Bryan Danielson On Why AEW Arm Break Is The “Singular Worst Injury” He’s Had

Despite being forced into early retirement in 2016, Bryan Danielson explained why breaking his arm is the worst injury he’s faced inside the squared circle.

The main event of Forbidden Door saw Bryan Danielson take on Kazuchika Okada in a highly-anticipated dream match. Midway through the bout, Danielson suffered a broken forearm when his arm was out of position as Okada hit an elbow drop. Despite the injury, Danielson finished the match, forcing Okada to tap out to an improvised submission when he couldn’t lock in the Labell Lock.

After the bout, Bryan Danielson spoke at a media scrum and confirmed that he’d broken his right forearm and expected to be out for 6-8 weeks as a result. Danielson’s wife Brie Garcia took to social media days later and shared a photo of his x-ray, saying the break was “worse than we thought.”

Despite the injury taking place just over two months prior, Bryan Danielson made a shocking return to face Ricky Starks at AEW All Out. Starks’ planned opponent had been CM Punk, but after Punk was terminated from the company, Danielson stepped in to take his place.

Speaking in a new interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Danielson admitted his Forbidden Door was more fun and satisfying for him because he had the extra challenge of working through his injury.

“Hindsight? I think I had more fun because of it. During the match, I turned to the referee and said, ‘I think I fractured my arm.’ I’m in the ring with someone whose English isn’t his first language, and we didn’t even know for sure what it was to communicate. Even after the match when I was in the press conference, I didn’t realize how bad the break was.

This is where you look at what is really satisfaction. Satisfaction and pleasure are not the same thing. Satisfaction comes from doing something hard and accomplishing it. So the satisfaction came from doing the hard thing and seeing it through to completion.”

“I Couldn’t Be There For My Kids” – Bryan Danielson

However, despite enjoying the challenge of his injury, Bryan Danielson admits there’s a major downside as it affected his ability to take care of his children. He calls the break the worst singular injury he’s ever faced, pointing out that his neck and concussion issues were the result of multiple injuries over time.

“Although I talk about the satisfaction of completing the match against Okada with the broken arm, it’s actually the singular worst injury I’ve had. My neck injury was worse, but that was the result of years of abuse on my neck. It’s the same with the concussions. No single concussion was worse than the break of my arm. And because of that, it put me at a point where I couldn’t be there for my kids the way I wanted.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts on CM Punk being fired from AEW.