At AEW Dynamite Grand Slam on September 22nd, Bryan Danielson competed in an instant classic against Kenny Omega.
The two warriors fought to a 30-minute time limit draw in front of AEW’s largest crowd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. It was the first time Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega had met inside a ring in over a decade and it did not disappoint.
Speaking to Jim Varsallone about everything AEW, Bryan Danielson said that he no longer questions whether his matches are seen as good. He concerns himself more with whether he enjoyed them. Reflecting on his AEW in-ring debut, the American Dragon revealed that he was still buzzing long after the match finished.
“Honestly, I don’t worry until a day or two later if a match was good or not. Like, I honestly don’t worry about it. I’m no longer at that point in my career where I question if something was good. This is how I approach wrestling.
When I get excited, I want to do the best I can when I go out there. But when I’m out there, I want to enjoy it, so my reaction to whether it’s good or not is whether I enjoyed it or did I not. And the match against Kenny Omega, I was literally buzzing… I hadn’t wrestled in April, I’m 40 years old, right? Like, it’s like, ‘Oh no, I got dragon suplexed on a ramp, I got dragon suplexed off the top rope, you know? I took some hits, and afterwards, I was buzzing to the point that I couldn’t really sit down. I just felt so good, right, and the energy and all that stuff.”
Breaking down the match, Danielson said that he gave them bout 10/10. Adding that there are only a handful of his matches from his illustrious career that compare.
“So yeah, I wasn’t worried if we knocked it out of the park or hit a grand slam, I worry about, ‘Did I enjoy what I just did?’ And as far as my enjoyment, that’s a 10/10 as far as you look at, ‘Okay, well which matches did you enjoy the most?’
If you rank everything on a scale of 1 to 10, that was a 10/10 enjoyment for me in the sense that there are only a handful of matches that are even comparable. So yeah, to me, it was just a ton of fun. And then what I do after is a day or two later, I’ll go back and watch it, and that’s where I’ll pick myself apart. And that’s the point that I go back and learn, and so – ’cause I find that if you’re too, if you come back and the first thing you’re worried about is, ‘Did we do a good job?’ Then all of a sudden, you aren’t enjoying it as much as you could.”
Bryan Danielson has remained undefeated since joining AEW, most recently seeing of the challenge of new signee Bobby Fish. After the match on Dynamite it was announced that Danielson will be taking part in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament. The former WWE Champion meets Dustin Rhodes in the first round on the October 23rd special Saturday night edition of Dynamite.
The tournament will kick off the night before on Rampage with Orange Cassidy taking on Powerhouse Hobbs. The winner of the tournament will be crowned at AEW Full Gear.
Also at the event, Kenny Omega will defend his AEW World Championship against “Hangman” Adam Page. The number one contender earned his shot at Omega by winning the Casino Ladder Match on the October 6th episode of Dynamite.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.