Bryan Danielson Discusses Nearing the End of His Run, Losing Strength in His Limbs During Recent Matchup

– Speaking to Yahoo! Sports Uncrowned, AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson discussed nearing the end of his run and dealing with losing strength in his recent match with Kazuchika Okada. Below are some highlights:

Danielson on how he’s nearing the end of his run: “It’s getting to the point where it’s not tenable. Even when I started [with] AEW, we knew this was going to be the trajectory — I’m going to sign this contract and it’s going to be the last wrestling contract I’ll sign.”

On his recent Dynamite match with Kazuchika Okada: “Midway through the match, I started losing strength in my legs. There’s a point later in the match where I’m trying to kick him and I can’t turn over my kicks. That’s something that I have the body mechanics to do because I have been doing it for so long, but here I am and I can’t turn my hip over for this kick. When I got to the back, I went to the trainer right away and they worked on me for like 30 minutes. They said it was stemming from the neck stuff. It’s getting to a point where, physically, we’re seeing the signs. I haven’t been sleeping well because I have been having this shooting pain down my arm.”

On being part of AEW: “I would say [joining AEW has been] more fulfilling than I imagined. Part of it is the wrestling that I have been able to do and the style that I have been able to do.”

On how he prefers to wrestle with his own playbook compared to WWE: “I loved wrestling at WWE and the people at WWE, so this is not a knock on them. They have their playbook, and [Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque] will talk about this. They send people to NXT because you have to come and learn their playbook, which is very successful. I’ve kind of always liked wrestling under my own playbook and experimenting with different plays. That’s been very rewarding.”

Bryan Danielson defends his title against Tommy Dreamer this Saturday, October 12 at AEW WrestleDream 2024. The event will be held at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. The show will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.