The COVID-19 pandemic will ceaselessly be remembered as a pivotal second in skilled wrestling, a time when the very foundations of the business had been examined and remodeled. Amidst the uncertainty and disruption, one man remained a continuing –- the indomitable “American Dragon,” Bryan Danielson, whose presence shined within the empty arenas of the WWE ThunderDome.
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Not too long ago, Danielson sat down with the “Gorilla Place” podcast to replicate on his experiences throughout that unprecedented period, providing a singular perspective on the challenges and alternatives that arose.
“I cherished it. As a result of it was completely different,” Danielson stated. “I liken it to the distinction between theater and cinema, proper? What we historically do is extra like theater. However what we needed to do in the course of the pandemic was cinema … When Roman [Reigns] got here again, I used to be like, he understood the advantages. You lose some issues, however you achieve some issues. He understood the trade-off, and the route he went was genius.”
Danielson’s phrases paint a vivid image of the shift within the wrestling panorama, the place the absence of a reside viewers required a basic rethinking of the craft. On this experimental enviornment, he noticed a chance to faucet into the uncooked physicality that had lengthy been a trademark of his work.
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“I truly leaned into a number of the outdated British wrestling … the sound and the physicality of it,” Danielson stated. “You’d truly bodily hear like once they grabbed, and like all that form of stuff. I assumed, ‘Oh there’s an actual alternative to try this.'”
This embrace of this gritty, visceral aspect of wrestling will definitely be on show when Danielson faces Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship at All In at Wembley Stadium on August twenty fifth, in what might be the ultimate match of his profession.
In case you use any quotes from this text, please credit score the “Gorilla Place” podcast and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for transcription.
