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When Bryan Danielson announced at the end of 2023 that 2024 was going to be his final year as a full-time professional wrestler, it left more than a few fans wondering who the “American Dragon” would choose as his final opponent and where he would like to have his final match as a member of the promotion.
Would Danielson call it a career at Wembley Stadium this summer, going out in front of one of the biggest crowds of his career at All In? Or would he instead want to work some international venue in front of a dream opponent, forcing Tony Khan to book a brand new PLE in Mexico, Japan, or some other brand new location?
Discussing that very question in an appearance on Casual Conversations with The Wrestling Classic, Danielson revealed that while he really does want to work Wembley this summer, his goal is to close things out at the Tacoma Dome this fall, as it's the venue he watched his first-ever wrestling show at as a kid.
“The big one is Wembley. I wanna make it to Wembley. My contract actually expires before Wembley, but I wanna make it to Wembley,” Bryan Danielson told Casual Conversations with The Wrestling Classic via Fightful. “I’m not sure if I’ll make it, but one thing that would be a nice way to kind of close everything out for me is to do my last match as a full-time wrestler at WrestleDream at the Tacoma Dome because that’s the first wrestling show I ever saw.”
Who should Danielson end his career against? Should it be versus Will Ospreay, as a passing of the guard from one generation to the next? A rematch with Kenny Omega with a definitive ending? Or maybe it should be against Jon Moxley, his fellow Blackpool Combat Club member, in one last test of each man's mettle? Either way, while we don't know the opponent, we do know the likely venue and how many months are left on his proverbial ticker.
Bryan Danielson likes wrestling in smaller venues.
Speaking of Bryan Danielson and the ending of his professional wrestling career, the “American Dragon” stopped by the Jas Johal Show to talk about his loaded 2024 and let it be known that while he's been afforded numerous chances to work for massive crowds in Japan, America, and Beyond, he would rather work a more intimate venue, as it allows fans to truly connect with the experience fully.
“It didn't happen to me all at once. I would be wrestling in front of small crowds, but I'd also go over to Japan, and in Japan, wrestling is very popular, so in 2003, I did the Tokyo Dome for New Japan, and it was maybe 35,000 fans, and then you're doing somewhere, and it's three or four thousand fans. It wasn't like I had no experience with it, but then you go experience it at the high level where people are coming to see you, or you're their favorite wrestler amongst the thousands of fans that are there. It's a really odd experience,” Bryan Danielson explained on the Jas Johal Show via Fightful.
“In some ways, what's funny, is my preference is intimacy. My preference is a small venue, but packed as far as an energy perspective. A packed small building feels better to me than even if it's 35,000 people in the Tokyo Dome, it's still only 2/3rds of the way full. This is how I like my music as well. I would rather go see a nice, intimate concert. My wife would rather go see Guns N Roses in a stadium or arena where the energy is rocking. My preference is intimacy. Smaller venue. It's just a matter of, how do you do what we do, and play to the people who are all the way in the furthest seat. That's a skill in its own right. Somebody like John Cena is fantastic at that. Kenny Omega is fantastic at that. Adam Copeland is fantastic at that. Wrestling for people in the furthest seat from the ring.”
If Danielson really wants to close out his career in front of a smaller crowd who can hang on his every movement and eagerly anticipate every one of his signature maneuvers, declaring WrestleDream as his swan song might just allow him to have his cake and eat it too, as the show will all but surely sell out but will only fit sub-10,000 fans, many of whom have likely watched the “American Dragon” wrestle in front of a crowd that is much, much, much smaller. If the goal of WrestleDream was to celebrate the sport and the legends of Pacific Northwestern professional wrestling, then giving Danielson's full-time career final farewell in Washington just feels right.
