AEW's Bryan Danielson To Work NJPW G1 Climax 2023?

Tony Khan addresses the possibility of seeing the American Dragon in this year's G1 Climax.

by Andrew Pollard
Bryan Danielson NJPW G1 Glimax
AEW/NJPW

Could Bryan Danielson finally have the opportunity to work New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax tournament? AEW President Tony Khan has not ruled the possibility out...

Speaking on The Kliq podcast (as per Fightful), Khan noted how it would be "great" to see the American Dragon compete in NJPW's hugely popular annual tourney.

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That said, Tony did likewise explain how logistically it could be problematic for Danielson to be absent from AEW programming for a prolonged spell - particularly if he were to dethrone MJF for the AEW World Championship at Revolution next month.

As Khan put it:

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"To be honest, I think it would be great in many ways, but Bryan Danielson, it's quite possible, could be AEW World Champion. Either way, I mean, I think it'd be hard for him to disappear from the show, especially as the AEW World Champion. I'm not sure he'll be able to get away from the show that much. We'll have to see what happens here coming out of Revolution with MJF vs. Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship in the 60-minute Iron Man match in San Francisco on March 5."

Danielson himself has talked up how he'd love to work the G1 Climax one year, and it was even previously reported how WWE at one point reached to to NJPW to see about the former Daniel Bryan competing in the tournament. That was shortly before the nowadays Blackpool Combat Club man departed WWE, with WWE reaching out to New Japan in an effort to convince the Washington native to remain with the market leader.

Traditionally, the G1 Climax - bar the problematic pandemic years - runs from July through until August. While last year's tournament was made up of four blocks, the G1 usually features two blocks of wrestlers. Each wrestler competes against the other talents in their block, with points picked up for wins. The wrestlers with the most points in each block then face off to determine with winner of the tournament, and that winner then gets a shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at the next year's Wrestle Kingdom.

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Last year's G1 Climax was won by Kazuchika Okada, with the Rainmaker then going on to take the IWGP World Heavyweight Title from Jay White at Wrestle Kingdom 17 this January.

Bryan Danielson getting to spend four weeks competing in the G1 Climax is something many a wrestling fan would love to see. Whether it ends up becoming a reality, that remains to be seen.

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.