Takeshi Morishima vs. Bryan Danielson / Daniel Bryan (Fight Without Honor), from Ring of Honor Final Battle 2008

The long awaited blowoff match over a year in the making (“making” doing a lot of lifting there) was almost as good as the beloved encounter at Manhattan Mayhem II. Bryan Danielson has always carried himself as a technically sound performer, but under the right conditions, he’s one heck of a brawler, and he has the perfect foil in Takeshi Morishima, who doesn’t let his three-hundred pound frame stop him from being a dickhead for the ages. Some aggravating elements hold this back (rope breaks in matches without disqualifications always bother me), but this was worth the effort to find.

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