Bryan Danielson held nothing back in the full-length sit-down interview with Renee Paquette, which was partially featured on the July 24 episode of AEW Dynamite.
After the show, the full discussion was uploaded to AEW’s YouTube channel.
In the interview, “The American Dragon” spoke about AEW’s Doc Sampson not wanting him to wrestle until AEW ALL IN, discussions he’s had with his family about the situation and his contract expiring in August.
On AEW’s Doc Sampson not wanting him to wrestle until his title match at AEW All In: “Doc Sampson doesn’t want me to wrestle until Wembley, and that’s actually the harder part. It’s the part like, ‘What do you mean? I’m here in Nashville. Can’t I…? That sort of thing.”
On the discussions that he has had with his family and the doctor: “My neck isn’t great [laughs]. So it’s weird because this feels like the biggest match of my career, and there’s this war going on between my mind and my body of what I feel like I can do and what my body is telling that I probably shouldn’t do. Even when I talk to Brie and the family, it’s like, ‘Well, I want to do this,’ and she’s saying, ‘But what about your neck? What about this?’ Even talking to Doc Sampson, I’m like. ‘I gotta go hard, I gotta do this.’ He’s like, ‘Right now, your neck is fixable. You gotta make sure that it stays fixable.’ So I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna do my best, and just try to enjoy the moment. I mean, Wembley Stadium. How awesome?”
On rumors of his AEW contract expiring in August: “Yeah, yeah. That’s true. August 1st, actually. Next Thursday. My wrestling contract is up. Which also happens to be my son’s fourth birthday. So I’m not saying this. Tony talked about this in an interview, so I feel comfortable talking about it. I’m not MJF-ing this. I’m not trying to use my contract to be like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get all the money. Somebody give me all the money.’ Yeah, my contract is up August 1st. When I signed this contract, me and Brie, we talked about how this would be the last wrestling contract I was gonna sign. So yeah, part of me is wondering what life is like after this. Part of me is excited about that. But right now, even though Wembley is after this, I still have to focus on that. That’s gotta be kind of my focus. So yeah, it’s a wild time.”
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
