As Bryan Danielson prepares for the most important match of his AEW career in a 60-Minute Ironman match versus MJF at Revolution, “The American Dragon” has been keeping busy on the media circuit, discussing his goals for the match, his disdain for MJF, and even a few non-AEW opportunities, namely his desire to wrestle in the G1 Climax for New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Initially tabbing the event, and the opportunity to wrestle in Japan in general, as one of the reasons why the man formerly known as Daniel Byan opted to leave WWE in the first place, “The American Dragon” has yet to wrestle for any promotion out of AEW since he joined the promotion in 2021, with all 57 of his matches coming on Dynamite, Rampage, one very special edition of Dark – or was that Infinito? – and on Pay-Per-Views. Would Danielson embrace an opportunity to represent AEW in the G1? Most definitely, but unfortunately, it's not just his decision, as he noted to Raj Prashad of Uproxx.

“I don’t know because that requires Tony (Khan) to allow me to be off of TV for four weeks or whatever,” Danielson says. “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,” he continues. “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.”

Would it be cool to see Danielson go through the G1, wrestling dozens of matches over two weeks in contests against everyone from Zack Sabre Jr. to Kazuchika Okada? You bet, but considering Danielson might end up being AEW World Champion by the end of the weekend, losing the 2022 Bryan Danielson Award winner for an extended period of time may prove too challenging for Tony Khan to overcome.

Tony Khan is less enthusiastic about Bryan Danielson leaving for G1.

Speaking of Khan's opinion on Danielson doing the G1, the CEO of AEW was actually asked that very question in an interview on the In The Kliq podcast and let it be known that while he would like to see it happen, the prospects of losing the company's potential champion for a month may be too challenging to overcome.

“To be honest. I think it would be great in many ways, but Bryan Danielson, it's quite possible, could be AEW World Champion,” Khan said via Fightful. “Either way, I mean, I think it'd be hard for him to disappear from the show, especially as the AEW World Champion. I'm not sure 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 the 60-Minute Iron Man Match in San Francisco on March 5.”

Wow, TK even snuck in a little plug for Revolution in his answer, no wonder he won the 2022 Wrestling Observer Booker of the Year. While it would be incredibly cool to see Danielson take a trip across the Pacific to represent AEW in the G1 Climax later this year, especially if he loses his match to MJF at Revolution and gets cycled out of the World Championship picture in favor of a more mid-card feud, the possibility exists that “The American Dragon” could instead find himself holding down the gold in Khan's company for the foreseeable future, which, in turn, would require a steady workload of matches on AEW television. Either way, the more matches Danielson wrestled on television, regardless of the brand, the better, as they don't call him the best technical wrestler in the world for nothing.