Bryan Danielson addresses future in wrestling: ‘I was cautious not to say retirement’

It’s unclear if Bryan Danielson will wrestle again, but he doesn’t consider himself retired.

Danielson appeared on The Nikki & Brie Show recently, more than a month after his full-time career ended with a loss to Jon Moxley at AEW WrestleDream. Danielson clarified that he was careful not to use the word “retirement” in the lead-up to the match.

“I was very cautious to not say ‘retirement,’ except for the match where if I lost, I’d retire (At All In vs. Swerve Strickland). But after that, it was all, ‘the end of my full-time wrestling career.’ But honestly, I feel – we don’t know what’s going to happen with my neck – but it honestly feels like I have a bobblehead.”

Brie mentioned that Danielson needs neck surgery. Last month, our own Dave Meltzer reported that Danielson hoped to avoid surgery through stem cell treatment. His return to the ring depends on whether he needs surgery and how well the surgery goes if he does.

Brie also mentioned that she wanted to create a celebratory post after his last match, but Danielson said he would prefer if she didn’t, saying, “As wrestlers, we’re never fully retired.”

Danielson continued:

“I realized this with my last retirement, which was forced. I didn’t want to retire but they weren’t going to let me wrestle again. But what I found is, people are sad for a bit, they are sad for like this much, but then everyone just moves on and it doesn’t matter.”

Shortly after Danielson’s loss to Moxley at WrestleDream, our Dave Meltzer provided an update on Danielson’s health in the October 21, 2024 edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Meltzer wrote:

“As far as what happens with Danielson involves the state of his neck. He is going to have an MRI done to see the damage. He had an MRI done not too long ago and it showed damage all the way down his neck. What happens next depends on if the level of damage is the same as it was or if it has worsened, and if [so], by how much. The hope is that he won’t need surgery and can heal up strong enough with stem cell treatment therapy. But if not, he’ll have to undergo surgery. If or when he can return to the ring depends on how well all of this goes,” Meltzer wrote. “They and he had always said regarding this match that it would be the end of his full-time career, and not the end of his career.”