Bryan Danielson Talks His Chances Of Competing In NJPW’s G1

Bryan Danielson nearly pulled a Scott Steiner and started talking stats when discussing the G1.

One of the main reasons Bryan left WWE was because they wouldn’t allow him to wrestle elsewhere while under contract. That rule appears to be relaxing somewhat now that Triple H is mostly in control, as seen with Shinsuke Nakamura going to NOAH to wrestle The Great Muta.

But Bryan’s situation is still somewhat different. The G1 isn’t one match; it’s an entire tour that lasts anywhere from three to four weeks. He wouldn’t be wrestling every night; New Japan’s style is far too taxing for them to allow that anymore. But he wouldn’t be coming back to the US between his matches either since New Japan has rarely had G1 matches outside of Japan.

Because of all of these factors, Bryan Danielson told Uproxx that his chances of getting approval from Tony Khan to compete in the G1 Climax are “less than half”.

“Now, if you’re asking me if Tony is going to let me go do a G1 and is it a smart move for him? Probably not, but the odds of him letting me do it, I would say a 33% chance. The odds of him letting me, Mox, and Claudio all be gone for a month off of TV — an astronomically small percentage. But, I haven’t even talked to him about it. So maybe with this interview, he’ll see it.”

New Japan’s G1 usually takes place in between mid-July and mid-August. Bryan Danielson has wanted to go back to wrestle there for years, especially since he hasn’t been in New Japan for almost two decades.

Bryan Danielson, as American Dragon, wrestled for NJPW during various tours between 2002 and 2004. Some unexpected match-ups took place during those tours, including Bryan teaming with Scott Norton as “Pirates Gundan”, Bryan wrestling Tyson Kidd, a title match between Bryan and Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Bryan teaming with Minoru Suzuki against Shinsuke Nakamura and Takashi Iizuka.