Bryan Danielson: I’ve Had People Tell Me I Should Be Champion When In Reality I Shouldn’t Be
Bryan Danielson does not see himself as a world champion at his age.
In the last year of his full-time run, Bryan Danielson has fully stated that he never plans to use the R-word again (Retirement). He has focused his recent All Elite Wrestling run to lead the next generation of professional wrestling.
The goal for Danielson is to make pro wrestling healthier and allow it to keep growing for both the sport in general and the wrestlers who step foot in the ring every single night.
“I don’t use the R-word [retirement]. I already had to do that once and I want to leave it open to wrestle when I’m 75 if I so choose,” he said during a recent SXSW panel. “When I came to AEW, CM Punk had just debuted several weeks before and he talked about wanting to help the younger talent. I watched his interview and was like, ‘that’s what I was going to say.’ Then, when they asked me my goals, I was like, ‘I’m going to come in and kick everyone’s head in. I don’t care about pushing younger guys to the top. I’m just going to stomp them in the face and show them I’m the best.’ That’s actually not the reality. As someone who is 42 years old and has two kids. AEW made the pro wrestling industry healthier. When I look at that, how do I make this industry that I’ve loved since I was a child, how do I make it healthier? The idea is to pass on my opinion to younger wrestlers. I’ve had people say, ‘Bryan, you should be champion.’ The reality is, to me, no.
“The champions that we’ve had have been great,” he added. “Hangman was a great champion. MJF was a great champion. It elevated these younger people to where now these people are stars. You put Hangman and MJF on TV now and they draw a rating. It would be easy to take stars of the past and make them your champion and top guy. That’s the easy way. It’s much harder to take someone like MJF, who hadn’t been on national television, and turn him into a star that draws ratings. That was my bigger goal. To transfer stardom from one generation to another.”
Instead of championships, Danielson is focused on accomplishing the dream matches fans all over the world want him to be in. Danielson will battle Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty in another dream match come to life.
h/t from Fightful.
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