Bryan Danielson will challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship at ALL IN LONDON, which might be his final encounter with the promotion if he loses. That is because the stipulation states that if he loses, he must retire. Danielson has already stated that he is nearing the end of his career as a full-time wrestler and needs neck surgery.
Danielson told Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful that he is no longer under contract. “I have no contract right now,” Danielson said. “I’m just not under contract.”
On if anybody’s reached out to him about it:
“Not a single person. People who really know me know that I don’t really look at my phone very much. It’s a blessing and curse. It allows me to be more in the moment with my wife and kids and all these different things, but when people really want to get a hold of me, I’m not available. Right now there’s 3,998 unread text messages. There’s also a lot of missed calls, so there could have been somebody in there.”
If he is going to continue with AEW:
“Tony and I have talked. I’ll always pick up the phone when he calls as far as if I’m by myself. The first thing I have to do when I’m done wrestling, the thing that’s in my priority is get my neck better. It probably involves some sort of neck surgery sooner rather than later. So that will be my first order of business and then I’ll help AEW where I can. I love AEW and so I want to help as much as I can and as much as they want my help, I’m willing to participate.”
On being a part of the disciplinary committee:
“Listen, nobody wants to be a part of the disciplinary committee. One, I don’t get paid for it. It’s not even like, ‘Yea, at least you’re making all these extra bucks.’ It’s a completely no-fun job. I’m kind of honored they wanted me to do it. It shows that, okay, Bryan is level headed. He’s going to come from this from a wrestler’s perspective. I help Tony with creative, but it’s mostly Tony’s ideas for AEW. He’s got a brilliant mind for wrestling. I’m focusing right now on All In and making that the best it can be, but after that, I want to be able to spend some time at home with my family and be more involved with my community.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
