Bryan Danielson is "banged up", though it won't impact his Forbidden Door dream match with Kazuchika Okada this Sunday.
That succinct update came from Fightful Select, who provided the news that he won't be going into the contest quite at peak fitness after many had noticed his lighter schedule over the last few months. He's wrestled nine matches in 2023, but eight of those came between January and Danielson's epic 60-minute Iron Man Match with AEW World Heavyweight Champion MJF at Revolution on March 5th.
Defeat in that match resulted in him turning heel alongside his Blackpool Combat Club associates, but he's only worked the Double Or Nothing Anarchy In The Arena main event since. Taking to running interference, cutting promos and/or doing commentary for the group, Bryan's step back on-screen has been noticeable, though he did get physical in this week's go-home angle with 'The Rainmaker'.
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On the other side of the lens, Bryan's been contributing to creative, offering his mind to recent editions of Rampage and upcoming episodes of Collision. It's a role he flirted with during his last days on the SmackDown roster in WWE before arriving in AEW in August 2021.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
