Only five years ago, Bryan Danielson’s wrestling career was relegated to the past tense.
Having retired in 2016 following multiple concussions, it was unlikely that Danielson would ever wrestle again. Yet he returned in 2018, bringing back a blend of passion and effervescence to pro wrestling that only he can.
Now starring in AEW, Danielson is working closely with Jon Moxley as part of the Blackpool Combat Club. They are led by the highly esteemed William Regal and joined by the former indie standout—and rising AEW star—Wheeler Yuta.
Danielson and Moxley will team with Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz on Sunday at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view against the Jericho Appreciation Society in a first-of-its-kind “Anarchy in the Arena” match—a forum that currently exists as a large question mark.
“You don’t know what it is, and I don’t know what it is, either,” says Danielson, who shared that he has no concern over his reported knee injury. “That’s part of the excitement whenever you start using a new intellectual product. That’s one of the fun, fascinating things about pro wrestling. I’ll be interested to see what we’re stepping into on Sunday night.”
Speaking with Sports Illustrated, Danielson discussed a range of topics, including his current work in AEW, world affairs and how his greatest strength can also serve as a detriment.
Sports Illustrated: You’re wrestling Chris Jericho and the Jericho Appreciation Society this Sunday at Double or Nothing. Chris has succeeded in every major promotion, and he continues to reinvent himself in captivating fashion. You two also share quite a lot of history together. What do you admire most about Chris?
Bryan Danielson: One of the things that I really enjoy about Chris is that he still enjoys doing this. For someone like me—I’m 41 and have been wrestling for 22 years—it’s fun to see the guys who have been around for so long and still love it. He’s still so passionate about it. Chris brings everything he has into this, and you can feel that. His heart is still in it.
SI: After speaking so highly of Chris, would you ever consider joining the Jericho Appreciation Society?
BD: Absolutely not [laughs]. If you asked me two weeks ago if I’d rather be around Chris Jericho or Eddie Kingston, I would have said Chris Jericho. But I do love a nice ideological battle, which we have here with the battle between sports entertainment and professional wrestling. I’m really into that. As Bryan Danielson, I don’t want to go back to being a sports entertainer.
SI: Along with Jon Moxley, you’re teaming at Double or Nothing with Kingston, Santana and Ortiz. Kingston paid his dues on the indies, as did Santana and Ortiz, who also worked very hard to reach where they are in AEW. These are new partners for you, as well as some new opponents in the Jericho Appreciation’s Society’s Matt Menard and Angelo Parker.
BD: I like the variety of the people I’m teaming with, but I also like the variety of people on the other side, too. It’s a great mix of experienced guys with younger guys. You’ve got a guy like Daniel Garcia, who is fantastic. You have Proud & Powerful, who are such an amazing tag team. And you have Eddie Kingston, who is a piece of garbage—but he’s good at what he does. It’s a lot of fun.
SI: You bring so much joy to wrestling. It’s a wonderful sight to behold, especially in a world where there is an overwhelming amount of strife. The news of the shooting from an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was soul-crushing. There is the ongoing invasion in Ukraine. As a citizen of the world, do these types of tragedies make you want to wrestle more to bring happiness to people? Or is it something you personally need to do during heartbreaking times?
Danielson: It’s interesting, I’ve always felt a certain level of guilt in pro wrestling. I also love this thing so much. We actually had a really good conversation about this a couple weeks ago in the locker room. Yes, wrestling does help people, but I still do it for selfish reasons.
The Texas shooting is horrible. It almost makes me go, “What am I doing right now? I should be home with my kids.” This can be hard to explain. I read this great book, Four Thousand Weeks, and I was just telling my friend about it. The book says it’s about time management, but it’s actually a book about philosophy. The average lifespan is only 4,000 weeks. If you look at where I’m at now, I’m 2,000 weeks in, and I’ve got 2,000 weeks left. With all the craziness in the world, do I want to spend the rest of those weeks entertaining people? Or do I want to spend more time with my family? That’s actually one of the reasons why I chose AEW. It allows me the ability to have a little more freedom with my wrestling and wrestle different people with different styles, but it’s also to spend more time with my family.
