AEW superstar Bryan Danielson recently spoke with TV Insider to hype his world title match with Adam Page at Winter Is Coming, and discuss a number of pro-wrestling related topics, including how AEW handled the health and mental well-being of its performers. Highlights from the interview are below.
How the crowd stayed supportive of Hangman and began booing him:
It’s all a lot easier when they care about someone. If Hangman Page wasn’t someone people cared about, it would have been very easy for the crowd to turn on him, rather than me. They love this guy. I haven’t done anything so mean or dastardly, yet. I try to not make great changes in my character. I think my time in AEW, I’ve been aggressive, a little bit of a jerk [who] people like. But it’s not hard to switch to a jerk who people don’t like.
How AEW handles the mental and physical health of its performers:
AEW has done a great job. They had big plans for [Jon] Moxley. Tony [Khan] had no problem putting those plans aside so he can take care of himself. I think it takes a lot for Jon to be so open about the troubles he has been having. Eddie Kingston wrote a great piece in The Player’s Tribune about dealing with his mental health issues. We were talking about this idea of service and giving back. All of us have different gifts and have gone through different struggles. Eddie’s stories speak to a lot of people. That’s really powerful. He can help people going through the same thing.
Whether it was planned for him to wrestle every week:
There wasn’t necessarily a plan to wrestle each week. I’m a firm believer that too much time between matches makes matches hurt more. For me, the optimal number of matches is eight to 10 a month. That’s what I realized in WWE. In my last contract with WWE, I got a lighter schedule to be at home more. It was really limited to 10 shows a month. I don’t want to wrestle 227 matches a year, but I find wrestling every week makes my body feel better. I’m prepped better for longer and bigger matches. I look forward to wrestling every week.