Bryan Danielson has always wanted to test himself in NJPW’s gruelling tournament, the G1 Climax.
The legendary four-week tournament features twenty of the best wrestlers in the promotion fighting it out for the opportunity to challenge for the IWGP World Championship. With the participants having to go through a total of nine matches to progress to the final, the toll the competition takes on them is immense.
The American Dragon recently took part in an interview with Uproxx in which he discussed his desire to compete in the G1, but he doesn’t his AEW boss, Tony Khan would allow him to go through such a risky tournament.
“I don’t know because that requires Tony (Khan) to allow me to be off of TV for four weeks or whatever,” Danielson said. “You have to look at it from a Tony investment point of view, right? Does he really want somebody like me who is older to go through that many hard matches, be off of TV for four weeks, and potentially get injured? Probably not.”
“Although, I do have a dream that me, Mox and Claudio [Castagnoli] and maybe Eddie Kingston, just so we have somebody to pick on, would all be able to go do one G1 together, because that would be just so much fun.
To go do those incredible matches, but do it with your friends so that you all have this experience together. I think that would be incredible. Now, if you’re asking me if Tony is going to let me go do a G1 and is it a smart move for him? Probably not, but the odds of him letting me do it, I would say a 33 percent chance.
The odds of him letting me, Mox, and Claudio all be gone for a month off of TV, an astronomically small percentage, but I haven’t even talked to him about it. So maybe with this interview he’ll see it.”
Will Tony Khan allow Bryan Danielson to go to NJPW?
Danielson’s doubt about Khan’s willingness to let him go to Japan for that amount of time is justified. Speaking on the In The Kliq podcast, the AEW President recently commented on the possibility of Danielson entering the tournament.
“I think it would be great in many ways, but Bryan Danielson, it’s quite possible [he] could be the AEW World Champion. Either way, I think it would be hard for him to disappear from the show, especially if he’s the AEW World Champion. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to get away from the show that much. We’ll have to see what happens here coming out of Revolution with MJF vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship in a 60-minute Ironman match there in San Francisco on March 5.”
Danielson will challenge MJF for the AEW World Championship in a 60-minute Ironman match at Revolution on Sunday, March 5th.
H/T WrestleZone