When Bryan Danielson lost to Jon Moxley in the main event of AEW WrestleDream in October of 2024, it marked the end of his full-time professional wrestling career.
Since that faithful day, Danielson has had neck surgery, made a few podcast appearances, but largely stayed out of the spotlight, at least until earlier this summer, when he started appearing on AEW television more often, from helping “Hangman” Adam Page defeat the Death Riders at All In Texas to doing commentary at Forbidden Door.
And now, almost a year removed from his final in-ring match, Danielson is trying something new: joining AEW's commentary team while serving as a host for Dynamite.
Asked about the decision to move Danielson back into a weekly role, albeit outside of the ring, during an appearance on the Battleground podcast, Tony Khan gave credit to the “American Dragon” for being a unique storyteller in and out of the ring, which could be an asset on Dynamite moving forward.
“As we were preparing for Forbidden Door, I thought Bryan would be fantastic on the commentary team for that show, knowing the background he has, knowing his insights into pro wrestling and how prepared he is and how much research he does on pro wrestling worldwide, knowing the stars competing at Forbidden Door, coming from different promotions, stars from Mexico and Japan, and traveling from all over the world to compete at that show in London. Also, I think Bryan's a great star, and people want to see Bryan Danielson on television and hear Bryan Danielson on television, and thankfully, he's got very intelligent, insightful things to say when he does talk,” Khan explained via Fightful.
“I really thought Bryan would be a great part of the commentary team, and he did a fantastic job on Forbidden Door. So I had talked to him, maybe after his promotional tour of Australia was complete, about Bryan joining us on Wednesday, and it worked out perfect. He'll be joining us tomorrow night, on Wednesday Night Dynamite as a host, a commentator, providing his really, really valuable insights into pro wrestling. I think it's great anytime we're able to bring on Bryan Danielson to do anything in AEW, but especially to provide very, very intelligent, insightful commentary on pro wrestling. That's a great thing in AEW that we have now with Bryan Danielson as a host on Wednesday night's Dynamite starting tomorrow.”
While the idea of bringing on Danielson as a commentator is a fantastic call from Khan, as few know as much about wrestling as the “American Dragon” has forgotten, the idea of calling him a host as well might just mean that something else is afoot. What could that be? Well, fans will have to tune in to Dynamite to find out, as the excitement for the show just grew exponentially.
