Bryan Danielson made good on his promise by bringing “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada to the desert at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. These two generational talents battled for over 27 minutes, engaging in a hard-hitting affair that left both men scarred. Danielson got the worst of it, as he is believed to have suffered a fractured forearm during an elbow drop from Okada. Despite the physical setback late in the match, the American Dragon rallied the Scotiabank Arena by bringing back his familiar “Yes!” chant as he set up a Busaiku Knee shortly before submitting Okada for the victory.
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Danielson reviving the “Yes!” chant broke an unwritten rule that he brought with himself to AEW, as he noted early in his AEW career that he was planning on leaving that aspect of his persona in WWE.
“I’m not doing it myself because I respect WWE’s intellectual property,” Danielson said in September 2021. “They haven’t threatened anything legally. They asked me, politely, to respect their intellectual property even on some things that couldn’t be legally enforced. I’m going to do my best to avoid swinging my arms in the air.”
Responding to a question from ComicBook.com’s Liam Crowley at the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door press conference, Danielson revealed that his decision to utilize the “Yes!” chant was a last-ditch effort to keep the crowd engaged after realizing that his arm had given out.
“Tonight was spur of the moment only because going back to the last question, I was incapable of doing some of the things I would’ve liked to do,” Danielson said. “And so I thought, ‘Okay, how do we bring the fans out? Oh! Here’s an easy solution!’ I could only do it with one arm (laughs).”
Forbidden Door was actually the second time Danielson used “Yes!” chants in AEW, as he first brought back his signature taunt at AEW Revolution during the late stages of his Iron Man match against AEW World Champion MJF.
“The Max match was a choice. It was the one time I was going to do it,” Danielson continued. “Tonight was… I needed to do something.”
Danielson’s forearm injury is expected to keep him out of action for 6-8 weeks. AEW President Tony Khan expressed optimism about Danielson being cleared by AEW ALL IN: London in late August.
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on Danielson’s recovery.
