#198: Swerve Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson, AEW All In: London (8/25/2024).
This is #3 in my Top Matches of 2024.
This is Title vs. Career: Swerve’s AEW World Championship versus the career of Bryan Danielson.
Danielson announced in the fall of 2023 that 2024 would be the final year of his full time career, and afrer winning the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, he earned a chance to become AEW World Champion on the way to retirement. Facing him is arguably the hottest wrestler in all of AEW, Swerve Strickland. The stakes were made even higher when Bryan agreed to retire if he couldn’t win the championship. Swerve showed no remorse in the build to this, promising to do what he needed to do in order to keep his title.
Danielson enters to “The Final Countdown” by Europe, and the Wembley Stadium faithful sing along to the song. Swerve enters to Bun B rapping him to the ring. The aura that this man has created for himself in 2024 is unmistakable.
The bell rings, and the crowd explodes. Swerve is all smiles. Bryan is all focus. They lock up, and Swerve pops off a side headlock takedown. Bryan is up, and they exchange chops. Bryan with a takedown next, and more chops from both men. Swerve glances at Bryan’s family, and hip tosses him. Bryan counters a suplex, and drops Swerve’s arm hard on the mat. Bryan goes for the LeBell Lock right away, but Swerve is able to counter and send Bryan to the outside.
Swerve kicks Bryan from the apron, and then dives to the outside. Bryan avoids it, and then he kicks Swerve away. Bryan springboards off the top rope with a cannonball to Swerve! In the ring, Bryan drops a knee on Swerve’s arm. He folds the arm up, and stomps it on the mat. Big chop in the corner, followed by a kick to the chest. Bryan repeats this sequence, before going for a diving forearm. Swerve counters it into a suplex.
Uppercut by Swerve, and then a dropkick to the knee in the corner. Swerve drops both knees on the left arm next. He whips Bryan chest first into the turnbuckle, and then goes to the top rope. Bryan knocks him down to the apron, and they exchange chops and slaps. Bryan locks Swerve in a Triangle Choke in the ropes. Swerve is able to reverse it, and uses Bryan’s leg to clip the referee briefly. Prince Nana lays the ring bell on the apron, and Swerve hits a Death Valley Driver onto the bell! Bryan landed head first.
Swerve celebrates in the ring, as Bryan has been busted open. Swerve kicks Bryan in the head, as he asks the camera why Bryan is putting his family through this. Middle rope elbow to the back of the head. He taunts, and the crowd boos. Swerve grabs both wrists, and drags Bryan to ringside, in front of his family. He stomps on Bryan’s head, right in front of his kids and wife. He lays Bryan on the apron, and grinds on the open wound.
He places Bryan on the top rope, and he connects with a nasty back suplex. Swerve is on the top rope, and he misses the Swerve Stomp. Bryan locks in the Regal Stretch in the middle of the ring. Swerve bites the hands to break the hold, but eats a huge clothesline by Bryan out of nowhere. Bryan blocks some uppercuts into a back slide for 2. Diving clothesline follows, and then Bryan connects with some diving dropkicks in the corner. Swerve explodes out with a Flatliner, and Bryan kicks out.
Bryan counters Big Pressure into a roll up for 2. Bryan tries for Cattle Mutilation, and turns it into a Tiger Suplex. Roundhouse kicks to the chest next, and then Bryan places Swerve on the top rope. Bryan with a huge Tiger Suplex straight to the mat! After a pin, Swerve somehow kicks out at 2. Bryan says it’s time to kick Swerve’s head in, and he grabs the wrists and stomps on Swerve’s head. He transitions from that to Cattle Mutilation! Swerve is able to get to his feet, and he drops Bryan to the mat with the Gringo Killer! Bryan got dropped on his head! The doctor comes in to check on Bryan. Swerve chases the medical team away.
He pulls Bryan to the turnbuckle, and connects with the top rope Swerve Stomp. He covers, and Bryan is able to kick out! The crowd is fully behind Bryan, as Swerve connects with the House Call kick to the side of the head. Swerve asks for Bryan to get up, and he hits the House Call again. Bryan is crawling towards his family. He’s on his knees, apologizing, and Swerve hits a 3rd House Call kick. He makes the cover, but Bryan kicks out again! The crowd is going bananas!
Swerve with some roundhouse kicks to the chest, as Bryan looks at his family and shouts “I love you so much!” Bryan stares at Swerve and slaps the ever loving fuck out of him. He unloads with kicks to the chest, and Swerve tries to slap him. Bryan turns it into a Triangle Choke, and he elbows his head at the same time! Swerve lifts Bryan up, but Bryan counters into the Regal Suplex. Bryan sets up for the Busaiku Knee, and he hits it! Swerve bounces off the turnbuckle, and literally brushes it off!
A 4th House Call kick, and Swerve follows up with Big Pressure, right in front of Bryan’s family. He covers, and Bryan is able to kick out again! Wembley Stadium is on their feet! Swerve mocks the Yes chants of Bryan in the corner. Here comes Hangman Page at ringside, who’s staring a hole at Swerve. Security comes to ringside to take him away. With Swerve’s attention on Hangman, Bryan explodes out of the corner with the Busaiku Knee! He covers, and Swerve kicks out at 2!
They crawl towards each other, and lock hands. Forearm by Bryan, and one by Swerve. Nice exchange in the middle of the ring, and now they kick each other. Swerve with a few headbutts. Bryan tries for the LeBell Lock, and Swerve tries for Big Pressure. He hits the Pump Kick, sending Bryan into the corner, but Bryan explodes out with the Busaiku Knee! He levels up in the corner, and hits it again to the back of the head!
Bryan goes right into the LeBell Lock! Swerve tries to break the grip, but Bryan snaps the fingers! He transitions to a Brutalizer, and Swerve taps out! Wembley explodes, as Bryan is the new AEW World Champion! He blows a kiss to his family at ringside, and he celebrates in the ring with them.
That was one of the most emotional roller coasters I’ve ever gone on as a wrestling fan. I’ve been a Bryan Danielson fan for 14 years, and I was fully prepared for him to lose here. Instead, he wrestled like his very life depended on it, and we got an incredible back and forth contest between one of the best going today, and one of the best of all time. Swerve played to his strengths, in the role of the heel, as he taunted Bryan’s family throughout, and was incredibly ruthless in his offense against him. The DVD on the ring bell and stomping his bloody head are two great examples.
The moment where Swerve bounces off the turnbuckle after a Busaiku Knee, only to brush it off and hit a House Call, was a legendary moment in my eyes. But absolutely nothing in this match can be better than Bryan getting his shit kicked in, only for him to defiantly tell his family he loves them, and then to slap the piss out of Swerve. I bit on all the nearfalls at the end, mostly because I believed that Bryan wasn’t winning this match.
The power of pro wrestling is emotion. If you are feeling something, it’s doing its job, and here, Bryan Danielson and Swerve Strickland took you on a ride of pure emotion. Everybody played their role to perfection, the story was well told, and the finish was white hot, with Bryan fighting against all odds to win his sole AEW World Championship. Everything about this worked. This is genuinely one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.