Anatomy of an American Dragon or what in his training made Bryan Danielson so effective

Bryan Danielson was trained by many of the best wrestlers in the world and has taken a visible bit from each stop along his storied career. Let’s examine his training to see how he developed into such a unique and special wrestler through the combined efforts and hard work on some of the best wrestlers ever.

Bryan Danielson’s first training came at the Texas Wrestling Academy run by Shawn Michaels with Rudy Boy Gonzalez. Being trained by Michaels opened many doors for Danielson’s career, but in the ring, Michaels only taught Danielson (by his own admission), Kendrick and the others the basics. Of course, we can see the basics in much of what any wrestler does and even one as accomplished as Danielson is no exception. Danielson bumps much like Michaels, though with less athleticism and more realism, as befitting his style. Further, his babyface fire on comebacks and after big moves is ripped directly from Michaels repertoire. With little else, one can be a great wrestler by bumping well, then making great comebacks, so the benefits of this initial training are still in evidence.

Next, Danielson would be signed to a WWE developmental deal with Memphis Championship Wrestling. Here he would meet the man he credits most with influencing his career, William Regal. Regal gave him a masters’ class in wrestling, teaching him both how to structure a match and how to properly work in holes. By watching a Regal match of any length, one can see where Danielson gained his ability to structure the majority of the match. Here, also, Danielson learned the most often underrated portion of his skillset- the ability to work in holds. Many wrestlers use simple moves like Danielson and attempt to tell a story in that manner, yet lose the audience that doesn’t with to watch an arm-lock at great length. Danielson, from Regal, learned how to make this simple offense important by concentrating on the move, varying up the way it as applied and how it is worked. With this the move is given fresh meaning to the crowd and even simple arm attacks will have the crowd wrapped up in the offense.

While in Memphis Championship Wrestling, Danielson would train with two more greats, this time greats of the Southern heel style, Bobby Eaton and Tracy Smothers. When Danielson works heel, he works full Southern heel, increasing his cowardice and utilizing perfect facial expressions to show his fear or target his opponent. The counter to this is that he learned how to excellently play off the type of heel he himself played, making him not only more effective as a baby-face, but more versatile in various roles with bigger and smaller wrestlers.

From MCW, Danielson travelled with New Japan. Many have remarked about the MMA style employed in Danielson’s ring work. Here, during the height of the worked shoot era (in usage, not in quality), Danielson went and picked up the finer points of not only the vaunted New Japan junior style from legends Jushin Liger and Koji Kanemoto, but the beginnings of a worked shoot repertoire. This is where he really began to stand out, as this blend of skills made him unique.

A guy like Chris Daniels had the New Japan junior style down, but not yet the level of hold-for-hold stuff Danielson learned with Regal. AJ Styles was better with that, but couldn’t do the fire and emotion Danielson learned from Eaton and Michaels. Low Ki had the MMA style, but never got the selling and showing vulnerability properly. One thing all of them had that Danielson would add to his own matches and perfect to the point where its mastery is almost now entirely associated with him is the big indy finishing sequence. Danielson manages to combine all these skills with unmatched big finishes that flow organically from the rest of the match, yet still remain exciting and suspenseful. Through all of these skills, with all of these legends, Danielson is able to lay claim to being “The Best Wrestler in the World.”