Bryan Danielson and the Redemption of the Benoit Archetype

For years and years, the Internet clamored for a guy who could wrestle to be elevated into the upper echelon of the main event. Many wrestlers took the mantle as the darling of the smark crowd, but none were as much a symbol for our desires as Chris Benoit was. He was a supremely gifted wrestler, one who exemplified being excellent at his craft in the ring, but he had to be. Benoit wasn't the best talker in the world to put it lightly, and as Kevin Nash once called people of his ilk, he was a "vanilla midget".

So Benoit had to compensate, and he did so by taking insane bumps and working such a high-energy, high-impact style that he went batshit crazy and killed two innocent people before taking his own life. Yeah, the steroids and the drugs were a huge factor, but you don't take unprotected chairshots, do flying headbutts off the top rope with very little in the way of self-protection, give out and take sharp-angle neck and head bumps or work as stiff as Benoit did pre-WCW and not have it take a toll on your health.

Benoit's utter self-destruction left a lot of people questioning the archetype he provided, the man whose worth to the wrestling industry was his excellence in the ring and that alone. A guy who couldn't talk (although I always thought Benoit wasn't terrible on the stick) to get himself over meant he had to double it up in the ring, adding the wear and tear, ramping up the damage done to himself on bumps. If you're not over, you're not getting paid, and when you've got to stay in the ring to stay over, well, it's risky. Plain and simple. So now, it doesn't pay not to have any charisma when you're not wrestling.

You would think big-time wrestling promoters don't want to see that ever again, although the same kind of stiff, risky style is still used by everyone that isn't based out of Stamford, CT. Still, you'd think that it would take awhile for WWE fans and Vince McMahon to really get behind someone whose charm is in how well he wrestles. That day, however, may not be too far from now.

Enter the Dragon.

Bryan Danielson, much like Chris Benoit, is mega-over with indie/smark wrestling fans because of his excellence inside the squared circle. Danielson, much like Benoit, isn't known for his prowess on the microphone (however, I do think that Danielson is much better than Benoit in that regard). On the surface, it's easy to equate both of them and be wary of pushing Danielson when he gets to the bigs (which could happen as soon as tonight if my gut feeling as to why Sheamus was shunted over to RAW so hastily is right), especially when he has some of the suplexes and head-strikes that Benoit used.

SO, if Danielson has a lot of the warning signs that Benoit had, why would it be a good idea to push him? How can he redeem the archetype if the warning signs are still there? Three reasons:

1. The WWE style has been toned down over the years

This was something that was in motion before Benoit even jumped ship. Steve Austin and Droz becoming injured due to botched piledrivers set off a chain of safety-heightening moves that are still in place today. The Benoit stuff only accelerated the measures. For a good year and a half, no one used the German suplex, and it's only really trickling back into movesets. Even in the sets of people who do use it, MVP being the most obvious, it's done as more of a flat-back bump rather than a sharp-angle neck bump. Of course, a flat-back bump isn't any less damaging to the body, but I guess being a cripple is preferable in the eyes of Vince than accumulated head trauma causing dementia.

Even though Danielson is connected politically from jump, they aren't going to make special exceptions for him to do the really "dangerous" moves as they were intended to be done. Besides, the charm in most WWF/E matches historically has never been with "movez", but drama, pacing, storytelling and selling. Having trained with William Regal and Shawn Michaels, Danielson has to know this coming in.

2. Danielson has a plethora of mistakes by other people to learn from

All the Benoit stuff serves as a stark reminder of what not to do to one's body. There was never really a high-profile case before Benoit, so now he serves as the warning, the Jacob Marley to the rest of the wrestling world if you will. Plus, if that wasn't enough, years of taking bumps literally killed Mitsuharu Misawa, a huge influential figure in the American indies. And if that wasn't enough, Danielson's own mentors and colleagues can tell him cautionary tales. His best friend in the company, Regal, used to do enough coke to keep him wired for years and has paid hefty prices for it in terms of career. I don't know if Danielson has a history with drugs, and really, I hope he doesn't, but all the history with drugs and with high-impact, low-protection moves documented over the last two decades, Danielson would be stupid to continue down the same path as Benoit.

