After taking care of business in a brutal strap match with Ricky Starks at All Out in Chicago, Bryan Danielson made his return to AEW television on Collision, where he was slated for some promo time.

Taking the ring with Tony Schiavone, Danielson marched down to the ring to the applause of the Ohio crowd and let it be known that he had more on his mind than the traditional post-match celebratory speech. No, for better or worse, this was a very special segment that will have serious ramifications for the next year plus.

“So I told my daughter once she turned seven, I would start finishing up on my career, and she's six right now,” Bryan Danielson told the crowd. “And I'm a man that keeps his promises, especially to the people I love. So, guess what? Time is running out. With that said, I will not go gently into that good night. If you think I will, you don't know who the h*ll I am!”

After making illusions to the story of Odysseus, Danielson cut back in, announcing the first major stop on what is effectively shaking up to be his farewell tour.

“And guess what? I'm calling my shots!” Danielson told the cheering crowd. “And my next shot is this: 10/01, Seattle, Washington, WrestleDream. I wanna fight the guy who calls himself the best technical wrestler in the world: Zack Sabre Jr.”

Now granted, this segment was broken up by Starks, who still isn't over his loss at All Out and clearly wants a rematch in the future, but the bones are set: Danielson's wrestling career, at least from a full-time basis, is coming to an end and he's going to go out with as many dream matches checked off his bucket list as possible before that day comes.

Bryan Danielson has been thinking about retirement since All Out.

Speaking of Bryan Danielson, his daughter, and the end of his professional wrestling career, Collision wasn't the first time the “American Dragon” talked about winding down his career because of his family, as a few days earlier – literally – the pride of Washington State mentioned a very similar story, albeit without a hard out specified.

“I love that aspect of it so much, but I also love being with my family, and going to shows takes you away from your family. My poor wife, she, I told her like ‘Hey, you know, things might happen tonight,’ and she watched the show tonight with our kids. Our son, who is three years old, is a maniac. Our daughter, who’s six, she was terrified, our son Buddy loved it. Like, ‘Oh yeah, hit daddy more!’ But our daughter, she says to me ‘Daddy, you’re gonna be done wrestling when I turn seven, right?’ Like you’re gonna be home every day when I turn 7.’ That’s really hard to turn down, right?” Bryan Danielson said after All Out via Ringside News.

“You know, I’ve been very fortunate to have this thing that I love that I do, a huge part of my life for 23+ years, but then at one point it was, it felt like if not the most important thing, one of the most important things. But then new things become important things and seeing my kids do the things they love to do and being there for them and also being there for my wife, because if any of you are parents, single parents, single parenting is hard, regardless of what you do. So, all of that to say, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do

“It’s not like, all that’s to say that’s not a no, it’s a how do I make this work with while still keeping the meaningful things in my life, the things I find to be important, putting them in top priority. There are puzzles to figure out, and sometimes the pieces don’t fit, and it I had a good run and it might be time to move on.”

On paper, it's hard to argue with Danielson wanting to take a step back and really focus on his family, especially if his daughter is so vehemently opposed to his wrestling career. Though it would be incredibly hard to see AEW lose Danielson at some point in the next year, as many, if not most, fans expect Tony Khan to re-tool Collision around the “American Dragon” and his BCC buddies, sometimes fathers have to do what's best for their families, even if that means leave the sport they spend their entire adult life mastering in the rearview mirror… at least on a full-time basis.