SI: You touched on so many great points there, including more freedom in your work schedule and the ability to have more time with your family. Considering AEW doesn’t run a house show circuit like WWE, it means you are wrestling fewer dates. As a performer who is as close to a perfectionist as wrestling has, what has that process been like for you?
BD: I actually feel I’m at my best when I wrestle about 10 matches a month. When I do only a match a week, I see the difference. I’ll ask myself, “Why didn’t I do this?” Or I’ll see something wasn’t as sharp as it used to be. I’m also lucky to wrestle once a week. That’s great for family life. But I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, so I’m not sure it’s great for wrestling technique. When I watch my stuff back and critique myself, I’m hard on myself and want to make sure everything is sharp.
SI: When we spoke a few months ago, you mentioned how you rarely ever use your cellphone when you are at work. That ability to lock in and hyper-focus gives you such an advantage, especially in a world flush with distractions.
BD: Distraction is one of the big problems, especially for the younger generation. For me, focusing makes me feel like I’m living my life a little better than if I were just staring at my phone. It helps me be a better father and makes me more attentive. It also frustrates my wife when I’m never by my phone at the arena.
I’m hyper-focused on what I do. That is one of my strengths, but sometimes your strengths, if you take them too far, can be a weakness. But the ability to focus and avoid distraction is one of the things that’s helped me get to where I am now.
SI: I know the focus is this Sunday’s pay-per-view, but June is going to be a spectacular month in wrestling. You’ll be part of the Forbidden Door pay-per-view, wrestling against one of the stars from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. There are so many exciting potential opponents for you—like Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shingo Takagi or Zack Sabre Jr. Personally, I think the right opponent is Kazuchika Okada. Who would you like to wrestle?
BD: I would love to wrestle Okada. But in the back of my mind, I’m thinking about Zack Sabre Jr. and wrestling him to see who is the best technical wrestler in the world. We have two very different styles of technical wrestling. We wrestled in 2008, and he was just a kid, but I was super impressed with him then. He’s grown into this amazing wrestler, and I don’t ever recall seeing anyone wrestle with his technique.
There are a ton of guys I’d like to wrestle. You mentioned Okada, and that’s a match I really want. I want [Tomohiro] Ishii. Tanahashi and I wrestled in 2004, but we are totally different people now than we were then. That would be a lot of fun. Shingo and I wrestled in 2010. That would also be a lot of fun. I was hoping to get a match against Kenta in WWE, but it just never happened, and I would love to wrestle him. I’d also love to wrestle [Katsuyori] Shibata. I’m open to whoever Tony [Khan] and New Japan want me to go up against.
SI: Leaving one company and signing with a new one isn’t an easy decision, but the Forbidden Door show is something unique that you can experience with AEW that was very unlikely to ever occur in WWE.
BD: I wouldn’t say that it would never happen in WWE because I’d never want to limit them, and people can change their minds, but I’m very happy it’s happening now in AEW. It’s really exciting for the fans, too, and we saw that with how quickly it sold out.
SI: You’re also part of the Carpool Karaoke episode with CM Punk, Christian Cage, and Dr. Britt Baker. Who has the best voice of that quartet?
BD: I don’t know if any one of us have good voices [laughs]. I don’t know who’s the worst either. I don’t think we’re noticeably better than anybody else. We were all just not great.
SI: Before we wrap, it is compelling to watch you team with the Blackpool Combat Club. It looks like you genuinely enjoy working with Jon Moxley, not to mention the long admiration for and friendship with William Regal.
BD: We have such an appreciation of what we’re doing. Jon is somebody who doesn’t need to do this financially. But he’s working AEW and New Japan and indie shows because he loves it. We have so much history together, too, and there is something about getting to do something you love with somebody else who loves the same thing. It’s also a real joy to be around William Regal. He’s been a huge influence in my life, and now he is back in my life. We drive to the shows together every week. Getting to know Wheeler, that’s been great, too. These past couple months have just been a joy.
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Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
