Miyagi, the maintenance man at his apartment, who becomes his karate mentor and also a perfect friend of his, as well as a father figure. Through this training, Daniel becomes skilled enough to defeat Johnny in the tournament's final match and become the new champion.
In The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) won the All Valley Under 18 Karate Championship — but the dirty truth is he and his sensei, Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) cheated multiple times.
He is trained by Mr. Miyagi and enters the tournament as a newcomer, while Johnny enters as the two time defending champion. Daniel defeats Johnny in the finals with a crane kick to the face, becoming the new champion.
Other fights Daniel won include his lone fight with Chozen in The Karate Kid Part II, as well as defeating Mike Barnes in the All Valley Tournament in The Karate Kid Part III after being able to skip every other round as reigning champion.
At the end of the fight between Daniel and Johnny in Karate Kid, a defeated Johnny hands the trophy to Daniel and says, "You're alright, Larusso". The line was supposed to prove that the former never hated the latter, or had at least grown some respect for him.
The Karate Kid Part III (1989) - Daniel Wins! Scene | Movieclips
Did Johnny ever beat Daniel?
Though Johnny was an undeniable bully, this altercation was started by Daniel. After pranking Johnny by pouring water over him in the bathroom, Daniel ran off, hoping to escape. Of course, this didn't work out, and Johnny gave him a beating that could very well have killed him.
In the All-Valley Tournament, it was Daniel LaRusso who famously won by beating Johnny Lawrence. However, that wasn't the only competition that Daniel won. In The Karate Kid III, he went up against Mike Barnes in the All-Valley Tournament and took first place trophy home once more.
They bond over their mutual amusement over how absurd it seems. Ali, Johnny, and Daniel then tell stories of high school over dinner. During this time, Ali reveals that what actually caused her breakup with Daniel was his jealousy over a college friend of hers (which Daniel mistook for a love affair).
Kreese orders Johnny to sweep Daniel's leg, considered unethical because of Daniel's injury. Fearing his sensei, Johnny manages to land an elbow on Daniel's bad leg, receiving a warning from the referee. Upon the restart of the round, Johnny loses the match after Daniel lands a crane kick to his face.
Kreese instructs his second-best student, Bobby, one of his more compassionate students and the least vicious of Daniel's tormentors, to disable Daniel with an illegal attack to the knee. Bobby reluctantly does so, severely injuring Daniel and getting himself disqualified.
While not seen directly, Silver is shown to have had a massive influence, as his, Kreese's, and Barnes's ruthless and unethical actions during the 1985 All-Valley Tournament led to the tournament committee issuing a lifetime ban on Cobra Kai from participating in the All-Valley.
In the second installment in The Karate Kid trilogy, Daniel succeeded in beating Chozen in a fight to the death. Over 30 years later, Chozen proved his superiority over his former enemy by defeating him in a rematch.
How could the Crane Kick in Karate Kid be illegal if there are multiple kicks to the head in the whole tournament (even at least one winning kick from Johnny)? The Crane Kick was 100% legal within the rules of the All-Valley Tournament.
Johnny, the star pupil of the Cobra Kai Dojo, and the winner of the last All-Valley Karate Tournament, beats up Daniel when he tries to insert himself into Ali's private business and attacks Johnny.
Daniel-san." Macchio was 33 years old, too old to reprise his role as a "Karate Kid." He publicly stated that he was "not interested in becoming the Sylvester Stallone of Karate Kid movies." Though 24 years later he did agree to star in the Cobra Kai (2018) TV series based on his Karate Kid films for YouTube's new ...
The prized pupil of Cobra Kai's sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove), Johnny hated Daniel from the moment they met when LaRusso became romantically interested in Johnny's ex-girlfriend, Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), at a beach party.
Both Macchio and Zabka agreed it is up to the fans to decide who is the bad guy in this franchise and stated both Johnny and Daniel have their evil moments in both Karate Kid and Cobra Kai.
Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) was at his worst in The Karate Kid Part III, and he even turned his back on Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) and joined the Cobra Kai.
According to Screen Rant, Shue did not reprise her role as Ali in The Karate Kid Part II due to her academic commitment as a student at Harvard University. Shue wasn't sure that The Karate Kid fans would even care if she returned as Ali in Cobra Kai, but she eventually agreed to reprise her role.
The crane kick is a fictionalized version of the Mae tobi geri (Japanese: 前飛蹴). The move was created by Daryll Vidal for the classic film The Karate Kid (1984). The move is taught by the character Mr. Miyagi to Daniel LaRusso and eventually used in the final scene with his arch rival Johnny Lawrence.
The first time viewers learned more information about Daniel's absent father was when he tried to comfort Mr. Miyagi. He revealed his father died of an unknown terminal illness when Daniel was only eight years old. He recalled only positive memories with his dad.
Cobra Kai started with Daniel and Johnny as enemies, but now they're friends - and their relationship is a perfect example of Mr. Miyagi's teachings. The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Cobra Kai Season 5, now streaming on Netflix.
They would battle both on the mat and off—tournament rules or free-for-all—a total of five times going into Cobra Kai's wrap-up season. Overall, they have established that they are evenly matched...
Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), is basically the new Chuck Norris. Billy Zabka learned Tang Soo Do from Pat Johnson (the number 1 student of Chuck Norris in the early 80s). Tang Soo Do means Chinese Fist and is a combination of several fighting arts that were combined and advanced by Korean Masters.
