Bryan Danielson has revealed that seeing one particular high-risk move during an AEW match made him reconsider joining the company.
Former WWE Champion Bryan Danielson made his AEW debut in September 2021 after letting his contract with WWE expire earlier in the year.
Following his arrival in the company, Danielson battled Kenny Omega to a time-limit draw before going an hour with Hangman Adam Page. The rematch with the AEW World Champion saw Danielson suffer his first and to date, only defeat, since joining the promotion.
Appearing on a recent episode of Throwing Down with Renee and Miesha, the American Dragon reflected on his switch from WWE to AEW. Danielson said that the fact he left WWE where he was happy to join AEW, shows what a good job the promotion have done.
“I think AEW’s done a really great job. So much so that I was very happy where I worked before, right, and still chose to go to AEW,” Danielson said. “I think that speaks a lot for the product they’ve been producing already. I’m trying to create my wrestling paradise, right? It’s like if wrestling could be how I envisioned it, it would be like this, and that’s what I want with me and Jon [Moxley].
“So that would be really the only thing. I think we have a great amount of diversity in the sense of different styles of wrestling and different styles of acts. You know, you come in and it’s like a mix of all these different things. I think that’s a lot of fun.”
Danielson went on to explain that he joined AEW as he wanted to test himself, although he wasn’t initially sure whether he could go stand toe-to-toe with the company’s best.
“There wasn’t one specific aha moment. There was the fact that I had to make a choice eventually. To be fair, both options would’ve been really fun. You know what I mean? I was looking at, you know, we only get this one life, so I wanted to go explore, I wanted to test my limits. I think that when I was watching AEW, it really kind of scared me a little bit in the sense of, ‘could I hang with some of the stuff that these guys are doing?’”
Expanding further, Danielson revealed that a match between Cody Rhodes and Penta made him reconsider joining AEW altogether, in light of witnessing Rhodes perform a top-rope Frankensteiner.
“The fast pace. The action. There’s more and more daredevil moves [In AEW]. I was actually watching one thing that really demoralized me and made me think like ‘oh I’m not gonna go to AEW’. Cody [Rhodes] wrestled Penta, right? All of a sudden Cody, who I travelled with in WWE, he’s doing a top rope Frankensteiner where they’re both standing on the top rope. I was like ‘oh my gosh. Am I gonna have to do that?’ I don’t think I can. I’m 40.
It was one of those things where it scared me a little bit but also excited me. There’s something so appealing about that, about living your life on the boundaries of what you think you can do and what you know you can do.”
Following his defeat to Hangman Adam Page, Bryan Danielson set his sights on Jon Moxley. The American Dragon at first pitched that he and Moxley should team up, although Moxley judged that they should bleed together first.
On the February 23rd episode of AEW Dynamite, it was announced that Danielson and Moxley will meet at AEW Revolution.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.