Subhojeet Mukherjee on March 12, 2024
Bryan Danielson is undoubtedly one of the best professional wrestlers on the planet, and he has showcased that to the fullest extent during his time in AEW. With that said, Danielson isn’t the AEW World Champion, and he has explained why he has no desire to ever win the title.
Approaching the three-year mark since Danielson’s arrival at All Elite Wrestling, he has consistently conveyed in prior media appearances that he is not actively pursuing a title run within the company.
During an SXSW 2024 panel, Danielson reaffirmed his stance on not pursuing a championship title in AEW. Sitting alongside Britt Baker and AEW President Tony Khan, he emphasized his desire to elevate the current and future generations of wrestlers.
”I don’t use the ‘r-word’. I already had to do that once and I don’t wanna do it again. I wanna leave it open to be able to wrestle when I’m 75 if I so choose. When I came to AEW, CM Punk had just debuted several weeks before and he had talked about wanting to help the younger talent, all that kind of stuff and I watched his interview and I was like, ‘That’s what I was gonna say.’ So then, when they asked me about it, ‘What’s your goals here in AEW?’ I was like, ‘Ah, I’m gonna come in here and kick everybody’s heads in. I don’t care about pushing younger guys to the top, all that kind of stuff. I’m just gonna stomp them in the face and show them that I’m the best.’ But that’s actually not the reality as somebody who’s 42 years old and who has two kids.”
”One of the things that I loved about AEW and just the idea of it is just that it made the pro wrestling industry healthier and so when I look at that, how do I make this industry that I’ve loved since I was a child — how do I make it healthier? And the idea is to pass on the stardom that I’ve been given to try to pass that on to the younger wrestlers…”
Addressing suggestions that he should hold the championship, Danielson commended the current crop of champions, citing Hangman Adam Page and MJF as examples. He expressed the sentiment that it’s too simplistic to rely solely on stars from the past to hold the top spot in the company.
”I’ve had some people ask me or say things to me like, ‘Oh Bryan, you should be champion or you should’ve been champion’ or you should’ve this or you should’ve that and the reality is to me, no, the champions that we’ve had have been great. Hangman (Adam Page) was a great champion, MJF was a great champion and it elevated these younger people to where now these people are stars and you put Hangman on TV now and he draws a rating. You put MJF on TV, he draws a rating. It would be easy to just take stars of the past and make them your champion and make them your top guy. That’s the easy way. It’s much harder to take somebody like MJF who hadn’t been on national television and turn him into a star that draws ratings… That was my bigger goal is to transfer stardom from one generation to another.”
Bryan Danielson is also set to square off against Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty next month, in what is truly a dream match for fans. Nevertheless, only time will tell if Bryan ever wins any title in AEW.
Do you still want Bryan Danielson to become a champion in AEW one day? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
March 12, 2024 1:41 pm
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