Bryan Danielson currently holds a rather strange record within WWE.
By 2015 Bryan Danielson had achieved incredible success and was the most popular star on the entire roster. However, that May he was forced to retire through injury and it was widely believed that he would never wrestle again.
Incredibly, the star continued to fight to come back and his dream was realised in March 2018. Danielson remained with the company for another three years before leaving for AEW when his contract expired.
During the period of his career when he was struggling with injury and eventually retired, Danielson remained under contract due to time being added as a result of his injuries.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that Alexa Bliss has recently had her WWE deal extended in a similar way. While discussing the deal, Meltzer noted that Danielson currently holds the unique distinction of being signed to a three-year WWE contract that actually lasted for seven years.
“Bliss noted that she hopes to return to wrestle in 2024 and that WWE had extended her contract, basically freezing it from the time she stopped. At least she knows that since a lot of the talent that had asked to leave over the years were hit with the idea that when they thought their contract was up, it wasn’t because of it being frozen. Bliss didn’t appear to have any issue with it. The record was Bryan Danielson signing a three-year deal that ended up lasting seven years.”
Bryan Danielson Moving Into AEW Creative
While Bryan Danielson is currently wrapped up in the storyline between The Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club, he’s also taking on a bigger role backstage. It has been reported that the star will be joining the creative team for ColIision which launches on June 17th.
Danielson previously helped out in creative with WWE while he was on the sidelines.