AEW star Bryan Danielson, who has been out of the ring with a serious injury for nearly a year, has revealed that he has nothing left to accomplish in his wrestling career. Since being taken out of action by Jon Moxley in October 2024, Danielson’s in-ring future has been uncertain.
“The American Dragon” himself stated previously that there is a 50/50 chance he will ever compete again. This new statement adds another layer to the speculation about his in-ring future, as he seems to have found a sense of peace with his potential retirement from part-time wrestling after he previously retired from full-time wrestling.
In a new interview with SENQ 693, Danielson was asked if there was anything left on his wrestling bucket list. “Nope. Not a single thing. There’s not a single thing. I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have some incredible moments and all that kind of stuff. I think, when I was forced to retire before, I wasn’t ready to be done. With the last six months of my wrestling career being in as much pain as I was, that kind of put me in this thing like, ‘Okay, you know what, I think I’m ready to be done.’ When I was forced to retire before, I was married but we didn’t have kids yet. It’s like, you go home and you have that full parenting life, it’s a whole another thing.
I’m very fulfilled by my career, I’m very fulfilled by my life right now. I get to stay in professional wrestling, which is something that I still love to this day. I was just asked in an interview before that [if I] have any interest in being an actor, I’m like, ‘No.’ What I do for entertainment still is I read and I watch wrestling. On the plane here, I was watching old wrestling to show younger talent like, ‘Hey, here’s some things that people used to do in wrestling, here are some intricacies that have been lost in the evolution of professional wrestling that you could use today that would work really well.’”
Danielson is currently on an Australian media tour to promote the upcoming AEW Grand Slam Australia event in Sydney and the House Rules event in Brisbane, both of which are scheduled for February 2026.
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