Bryan Danielson: It’s easier to imagine life going forward without me wrestling

Bryan Danielson opened up about his thoughts on retirement during a recent appearance on The Nikki & Brie Show.

When Danielson challenges Swerve Strickland at AEW All In, the stipulation is that if he doesn’t win the title, he’ll never wrestle again. Danielson said it’s easier for him to imagine his future without wrestling. He also noted that he doesn’t want to miss this period in his children’s lives.

Danielson said:

“There’s this small portion of our kid’s lives where they actually want us there. Soon, and I see it with my friends and my sister and all that kind of stuff, all of a sudden Birdie, she’s 7 now, she’s going to turn into a teenager and she’s going to have other things. Now, she wants Daddy there all the time and I want to be there for that. And also, my body is broken down. The odds are I’m probably going to have neck surgery before the end of the year.”

“This pro wrestling thing, it’s been incredible and it’s hard to imagine my life without it for the past 25 years but it’s a lot easier to imagine my life going forward without me wrestling. It’s actually hard for me to imagine me keeping doing this, especially with the last year. I’ve had herniated discs in my back, tore the labrum in my shoulder, then I broke my arm which required a rod and 9 screws, then I had two fractures in my orbital bone, and now I just recently hurt my neck really bad and that was in April. So, it’s like all of these things. When I started at AEW, I was like, ‘I’m invincible’ and then it turns out maybe not so invincible.”

Danielson qualified for the AEW World title match at All In by winning the 2024 men’s Owen Hart Cup. Leading up to the finals of the tournament, Danielson mentioned in multiple media interviews that he never wanted to win the AEW World title. Our own Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that Danielson made these statements to maintain the surprise of him winning the Owen Hart Cup.

“All those interviews that Danielson was doing about how he didn’t want the world title and all that, that was all a work to make you think that Hangman was going to win,” Meltzer said on the July 11 edition of the show.

“I think that he wanted everyone to think that it ain’t going to be him, he isn’t winning the tournament because otherwise, people expected him to win the tournament. But since he kept telling people that he wasn’t going to, everybody was expecting Page (to win) which is exactly what he was trying to do.”