Bryan Danielson attempts to fight his way into an Iron Man match with Maxwell Jacob Friedman for the AEW World Championship at revolution on March 4th.

Last week, that meant taking on Brian Cage. Danielson won, but in the process Cage and MJF injured American Dragon’s arm. The only reason they couldn’t do any more damage was because of Konosuke Takeshita, Bryan’s first opponent in this gauntlet. Takeshita worships the dragon, and vows to have his back for the rest of this run.

During Danielson’s dream match with Timothy Thatcher (formerly of Evolve and WWE, currently of Japan’s NOAH, always one of the best technical wrestlers in the world), the referee was temporarily “outed”. The world champion thought he would use this opportunity to make sure Thatcher won. But before he and his Dynamite diamond ring could make it to the ring, a masked individual made sure he couldn’t make it to the ring.

That wasn’t enough to save Danielson from Thatcher’s armbar. It was his skills and determination, and after he got the referee back he reached the ropes to force a break. It wasn’t long after that before Busaiku’s knee ended things.

The action was still happening backstage, and that brawl led to Tony Khan booking an Elementaire match between Takeshita and Friedman the next Wednesday. If the Japanese superstar can beat Max, he will be awarded the world championship title.

MJF is not performed there. He made himself up so he could head to RUSH’s locker room and offer him the same deal he offered Cage – a boatload of money in exchange for beating up Danielson, and/or ripping off his arm.

AEW and MJF may rely on these gimmicks a little bit, but it’s hard to complain about them when we get these matches well.

Get full results and coverage of everything from tonight’s episode on dynamite here.