AEW star Bryan Danielson spoke with The Daily Star on a number of topics, including what advice he would give to his younger self.
Danielson said, “The biggest message to myself would be don’t stress about this stuff, and enjoy. Enjoy the physical act of wrestling because what we do is incredible and so unique, and you’re not always going to have it. I was forced to retire in 2015, and since I’ve come back, I’ve been able to very much enjoy all the moments but before that it was always a stress – you want to perform at this level or whatever it is. Maybe that’s what drives you, or makes you better, but it would really be that message of ‘enjoy this’.”
On almost wrestling Shawn Michaels:
“Yeah, for sure. The one that I’ve always wanted is Shawn Michaels, because he helped train me. There was a moment, a brief period of time, in 2013-14 when I thought I was going to get it but I didn’t. So close.”
On other names he’s considered for his wrestling career:
“Oh yeah, there sure were! They asked me, WWE asked me to come up with a list of 10 names. They don’t want it to be your own name, they want to own the rights to it for all the merchandising purposes and all that kind of stuff. So I had a list of names. My two favourites were Buddy Peacock and Lloyd Boñer [pronounced Bonier]. William Regal is my mentor and he said the list I’d come up with was a pretty rotten list of names. But I had envisaged arenas just chanting “Boñer, Boñer”. He said why don’t you just switch your name around, so that people who were fans of yours on the independents can follow you and still know who you are, and its easy to cross reference back and forth. I said OK, I’ll put it on the list of 10 names, and that’s the one the WWE chose! Can you imagine, they didn’t want Buddy Peacock or Lloyd Boñer!? I love the idea of arenas going “Peacock, Peacock, Peacock”. There’s still time.”
