Bryan Danielson Confirms Uncertainty Around Final Match

Bryan Danielson faced a painful battle during his final match.

At WrestleDream 2024, Bryan Danielson was beaten by Jon Moxley in the main event, losing the World Championship in the process.

Although he was adamant that the match was only the end of his full-time career, the American Dragon hasn’t wrestled since. He’s also confirmed that he spent much of his retirement run dealing with a substantial neck injury, which left him unable to sleep and sometimes losing the feeling in his limbs.

During a new interview with Sun Sport, Danielson looked back on that famous night at WrestleDream, reiterating that he was “ready to be done” by the time the event rolled around. He went on to explain that he was worried he wouldn’t be able to perform as planned because he was in serious pain.

“I would think the last match that I had, which was in AEW against Jon Moxley in Tacoma, Washington, which is the building that I saw my first ever wrestling match. The main event was the Ultimate Warrior versus Rick Rude.

I was ready to be done, I mean, at that point, my neck had been really bad for six plus months and causing me a tremendous amount of pain. I wasn’t sure that I could do what I was kind of being asked to do. My mom was in the front row. We knew it was going to be my last match and as I’m getting choked unconscious, I see my mom in the front row and then just mouth to her that I love you.

This whole career that I’ve had wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my family, and then the fact that my mom got to be there for that is really, really cool. It wasn’t just my mom. My high school friends were there.

It was just a really, really cool, special thing, just the emotion of knowing, ‘okay, this is the end of this chapter of my life.’ and I’m not sad about it. Happy that I got to experience this whole thing, and almost kind of relieved that it’s over, because I was in so much pain.”

Bryan Danielson Looks Back At WrestleMania 30

During the same interview, Bryan Danielson looked back on his famous victory at WrestleMania 30. In the main event, Danielson became World Champion after a nearly year-long journey to the top of the company that played into real-life claims from fans and journalists that he was being held down by management.

However, the veteran said that in 2025, the moment doesn’t mean all that much to him, adding that his win against Swerve Strickland at All In 2024 means far more. He said that getting to celebrate the win in the ring with his wife and children made the moment particularly special.

H/t to Fightful