Bryan Danielson Facing Real-life Injury Struggles; Officially A Free Agent

Bryan Danielson’s full-time career is over.

At WrestleDream the long and illustrious career of Bryan Danielson came to an end at the hands of Jon Moxley. Although he might get back in the ring in the future, his full-time run is over.

Unsurprisingly, the match was a stunningly violent spectacle that ended via referee’s stoppage with Danielson wrapped up in a sleeper hold after a Death Rider and a Gotch-style piledriver.

After the match, Moxley bowed to Danielson but there was more violence to come. As the new champion moved towards Danielson with a plastic bag, Wheeler Yuta and Darby Allin ran in to make the save. However, Yuta turned on Allin and choked Danielson out with the bag.

A host of AEW stars ran in to try and stop the assault but Claudio Castagnoli managed to get at Danielson with a steel chair. As more backup arrived Moxley and co departed as Danielson was placed on a stretcher.

Bryan Danielson Requested Match With Jon Moxley

Now that his full-time career is over, a new report from Fightful Select has given an insight into how Danielson’s retirement came together and what might be next.

Interestingly, the report reveals that Danielson specifically requested that Moxley be the man to end his full-time run. The two men have a real-life friendship going back several years.

On the same theme, Danielson’s World Title win over Swerve Strickland at All In had been planned since early in the year. Fightful explains that since almost the start of Strickland’s run with the title it was known that Danielson would be the man to end it. Furthermore, Strickland was “adamant” that he would tap out to end the match.

With regard to his health, many fans wondered whether Danielson was in character when he discussed his injury struggles. However, this wasn’t the case. While his match was Moxley was unfolding, Danielson wondered whether he should have actually spent more time out of the ring ahead of WrestleDream. Earlier in the year it was noted that the American Dragon was removed from Blood & Guts, despite plans for him to be involved.

In the lead-up to WrestleDream, Bryan Danielson said he lost strength in his legs during a match with Kazuchika Okada and regularly has shooting pain down his arm.

The report went on to reiterate that Danielson is currently a free agent without any additional obligations. However, he’s repeatedly stated that he’s currently not interested in going back to WWE. Within AEW the hope is that he’ll continue to wrestle periodically and pick up his backstage responsibilities when he’s ready.

Danielson is now expected to undergo neck surgery.