Top AEW star Bryan Danielson recently revealed what he wants to do with his last year of a full-time schedule during a recent interview with the Getting Over podcast. Danielson has been one of the unsung heroes of AEW since joining in late 2021.
Recently he has taken on a mentor role to the younger talent on the roster. He has also filled in the void CM Punk left when he was fired in both his matches and in being the top guy on AEW Collision.
As Danielson comes closer to his own in-ring retirement he wants to transition to a slower schedule. He has said he wants to move to a part-time schedule and appear for special matches similar to the schedule Brock Lesnar or John Cena has in WWE in the year or so.
However, Bryan Danielson is not quite at that point yet. On a recent episode of Getting Over, he talked about things he wants to do before he moves to a part-time schedule. He stated the following:
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“I have people I’d like to get in the ring with. Most of them are AEW people because those are the most easily accessible. For example, I would love to do a match with Darby Allin in Seattle. How cool would that be? Even like Nick Wayne. Me and Swerve [Strickland] have never wrestled. And I’m just talking about Washington State wrestlers [Strickland is from Washington].
“I want to do another match with Kenny Omega. There’s all these different things that I would like to do but … I don’t want to limit it to names. What I really want out of this year is to be fully present and to be able to appreciate this being my last full-time year of wrestling.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
Bryan Danielson on How Much He Enjoys Being A Pro Wrestler
Bryan Danielson has also expressed a desire to try to enjoy the little things in wrestling. An example he gave was his enjoyment of talking about production and other behind-the-scenes aspects of wrestling. A topic which the average person has no experience with or interest in.
Despite becoming a locker room leader Danielson reveals it was something he never intended to become. He thinks the reason he has become good in leadership roles in his career is because he leads by example as opposed to forcing his mentality towards wrestling on others.
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One of his peers, The Butcher of The Butcher and The Blade claims Danielson is on a whole different level as a professional wrestler. On a recent episode of NotSam Wrestling, he revealed why he thinks Danielson is so highly respected. The Butcher stated:
“I don’t think there’s a pro wrestler even close. I think that his gap is like, he can do everything. How do you get better than that? You can put him in comedy, you can put him in deathmatch, you can put him in technical, that dude does everything good. That is Michael Jordan. Everyone should watch that guy wrestle.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
Danielson has proven himself to be very good at a very diverse range of skills in his wrestling career. They range from very slow joint manipulation matches to highly technical suplexes and all the way to brutal, vicious, and bloody Deathmatches.
Butcher goes on to explain how Bryan Danielson is very approachable. “There’s not a bad bone in that dude’s body” is the exact phrase he used. He also said that at any point anyone can pull Danielson aside and have any sort of conversation with him and he will listen and give advice.
Danielson’s most recent match was this past Sunday at AEW WrestleDream. He faced Zack Sabre Jr. in a master class in technical wrestling. The two men faced off to crown the best technical wrestler in the world. Danielson was able to come out on top. However, he doesn’t feel like he is the best technical wrestler in the world. During the post-WrestleDream media scrum, Bryan Danielson spoke about why he thinks he isn’t the best. He stated:
“One of the selling points of this match is that we are going to find out who the best technical wrestler in the world is, and in theory, the idea is the winner of the match is the better technical wrestler. Being in the match, I won the match, but I am not convinced that I was the better technical wrestler.”
“He was doing things that were quite frankly unbelievable and great … Sometimes I’m out there and I would love to get an EKG on my brain when I’m wrestling, because there’s the part that’s aggressive and you’re in it. But there’s also the part where you’re just like, ‘Oh, I’m in awe of what he’s doing right now.’ It was a super cool match for me to have.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
Danielson may be at the very peak of his career. It is amazing watching his matches, but it is also sad to think that his career is winding down. In a year he will be a special occasions wrestler and fans will see far less of him. However, until then he is putting on some of the best matches of his career.
What did you think of Danielson vs. Sabre Jr.’s match? Even though Danielson won, do you think he is the better technical wrestler? What would you like to see Danielson do in his final year of full-time? Who, from any promotion, would you like to see him wrestle? Do you agree with Butcher that he is the Michael Jordan of modern pro wrestling? Let us know who are some future “Michael Jordans” of pro wrestling.
Sources: Getting Over, Wrestling Inc., NotSam Wrestling, Wrestling Inc., post-WrestleDream media scrum, Wrestling Inc.
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