Why AEW’s Bryan Danielson Had Difficulty With Specific Type Of Training
Bryan Danielson never considered himself much of a boxer, and he recently explained why.
The pro wrestling career of Bryan Danielson lasted 25 years until he decided to wrap it up as a full-timer in late 2024.
After losing the AEW World Title to Jon Moxley at WrestleDream, Bryan Danielson felt that was the right time to stop wrestling regularly. It wasn’t a surprise when Danielson called it quits since he had spoken about it publicly a lot for over a year leading up to it.
Danielson had a great run in AEW for three years after spending 11 years in WWE. During that 11-year run in WWE, Danielson missed significant amounts of time due to neck injury issues and numerous concussions, which cost him over two years in his prime.
In addition to being a wrestler, Danielson spent his career learning about other disciplines in the fight game. That’s why when Danielson throws a kick to the chest, it looks a lot more impressive than when The Miz does the “It Kicks” to the chest, for example.
During a recent interview with Boxing Social, Danielson was asked if he ever considered competing in a boxing match.
“No, I have too much respect for boxers. I’ve done a lot of muay-thai training and a lot of jiu-jitsu training. One of my problems with my muay-thai is I’m better at kicking than I am with my punches. My muay-thai coach went and had me train with boxers. This is when I was living in Las Vegas. I went and trained with like 16-year-old kids, and they lit me up. [laughs].
Boxing movement, especially guys who are elite, with their head movement and stuff, I couldn’t touch this 16-year-old kid, I couldn’t touch him. He knew, at that point I had a decent number of concussions; he knew he wasn’t supposed to hit me in the head too hard, and he just gently tapped me at will.
We also had Anthony Ogogo with AEW and talking to him about boxing, when you get to [a high] level, it’s just different.”
Bryan Danielson Is Okay With Never Wrestling Again
As a semi-retired pro wrestler, Bryan Danielson works behind the scenes for AEW as a guy who helps creatively and in other ways. It’s possible he could wrestle again, but if he doesn’t, Bryan Danielson said recently that he’d be okay even if he never wrestles again.
“I mean, my priority is my health. I think of the odds of me wrestling again ever are probably 50-50 at this point. My desire is to not get neck surgery. So if I could, this idea of living comfortably, right? Okay, if I could live comfortably without neck surgery, but it means that I wouldn’t get to wrestle again, I think I’d be okay with that trade-off.
I had neck surgery before and it wasn’t a good experience. It kind of messed up my spine in the upper area for the rest of my life. Like now my spine is altered.
So it’s like, okay, if we can get to a point where I’m a little bit more comfortable without needing neck surgery but they say you can’t wrestle anymore, I think that’s a fair trade-off. I’ve had a good run, kid.”
Danielson is married to WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella. The couple’s two kids, daughter Birdie and son Buddy, were with Danielson in the ring when he won the AEW World Title at All In 2024.