplex by Steen. Briscoe shocked Steen and leveled Steen with a hard lariat. And at that moment, Steen lost the will to continue as his desire to try to kill the company, and his opponent, finally slipped. Jay Briscoe hit the Jay Driller again, and pinned Kevin Steen shoulders to the mat for three for the first time in over a year. JAY BRISCOE WAS THE NEW ROH WORLD CHAMPION! He was the savior of the company. In the words of Kevin Kelly “Jay Briscoe has bled, he has been broken, he has fought since day one, but on this day, Jay Briscoe is World Champion, Jay Briscoe is the savior of Ring of Honor!” It was an unbelievable moment. It was one of the most emotional moments in company history.
#1
Bryan Danielson vs Roderick Strong
3/31/2006 “Supercard of Honor”
ROH World Championship
Here it is, the number one match of Wrestlemania Weekend in Ring of Honor history. It is regarded as Danielson/Strong III in a series of almost perfect wrestling affairs between them. At “This Means War” in October 2005, Roderick Strong had won the respect of the fans (much like the previous match on this list), by almost beating Danielson in an epic 40 minute classic, where Danielson wrestled half-conscious until the finish. The rematch the next week at “Vendetta” in November surpassed the first match which saw Danielson retain again after knocking Strong out with MMA elbows and the referee was forced to stop the match after 47 minutes. The much awaited third installment had wrestling fans on the edge of their feet with excitement. The comparisons had been made that this series was better than Joe/Punk, which had revolutionized wrestling in 2004. This match was held as the marque attraction for the company’s “first” (although not truthfully) WrestleMania weekend event, coat-tailing WrestleMania 23 in Detroit the next night.
The match featured the go-home technical wizardry of Bryan Danielson, as the self proclaimed best wrestler in the world, and the dazzling fast paced hard striking style of Roderick Strong better than ever before. Danielson tried to avoid Roderick Strong’s hard chops by wrestling circles around the challenger early on, but eventually Strong hit some hard chops on the champion which the crowd loved. Everything in this match had a purpose, there was deep psychology behind every sequence, every move, every reaction. Bryan Danielson began to break down Strong after a half an hour, targeting Strong’s legs to weaken his power based offense. Strong fought back, and tried to put the championship down a flash flurry of backbreakers, but Danielson wouldn’t be put down. After a roaring elbow, a dragon suplex, into a crossface chickenwing, Roderick Strong was loopy, but managed to make it to the ropes to fend off the champion one last time. After a reversal on the top rope, Strong spikes and squashes Danielson off the top with a super fireman carry gutbuster. Both men are down. Both men are out. They have been wrestling 55+ minutes. Roderick Strong doesn’t have enough energy to do anything except crawl on top of the champion for a pin, but Danielson kicks out. Strong gets up and puts the champion in the Stronghold, but Danielson reverses into a small package for the win after 56 minutes! Its a FIVE STAR classic wrestling match, where both men put everything they had in to making it special. I consider it the 2006 Match of the Year, and the best match ever in WrestleMania weekend history. It concludes the best trilogy of matches in company history, with Bryan Danielson proving he is the best wrestler inside the squared circle of our generation.
