Bryan Danielson defeated Swerve Strickland in a standout main event of AEW All In at Wembley Stadium to win the AEW World Championship.

In the emotional match, Swerve beat and abused a bloodied Bryan Danielson in front of his family, but Danielson just wouldn’t give up. The match was interrupted by Hangman Adam Page, who was arrested by security before Danielson could regain the upper hand. Hangman’s interference ultimately didn’t matter, as Bryan was able to pin Swerve in the LaBell Lock and win his first AEW World Championship.

Despite the mixed build, Danielson vs. Swerve felt like the biggest fight on the card as fans went wild from the first bell. WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross joined the commentary team to commentate on the Career vs. Title match.

As was the case for most of Swerve Strickland’s underrated run for the AEW World Championship, Swerve was not the main character in his own world title defense. Instead, Swerve Strickland’s main event against Bryan Danielson was about Bryan Danielson and whether or not this would be his last fight.

In real-life interviews, Danielson admitted that he did not want to win the AEW World Championship. AEW made a storyline out of this and further devalued the importance of the AEW World Title while Swerve held the title. After winning the Owen Hart Men’s Tournament, an apathetic Danielson had to be motivated by the likes of Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Kingston to keep the fire going and want to win AEW’s biggest prize.

Bryan Danielson’s path to the AEW title did not result in high viewership numbers. This was never more evident than during a well-constructed match between Danielson (43 years old) and Jeff Jarrett (57 years old). Compared to the Olympics, the show flopped in the target audience of 18-34 year olds, an audience that turned its back on AEW long before the Summer Games.

Although Bryan and Swerve finished strong in their questionable build to the all-in main event, the feud was still outshone by MJF vs. Will Ospreay, who lasted a long time during an otherwise riveting 22-minute segment on Wednesday’s go-home Dynamite from Cardiff, Wales. In his final address to Swerve, Danielson called himself the “best damn wrestler in the world” before repeating his “yes” chants.

Swerve’s run to the World Championship wasn’t a complete failure, but it’s hard to call it a success without his fault. Swerve didn’t even appear on the first AEW Dynamite after his big World Title win. Instead, his big speech was relegated to AEW’s side show Collision.

Swerve’s first world title defense against Christian Cage was overshadowed by the Stadium Stampede, which featured a double or nothing main event. After Strickland defeated Ospreay at AEW Forbidden Door, the biggest win of his title run, the victory was overshadowed by unnecessary, hypocritical and arrogant reports that it was Will Ospreay’s idea to lose to Swerve, as if there needed to be a reason why the real world champion was defending his title.

So condescending.

It was no surprise to anyone that Swerve’s (+300) interim reign ended when the once hot babyface turned villain and lost his world title to the heroic Bryan Danielson (-500). With reports already pouring in that Darby Allin is set to become the next AEW World Champion, Swerve feels just as secondary as he did during his own forgettable world title reign.