Bryan Danielson says he has ‘no desire to wrestle right now’

Bryan Danielson discussed the possibility of returning to the ring during recent interviews with Metro and Daily Star.

While the 43-year-old has been careful not to say he’s officially retired, he explained that the pain he endured during his final run has led him to be at peace with no longer wrestling.

“I have no inclination right now, and no desire to wrestle right now. The last six months of my career built up to that I actually, I look at it now as a blessing,” Danielson said. “Because the six months leading into my last match were so hard and my neck was so bad. And, I mean, there’s things that I couldn’t physically do.”

One of Danielson’s final matches was against Kazuchika Okada on the October 2, 2024, edition of AEW Dynamite. The rules of the match had Okada’s Continental Championship on the line for just the first 20 minutes, but Danielson says he was unable to wrestle the match the way it should have gone.

“What the story should be in that scenario is I’m pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing him, trying to get this fall done in the first 20 minutes,” Danielson said. “That should have been the story, but my legs just couldn’t do it. So it was to the point where I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not physically able to do some of the things that I should, that this story requires me to do.’”

Danielson was asked about the chances he would be back in the UK this summer for Forbidden Door 2025 at the O2 Arena in London. He responded that he’s almost certain he won’t be wrestling on the show, but a situation could arise where he does.

“I’m like, 95% chance no,” Danielson said. “But the reality is that, say you have a big main event and something happens where somebody gets hurt, and Tony says, ‘Hey Bryan, we need you for this thing, is there something you could do?’ Yeah, there’s something I could do. I just have to be careful. But I mean, it’s one of those things where there’s ways to work around it. But you just can’t do it all the time.”

Danielson has not gotten neck surgery in the months since his final match at WrestleDream on October 12. Dave Meltzer reported shortly after the event that Danielson’s plan was to treat his injuries with stem cell therapy in an attempt to avoid surgery.

“I’m making progress, but that still doesn’t mean I won’t have to get neck surgery. I’m trying to avoid it,” he told Metro.

In a separate interview with the Daily Star this weekend, Danielson spoke about his current role in AEW.

“I’m just kind of a consultant for AEW now,” he said. “People may think it’s creative, some of it is, but it’s very little of it.”

He joked that he had nothing to do with the well-reviewed AEW Spring BreakThru episode on April 16.

“I didn’t have a single thing to do with that show,” he said while laughing. “One of the best wrestling TV shows ever, one of the best TV matches of all time with the Ospreay Takeshita match and yeah, I didn’t have a single thing to do with that show.”

As for what Danielson focuses on aside from wrestling these days, he says he spends a lot of time thinking about how he can contribute to a better world.

“Most people who are doing things to make the world a better place, you’re never going to hear about… I’m actively working on doing stuff outside of wrestling, there are things that I care about… You just want to do them for yourself, or the people around, the people you love.”

Danielson’s full interview with Metro is available here.