Bryan Danielson speaks on his health.
The American Dragon prepares for his final months as a full-time wrestler, he is set to face Shingo Takagi at the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door event. Despite his history of neck issues, Danielson remains ready to compete, even though his neck isn’t in the best condition. He tells Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated that he’s not 100%.
My neck isn’t doing so great right now…But this is my chance to wrestle Shingo again, and Forbidden Door is one of my favorite pay-per-views. The collaboration between multiple promotions, including CMLL and Stardom, makes it unique. This kind of event didn’t exist five years ago, and I love it.
The match with Takagi is part of the Owen Hart Foundation Cup Tournament, with the winner getting a shot at AEW’s top prize at Wembley Stadium during AEW All In. Danielson, a former multi-time WWE Champion, doesn’t feel the need to compete for the AEW World Championship and dispels the idea that he has creative control over his storylines.
I don’t want to be in that [world champion] position–I don’t feel like that’s my position anymore. The quality of wrestling in AEW is so high, it’s really hard to main-event pay-per-views. That’s not something my body can really do anymore. I know there are a percentage of fans who would like that, but I don’t think it’s my place. And here’s the truth: I don’t want anything to do creatively with my own stuff. I also don’t know where people get the notion that I do. It’s very hard in wrestling to be objective about yourself, so I leave that in the hands of other people.That was the same thing in WWE, even when I was part of the creative team. The head writer of SmackDown at the time, Ryan Callahan, asked me what I wanted to do, and I remember saying I didn’t want to talk about what I wanted to do. I don’t think you can be objective about that stuff.
Danielson also mentioned that this approach was the same during his time in WWE. Even as part of the creative team, he preferred not to influence his own storylines, trusting others to handle it objectively.