Bryan Danielson isn’t ruling out a return to the ring but says he’s “infinitely more confident” in his retirement now than he was in 2016.
Danielson announced his retirement for the first time on the February 8, 2016 episode of WWE Raw. He was cleared to return a little over two years later. His full-time in-ring career came to an end in October 2024 after he lost the AEW World Championship to Jon Moxley. During a recent interview with Australia’s Nine Network, Danielson discussed the differences between his retirement now and before.
“I feel infinitely more content, honestly,” Danielson said.
“My life has changed and it’s different when it’s your own decision as opposed to when you’re not allowed to do this thing that you love anymore.”
Danielson says he still have discomfort in his neck, especially when traveling, but overall is not unhappy.
“I would mostly frame it that even though I’m in physical discomfort, I’m pretty happy.”
He continued to say that if he does ever return to the ring, he won’t wrestle at the scale he did before.
“My body physically can’t do some of those things anymore. If I’m going to do it, it can’t be at the scale that I did it before.”
“If I tried to do some of the things I did in my last year with AEW right now, I don’t think I’d be able to go back and hold my kids. Anything that I would do moving forward has to be with that in mind, because that is now my number one priority.“
“Stay healthy, be at home and play with my kids and coach my son’s tee-ball team.”
Danielson also discusses considering retirement after his match agianst Swerve Strickland in Wembley Stadium, AEW’s upcoming shows in Australia and more. The full interview is available here.