Why Bryan Danielson Will NEVER Be AEW Champion

For those hoping that Bryan Danielson gets a run as AEW World Champion before he hangs up his boots, don't hold your breath.

While speaking as SXSW 2024 (via POST Wrestling), Danielson noted how his focus is on making new stars and improving the industry, rather than having the focus be on himself in terms of the AEW World Title.

As the American Dragon explained:

"When I came to AEW, CM Punk had just debuted several weeks before and he had talked about wanting to help the younger talent, all that kind of stuff. And I watched his interview and I was like, 'That's what I was gonna say'. So then, when they asked me about it, 'What's your goals here in AEW?' I was like, 'Ah, I'm gonna come in here and kick everybody's heads in. I don't care about pushing younger guys to the top, all that kind of stuff. I'm just gonna stomp them in the face and show them that I'm the best'. But that's actually not the reality as somebody who's 42 years old and who has two kids. One of the things that I loved about AEW and just the idea of it, is just that it made the pro wrestling industry healthier. And so, when I look at that, how do I make the industry that I've loved since I was a child, how do I make it healthier? And the idea is to pass on the stardom that I've been given to try to pass that on to the younger wrestlers."

Danielson continued:

"I've had some people ask me or say things to me like, 'Oh Bryan, you should be champion, or you should've been champion, or you should've been this, or you should've been that', and the reality is, to me, no, the champions that we've had have been great. Hangman was a great champion, MJF was a great champion, and it elevated these younger people to where now these people are stars, and you put Hangman on TV now and he draws a rating. You put MJF on TV, he draws a rating. It would be easy to just take stars of the past and make them your champion and make them your top guy. That's the easy way. It's much harder to take somebody like MJF, who hadn't been on national television, and turn him into a star that draws ratings. That was my bigger goal, is to transfer stardom from one generation to another."

Since arriving in AEW at All Out 2021, Danielson has actually challenged for the AEW World Title on four occasions, obviously coming up short in all four instances. The first of those was against Adam Page at Winter is Coming 2021; a match that ended up a 60-minute time-limit draw. A couple of weeks later the two would rematch, with Hangman getting the win. Skip ahead to September 2022, Danielson would lose to Jon Moxley in the finals of a tournament for the AEW World Championship vacated by an injured CM Punk, and Revolution 2023 saw MJF defeat Bryan in a 60-minute Iron Man contest.

Currently in the final year of his full-time in-ring career, on the imminent horizon for Bryan Danielson right now is the mouth-watering prospect of Danielson vs. Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty next month.