Bryan Danielson: Match With Kenny Omega Was My Favorite Experience

Bryan Danielson reflects fondly on his in-ring debut against Kenny Omega.

Danielson has had many great moments throughout his career, from a historical ROH World Title reign to main eventing WrestleMania to turning in some of the greatest matches of all time.

But his in-ring debut against Kenny Omega may have topped them all.

“As I’m out there and the crowd is going crazy…when you look back on favorite matches, it’s hard because there is a recency bias, but that was my favorite experience in a match. My favorite experience before was wrestling Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania, but I think that may have topped it. One of the things I think about in these moments where fans are super into something is how lucky I am to be doing this thing I love to this incredible reaction. I haven’t talked to Punk about it in years, but CM Punk and I wrestled each other, I think it was 2004 or 2005, in this little promotion in Florida in front of 75 people and we wrestled for like 45 minutes. We’re out there in front of so few people and you could hear the people. They were talking, they weren’t even booing us. There’s a guy in the front row and he says to his friend, ‘These guys aren’t very good, are they?’ The guy is like, ‘No, not really.’ It’s not even booing, they’re just talking, but we could hear it. It’s such a deflating experience as opposed to having this experience where fans are excited to see you tie up. Gratitude is what it feels like,” Danielson said in an interview with 6ABC in Philadelphia.

The bout between Omega and Danielson finished in a 30-minute time limit draw. Danielson would pick up his first official victory on Friday’s AEW Rampage when he defeated Nick Jackson.

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