Bryan Danielson will be riding an unbelievable streak heading into his next title bout.
Danielson previously confirmed his full-time days in the ring are closing this year, but he will continue to wrestle a handful of matches yearly. His wrestling contract with AEW expired earlier this month.
Danielson will challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Heavyweight Title at All In. The stipulation is that should he lose, he will have to retire.
While speaking with BBC Radio, Danielson confirmed that he is at peace with retirement should he not win the title and also revealed that an AEW interview told him he’d lost nineteen championship matches in a row.
“Yeah, I am. If I wasn’t at peace with it, we wouldn’t have done that, right? [laughs] I also think that I’ve been wrestling for 25 years at this point. To me, it’s now or nothing as far as winning the AEW World Championship. I came in, and I said I was going to kick people’s heads in and win the AEW World Championship. I’ve kicked a lot of people’s heads in, but I haven’t won a single title.”
Danielson continued, “I think it was Alex Marvez, he’s our guy that knows all the stats and stuff like that. [He said], I don’t know if you know this, but you’ve lost. Even going back to WWE, I haven’t won a title match in my last 19 attempts. So it’s like, I’m at peace with it. My life is different now. When I was forced to retire, I wasn’t ready. 2015 was kind of my last match, but I was forced to retire in 2016. At that point, I’m 35 years old and I’m just like, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’ I also didn’t have anything else to put my attention and focus towards and now I do, I have a wonderful family that I’m excited about spending time with and everything. So yeah, it’s a very different place when it’s by choice and you’re not forced.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit BBC Radio with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
