The Death of an American Dragon

Posted by Jason Carfagno in Blogs, Wrestling | 0 comments

“The Final Countdown” isn’t that great of a song. I mean when you hear it, you no doubt sing along and possibly even rock the fist pump like you’re on that terrible MTV show that everyone watches. The song itself though is nothing to write home about, not even in the slightest.

Unless of course you heard it at an ROH show, up until last year.

You see “The Final Countdown” was the calling card of American Dragon himself, that’s right Bryan Danielson. The man that was deemed “Best in the World” by the fans, the man who would electrify them with moves like the Cattle Mutilation (a bridged, grounded double chickenwing submission hold), the man who would sing along with the crowd. He was a superstar. Note the word was.

You see I tuned into Raw the other week for the first time in a long time. Because I heard that Daniel Bryan (Danielson’s lame WWE name) had made an appearance on Summerslam the night before. This was all after he got “fired” from the Company. Naturally, I had to listen to both the King and Michael Cole call the match and Cole sat there and berated Danielson.

This is where my problem arises. Danielson is literally “best in the world” according to legions of wrestling marks across the country, probably even the world. And Michael Cole and the E, have decided to call his prior experience work in the “minor leagues” or saying that he was “really big on the Internet”. I don’t know about you but I don’t call Japan the minor leagues, I call them the pros. I don’t call an up and coming company (ROH) that has been compared to ECW, the Internet.

I don’t know who decides these storylines ideas (cough cough Vince cough cough) but they are terrible.

Not only that, but sticking Dragon/Danielson/Bryan in a feud with reality star turned wrestler “The Miz” is a terrible, terrible idea. Miz is decently good on the microphone, but Dragon will be stuck playing second fiddle with the US Title for the better part of his career. At least that’s my guess, because he isn’t a homegrown talent.

Remember that, it’s a rarity that a homegrown talent is rewarded with the biggest prize in the business. There is some room to argue, given the fact that wrestlers like Jericho weren’t exactly “home grown”. But that was before the E decided to buy all it’s competition. Vince and the boys don’t reward you for signing with the E, they reward you for being there from the beginning. And it’s not fair.

Part of it is the fans. They refuse to believe that there is life outside of the WWE. TNA is something else entirely, and quite frankly I’m disappointed where that company is headed, BUT there are other companies out there on the indy scene that have a really good product. Open up your eyes and realize that the WWE has been pulling the wool over your eyes for years now.

Dragon, what happened. You should’ve went to TNA, at least there you would’ve been fun to watch. Paycheck, I can respect that, but you’re better then a US Title feud with the Miz, always remember that.