Bryan Danielson has elaborated on scrapped plans to be a part of the G1 Tournament in New Japan.
The 34th round-robin tournament is currently underway in NJPW and has a reputation for being one of the most physically demanding events on the wrestling calendar each year. While The American Dragon previously competed in the inaugural AEW Continental Classic in 2023, the G1 is an entirely different beast altogether. Despite the tournament being a career goal of Danielson, the AEW star has never been able to chase the dream due to previous injuries.
Discussing the tournament with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Danielson stated that he did make contact with Gedo regarding participating in the 2024 tournament:
“Over the winter, I told Gedo, the booker in New Japan, ‘I would love to do the G1 this year! I’d just wrestled Zack Sabre in Japan [in February]. I was so excited. It all happened in the heat of the moment.”
Aware of the physical and mental toll that competing in the tournament would take on his body, Danielson stated that due to his current conditioning, it does not look possible and has made peace with that fact:
“My neck isn’t doing real great right now. So there’s my health. But even if Tony [Khan] freed me up for the entire summer and said, ‘Go do the G1,’ I wouldn’t want to leave my wife and kids for that long. I don’t think my wife would think it was good for my health, either.
“I’ve always wanted to do the G1. I don’t know if that’s going to be in the cards for me, and that’s OK.”
Konosuke Takeshita is currently competing in the G1. Previous AEW stars who have competed in the tournament while contracted to the promotion include Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston.
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