On the AEW Collision prior to AEW All Out, many fans were unsure who would step up to defend Ricky Steamboat against Ricky Starks, with the previous answer obviously being CM Punk. However, Bryan Danielson would answer the call, returning a month ahead of schedule from a broken arm. Danielson would go on to win this match.
On a recent AEW Dynamite, Bryan would note that he will be retiring once his daughter turns seven in the next year.
Speaking on BJ & Migs, Danielson was asked about the promo and the real emotion that came with it.
“It is a real thing. Also, I’m not a great actor. I have no interest in acting whatsoever. It’s one of those things where, if I don’t feel something to be true, I can’t go out there and do it. Not that I can’t go out there and do it, I will go out there and do it, but I need to have some sort of connection to something before I go out there and do it. This is a very real thing. For me, this is my last full-time year of wrestling. What my life looks like outside of wrestling after the year, we don’t exactly know. I don’t know. I, would kind of like to disappear. I don’t think my temperament is good for the public eye. I don’t like being recognized, that sort of thing. People are great, wrestling fans are great, they are always so nice when they say hi, but what really made it happen was being in the WWE machine and you’re in the spotlight so much, and I always loved wrestling and I loved the idea that I could wrestle in front of 500 people at an independent show and they’d be like, ‘you’re the best,’ and I go to the airport and nobody knows who I am. Even when I was the top independent wrestler in the country, I could go back to Aberdeen and not a single person cared. They didn’t care that I was a professional wrestler at all. I like that because then they’re not coming in with any expectation or they just like you because. I like to blend into the background a little more,”
“The travel, the toll the travel takes on my body and when you get home. You leave on Friday, do Collision on Saturday, come home on Sunday, you’re exhausted. We live on the west coast and most wrestling shows are east coast or central time, which why it’s great being in Seattle. The long flights, you get home, and you’re residually tired from that, and it takes you a day or two to recover from that, especially as I get old. I want to show up for my kids in the best way possible. I was never attracted to wrestling because of the fame or money. When I look back, I don’t even think I thought I was going to be successful,”
“Part of it too is, my body. I’ve been doing it for so long and I wrestle a hard style. It’s getting to the point where I have to look after my long-term health as well. I want to be there because we had kids older. I want to be able to be there and play with my kids,”
“One of the things is, mentally, for me, making this last full-time year of wrestling, making every match mean more. Not to other people, but to myself. I have a limited time frame to do this at the scale that I’m doing it. That means don’t take it for granted. Doing this job is a blessing, and I’m lucky to be able to do it
Bryan Danielson
Danielson would also comment on what comes next for him after his full time retirement, noting he wants to just show up to venues and wrestle.
That’s actually what I kind of figure my ‘after this year’ looks like. Me, calling up a promoter like the DEFY promoter, ‘Hey, I’m in town this week, can I come wrestle?’ ‘Of course, can we promote you?’ ‘No, you can not.’ I don’t want people to know it’s me. Just get a full body suit, go out there, and wrestle completely differently than Bryan Danielson has ever wrestled. Go, do my thing, get my jollies from doing it. I still, at 41 years old, October 4 will be the 24th year. I still love doing it.”
Bryan Danielson
Danielson is currently scheduled to face off with Zack Sabre Jr in singles competition at the event.
We will have to wait and see if Danielson can topple Sabre Jr later this weekend.
H/T to Fightful for transcription
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