10 Surprising Wrestlers Retiring Sooner Than You Think
2. Bryan Danielson
Bryan Danielson genuinely loves wrestling.
He wants to test himself against a range of opponents. He's not so much a technician as an explorer.
He wants to exchange intricate llave holds with Bandido. He wants to go blow for defiant blow with Konosuke Takeshita in a strong style war. He wants to take a beating from Rush and sell for an a*rehole of a rudo in a magnetic brawl and make a comeback tempered by the sheer, gross amount of blood pouring out of him. Danielson sold like he'd lost so much more blood than he actually had because he's an objective genius at his craft, and never wants to stop perfecting it.
He was once on record as saying that he wants to continue wrestling until he is 70 years-old, telling ESPN in 2018 that this was "realistic" for him and that he wants to "transition [his] style slowly to something that's a little bit easier on [the] body".
Flash forward five years to exchanging shoot headbutts with Rush while soaked in his own blood.
By his own admission, Danielson is not the most reliable narrator - he's a big liar who loves to lie - but he revealed in an interview with Ron Funches last year that when his AEW deal expires, that's "pretty much" him "done". As a full-timer, anyway; he couldn't promise not to do a Terry Funk-style twilight years run.
The self-confessed liar is still more honest than most wrestlers.