In a recent interview, Bryan Danielson was asked to name his wrestling “soul mates,” and he provided a list of his favorite opponents from his time in both WWE and AEW. With a career spanning over two decades, Danielson has shared the ring with a who’s who of wrestling legends.
Speaking with interviewer Nick Stav, Danielson was hesitant to limit his list to just a few names, as he has had “so many great experiences with people.” He first named a group of performers from his current run in All Elite Wrestling.
“So during my time in AEW, during my time in AEW, Hangman Page, which, you know, like, I just think the world of him, he’s fantastic… The second one would be Moxley… This person, Nigel McGuinness, we only had one match in AEW, but as far as my career in its entirety, like he was so much of how I became the wrestler I became today. And then the other AEW person is Claudio. Claudio is similar to Nigel, except we wrestled each other more in AEW… I wrestled him in Ring of Honor, and all these different types of things. I just think he’s fantastic.”
Danielson then turned his attention to his time in WWE, naming two multi-time world champions as the opponents he loved working with the most. He had particularly high praise for Randy Orton.
“And then from a WWE perspective, the two guys that I like that I really love. I mean, there’s more than two guys. I love wrestling. There’s so many guys. But like I said, Randy Orton is one of my favorite. I mean, he’s just incredible… From a wrestler’s perspective, he’s just incredible. Then AJ Styles.” You can hear his full interview on Nick Stav’s YouTube channel.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Nick Stav with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