And I'd like to think AmDrag has a good head on his shoulders.

3. Danielson doesn't need to turn his brain to mush to get over

The third and final reason is that Danielson's far from a one-trick pony. As great as Benoit was, it always felt like he had to fall back on the moves that endangered him the most to pop crowds. While Danielson has those moves in his arsenal too, his big signature moves - the MMA elbows, Cattle Mutilation, triangle choke, crossface chicken wing, various flash pinning combinations - are all pretty low on the self danger scale. In fact, Danielson has made his bones as being a submissions expert, and has a lot of proficiency in chain wrestling. Remember, he was trained by Regal, an expert in European-style catch-as-catch-can wrestling. AmDrag also has trained at the Couture dojo, so he has some MMA stylings in his moveset. Basically, he can make several different styles look so easy to do without hurting himself.

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I've detailed plenty of evidence as to why I think Danielson has a good chance to turn out differently, but why is it important? Why do we need to have the Benoit archetype in play? To answer that question, you need to ask yourself how the landscape of major league wrestling has changed in the last decade. It used to be that there was more TV time per roster member for both the major companies. At peak, both the WWF and WCW had 4-6 hours of unique television content to get rosters of 25-35 wrestlers apiece over. There was plenty of time to get everyone their vignettes, promos, segments or whatever as well as letting them wrestle in the ring.

When the WWE bought out WCW and ECW and expanded its roster to about 55-70 wrestlers all told, the amount of TV time didn't really expand with it. There are still six hours of unique television time to get the wrestlers over, but now the number of wrestlers has more than doubled. There isn't enough time to get everyone the promo experience they need, or at least that they would use to get before the expansion of the roster. Some guys will only be used in wrestling matches, and it's important that there are people who will be able to go out and put on an entertaining match without having to be a spot monkey. (Again, nothing wrong with that, but that's a very dangerous style and high-flyers normally have short shelf-lives.)

I don't care how hard the WWE markets to children or how much some people want to admit that they don't dig a good wrestling match, but a large chunk of the fanbase appreciates a well-worked match featuring guys who are excellent at their craft. No, the wrestlers' wrestlers won't bring the fans in, but once John Cena (a great wrestler in his own right) gets a person to sit down and tune into RAW, it's up to guys like Danielson to keep them interested when Cena or Triple H or Shawn Michaels or Chris Jericho or whomever aren't on screen. Wrestling fans are wrestling fans in part because they like good wrestling.

That being said, excellent wrestling, the high end stuff like what Danielson does, won't get over right away. It never does. There was a reason why it took until 2002 for Benoit to really become a major player, and it's not only because of politics. It takes a while for the rest of the crowd to catch up to the smarky crowd/passionate-about-wrestling crowd about the really good wrestlers. The extra hurdle for Danielson, though, is that there's the stigma attached to being a "pure wrestler" with the idea that he'll eventually end up like Benoit or "that dude in Japan who died in the ring".

However, I think Danielson will be able to redeem that archetype. He has charisma, I think even moreso than Benoit did. He has really cool mannerisms in the ring, like yelling at the ref "I HAVE 'TIL FIVE!" on a break. I can really see that getting over. He also has the luxury of being in tight with the Triple H crowd. Again, this isn't snarky... it's a plus when you've got connections to the de facto heir to the throne. He'll get time, and time is what he needs to grow on the crowds. It won't happen in two years, maybe not in three either. We may be waiting until 2015 for Danielson to get his WrestleMania moment, but in that time, there'll be plenty of moments to savor for wrestling fans and plenty of time for people to get to know him.

Most importantly, there'll be plenty of time for the American Dragon to wash the stain of Chris Benoit away from the "technical wrestler archetype" and recreate it in his own image and likeness. Wrestling will be better for it too.