While Bryan Danielson's career is rapidly coming to a close, with the “American Dragon” a single title loss away from calling his full-time professional wrestling run a career, there was a time when fans truly weren't sure where he would end up, in Tony Khan land or back with WWE, where he had plenty of connections.
On one hand, Danielson had a borderline Hall of Fame career in WWE, is married to a WWE Hall of Famer, and had – at least at the time – a father-in-law who worked for the company too in a prominent role in John Laurinitus, who was named alongside Vince McMahon in the Janel Grant lawsuit. But then again, AEW had pure graps, the right to Ring of Honor, and a chance for Danielson to show the world what the “American Dragon” could still do against all the top stars not within the WWE Universe.
So what was the deciding factor? Frankly, it's probably the chance to show his stuff on the national stage in a featured role, but that didn't stop WWE from making a strong push to keep him around, as in an interview with Inside the Ropes, Danielson noted that Vince McMahon did, in fact, put competing in the New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax if he stuck around, even if even the “American Dragon” wasn't sure if it was true.
“So, I don’t know for sure if he would’ve let me. The last conversation we had where I told him I was gonna go to AEW. I told him, once I make my decision, I'll tell you. It was around August of that year, my contract expired the last day of April in 2021,” Danielson noted via Fightful. “It was early August is when I finally decided and called him and told him. He kind of asked me why, and I said, well, this, that, and the other, one of the things I want to do is I want to work with New Japan and do the G1. He did say in that moment, I don’t know if it would have actually ever come to fruition, ‘I’d let you do that’ or whatever it is. So, yeah. I think maybe.”
Asked if Mr. McMahon even knew what the G1 is, as he famously didn't watch much professional wrestling outside of the WWE sphere, Danielson admitted he didn't know, even if he clearly was aware of New Japan as a company.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure. He definitely knows what New Japan is and all of that kind of stuff,” Danielson noted. “I had told him of my desire to do the G1 before cause I kept pitching G1-style tournaments in WWE. I said, I’d really like to be able to do this thing, so yeah.”
Unfortunately for Danielson, getting in the G1 simply hasn't worked out during his time in AEW, as he's suffered injury after injury over his incredible but stop-start run in Tony Khan's company. Still, the idea of the “American Dragon” representing WWE in the G1 in a pre-Paul “Triple H” Levesque era is borderline impossible to imagine, which is probably why even he isn't sure if it would have actually happened.
Matt Hardy endorses Bryan Danielson as the new AEW Champion
Evaluating the “American Dragon's” run in AEW on his Extreme Life podcast, Matt Hardy weighed in on the final act of Danielson's career and the idea of him finishing out his full-time run with the AEW World Championship around his waist.
While Danielson and Hardy haven't worked together too much over their incredibly lengthy careers, as, surprisingly enough, the two men have never shared the ring together in any official capacity according to Cagematch, they have shared a locker room in AEW and even if they are no longer coworkers, the latter is still incredibly excited to see the former shine on his way out the door.
“There’s no one that deserves it more. You heard a lot of people say like, ‘I’m gonna go out there, and I’m gonna give 100%. I’m gonna give every bit of blood, sweat, and tears in my body.’ But Bryan Danielson is the epitome of that. He is the consummate pro when it comes to leaving it all out there. He just gives everything. He takes his chance, he takes his risk, whatever he has to do to win a match and to entertain the audience.
“He has a very high level of expectation, which he wants to deliver in every single match. And he always rises to the occasion, and he makes sure that happens. I mean, sometimes he beats himself up, and he hurts himself, right? He gets hurt a lot. That’s because he works at just such a very high rate. But I gotta tell you man, he is a guy that feels like — since he has come to AEW, he is a guy that is truly one of the heart and soul members of AEW.”
Is Danielson truly the heart and soul of AEW? Yeah, you know what, he sort of is, as Khan trusts him as a creative mind, with TK famously saying he could take over booking shows if something happened to him, and the wrestlers all seem to love and respect him too for his in-ring efforts and backstage leadership. When his career eventually comes to an end, there will be a big hole not just in AEW but in the professional wrestling world as a whole.
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