Top NJPW Star Not Interested In Wrestling Bryan Danielson
Bryan Danielson is considered one of the best wrestlers alive, but one major name in NJPW has no interest in wrestling him.
Tetsuya Naito is a former three-time IWGP World Champion who has done it all in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Back in August, Naito won the G1 Climax tournament, which means he’s going to challenge SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom in January 2024.
Fans of AEW know that any NJPW wrestling star could possibly wrestle a big name in AEW because we’ve seen it plenty of times over the years. At Forbidden Door back in June, Danielson headlined the show with NJPW legend Kazuchika in a match that Bryan won while also suffering a broken arm during the match.
A matchup between Bryan Danielson and Tetsuya Naito would be considered a dream match for a lot of fans, but Naito doesn’t seem to want it.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Naito made it clear that he didn’t want to wrestle Danielson.
“Back in the day when he wrestled in NJPW, I’d watch his matches on TV and in the buildings. I liked watching him, but I never really felt that I’d like to wrestle him.”
When it was suggested that Danielson possibly join Naito’s Los Ingobernables de Japon group, Naito seemed to dismiss it.
“Invite him to LIJ? That is an easy answer. No gracias.”
It’s always possible that Naito is trying to work some angle to set up a match with Danielson, but for now, Naito doesn’t want to face the American Dragon.
Bryan Danielson has picked up victories on Dynamite and Collision over the last week
The last two major AEW television shows have featured matches by Bryan Danielson.
On last week’s episode of AEW Collision on October 21st, Bryan Danielson beat Andrade El Idolo in an excellent singles match that was billed as a “dream match” even though they wrestled in WWE previously.
In the main event of AEW Dynamite this past Wednesday, Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli defeated Kazuchika Okada & Orange Cassidy in a big tag team match when Claudio hit an uppercut on Orange for the pinfall win.
At this point, Danielson doesn’t have a match advertised for the AEW Full Gear PPV on November 18th, but he should be featured in a big match on that show as well.