Bryan Danielson was unsure of his future heading into AEW WrestleDream.
Danielson defeated Swerve Strickland to win the AEW World Championship at AEW All In. Danielson had put his career on the line in the match. He previously said that 2024 would be his last year as a full-time wrestler. Danielson then defended his title against Jon Moxley at AEW WrestleDream, and Moxley beat him to win the gold.
In an interview with Shawn Garrett of KIRO 7 Seattle ahead of AEW WrestleDream, Bryan Danielson was asked whether he would retire if he lost to Jon Moxley.
“So it’s the end of my full-time career as soon as I lose the AEW World Championship,” Danielson said. “So it doesn’t necessarily have to be tomorrow to Moxley. That’s kind of what I said. One of the things was before the Zack Sabre Jr. match last year, and I had just come off of breaking my arm, and I had promised my daughter, me and my wife had talked about it, this idea of this would be the last wrestling contract I ever signed. It actually expired on August 1, so I’ve been wrestling without a contract since August 1. But that’s kind of been the idea, that this would be the last wrestling contract I signed.
“I told my daughter because she’s really wanted me to be home, she misses me when I’m gone, and I told her, ‘Don’t worry, when you’re seven, daddy will be done wrestling.’ But when you’re seven, daddy will be done wrestling. But then I won the title, and the last thing you want to do, you have a responsibility as champion, and it’s a huge honor to be a champion. So it’s the idea of you don’t want to retire as champion. You want to, ‘Okay, I’m gonna stay wrestling until somebody can beat me.’ It could be a year, and that would be great. Then my daughter would be eight, and she’d call me a liar [laughs].”
Bryan Danielson On Neck Surgery
“But yeah, the idea is that whenever I lose this title, whether it’s sometime down the road or whether it’s tomorrow against Jon Moxley, that would be it for me as a full-time wrestler,” Bryan Danielson said. “The reality is right now, I need surgery, and that’s coming sooner rather than later. So there’s gonna come a point when this is untenable for me, and after the neck surgery, we’ll see where we’re at.
“Will I ever wrestle again once I lose the title? I don’t know. My heart says yes because I love wrestling, but I’ve put my body through a lot to get to this success that I’ve had, and at some point, you have to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em [laughs].”
After Moxley beat Bryan Danielson at AEW WrestleDream, the Blackpool Combat Club brutally attacked Danielson.
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