Tentative Plans Being Made For Bryan Danielson Return (AEW News)
The might be fire in the American Dragon left...
Bryan Danielson last appeared in an AEW ring at the WrestleDream pay-per-view in October 2024.
He lost to Death Riders leader Jon Moxley, bringing to a close the storyline in which he would retire as a full-time wrestler when he lost the AEW World title. But he has retired for good, or is he simply on the AEW injury list?
All the while, both AEW and Bryan Danielson were keen to stress the "as a full-time wrestler" qualifier. Obviously, you could list rule-proving exceptions as counterarguments - but company founder Tony Khan insisted, when communicating All Elite Wrestling's philosophy across the early promotional onslaught, that he would attempt to operate with a degree of honesty. Citing fan frustration with WWE's old practise of false advertising, Khan (and Cody Rhodes) almost adhered too strictly to this principle, you could argue, when permanently writing Cody out of the World title picture following Full Gear 2019.
It was always somewhat feasible, even probable, that Danielson would make his return to AEW and perform a limited schedule. Now, per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, AEW is preparing for the possibility. The conversation sparked up again when Danielson, who has worked as a creative consultant for AEW since WrestleDream, took a back bump in a non-televised dark segment at Grand Slam: Mexico on Wednesday, June 18.
While it should be noted that Danielson was openly feeling not good physically as recently as December, Wheeler YUTA drawing from Danielson's repertoire isn't just heat-seeking character work. This is cited in Sapp's report as Bryan's way back in narratively, if and when he is healthy enough to do so.
Danielson once claimed that he'd like to wrestle well into his seventies - so he's bound to get the bug again, surely.