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Though William Regal's time in AEW is all but officially over, with his lordship headed back to WWE to work alongside his son, Charlie Dempsey, he still does have a legacy in the promotion in the form of Bryan Danielson, the “American Dragon” who worked closely with the two-time Intercontinental Championship during their shared time in the Blackpool Combat Club.
Presumably set to feud with MJF after he successfully defended the AEW World Championship against Ricky Starks, Danielson is heading towards his biggest featured role in Tony Khan's company since his 30-minute draw against Kenny Omega at Grand Slam 2021 and his epic matches against “Hangman” Adam Page. Will Danielson be able to go the distance and secure his first world championship since all the way back in 2019, when he was “Yes-ing” as a member of the WWE roster? Only time will tell, but Regal certainly thinks Danielson has what it takes, as he doesn't have the same “bad habits” that plagued his own career, as detailed in an interview with Inside the Ropes.
“Well, because he’s got no bad habits, and he, you know, there’s been times when he’s had problems injury-wise and he’s been out, but he’s overcome it all. I’ve got to where I’ve got to by – that’s what I was like when I was younger to try to get – but I was never as good as him when I first met him when he was, you know, in 2000 he was 19 or 20. First night I watched him I’m like ‘wow, he’s in a different league to what I was at this stage of the game,’ right? I was, you know, I wanted to be a wrestler as good as him but I wasn’t built for it. I wanted to be a junior heavyweight, like Rollerball Rocco and Finley and, you know, or mid-heavyweight, but I grew to six-foot-three, and I didn’t have the athletic ability, so I went the traditional British heavyweight route and that changed over time with different things, but I had to grow into that. Bryan has got no kind of whatever that I had going on and things that have set me off the wrong path and whatever, you know, it’s 20-22 years ago since I did any of that, it seems to follow me around, but it was – and it affected my health later on and different things that have happened, so, you know there’s no downside to him.”
Outside of having some interesting habits in the locker room – read about them here – and his pension for giving interviews where he discusses Genghis Khan and McDonald's in the same breath, Danielson really is a wrestler's wrestler who has very little interest in parlaying his in-ring success into outside opportunities, from movie roles to excessive partying. This commitment to his craft, when coupled with his natural talent, is why Regal believes he's a championship-caliber talent.
Regal believes Bryan Danielson’s talent let him carve his own path in AEW.
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After taking a moment to check on his lizard, Regal continued on, explaining that unlike during his career, where he would have to job out and compromise his character – see the “Real Man's Man” – in order to get ahead, Danielson never did, because his talents always spoke for themselves.
“And Bryan has never, since I’ve met him, he stayed polite, kind, helpful, done everything right, and has never broke, and he has the same kind of standards as me,” Regal said. “I’ve- he’s got to where he got to on his talent and his way of doing it without doing any – and I’ve mentioned Chris Jericho before, Chris is – I’m not saying anything that Chris hasn’t said, Chris has wrote in his books how he had to do certain things to get to the position he got to, right? And there’s nothing wrong with it, you have to do that. Well, I just, that’s not me, I was just quite happy just doing ‘ what would you need? Yes, thank you very much.’ Bryan’s never done any of that and never had to, and got to where he got to, so that’s what I mean when I say he’s the wrestler – plus he’s better than I ever was, right? You know, he’s got a better brain for this. I’ve got a really good brain for this, but he’s better.”
While some might quibble with the assertion that Danielson had to do everything on his own terms, as he did join The Wyatt Family back in WWE and had a whole run designed around not being taken seriously as a main event star, Danielson never had to put on a construction hat or doing anything particularly ridiculous throughout his historic career. This authenticity, Regal feels, is why fans will scream “yes!” at him night after night, whether he's working the main event of WrestleMania or working a bingo hall for $15.
“So Bryan’s got through all of these things, these incredible things and got to where he got to by just being better and still stayed a really – you can look yourself in the mirror and look his children in the eyes and never have to think ‘ I had to do that to get there.'”
