AEW superstar Bryan Danielson recently spoke with the Ringer Wrestling podcast to discuss a wide range of topics, which included the American Dragon sharing details about his relationship with Cody Rhodes, and how he has an interest in trying MMA just to see how much it differs from wrestling. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Talks his relationship with Cody Rhodes and how Rhodes taught him to lie:
“I have a great relationship with Cody. Cody and I have been friends for a long time. We’d ride together in WWE and all that kind of stuff. I, so I don’t know if you guys know this, this is probably just something that the boys know, but I’m a big-time liar. I love to lie. And my love of lying, like, I wasn’t a very good liar until I rode with Cody. Like, Cody taught me how fun lying is, right, just like, making up, saying something straight to somebody’s face, just the most absurd lie that you’ve ever said, right? Like, and so some of that, you know, like, you know, so I really enjoy Cody.”
How a part of him wants to do MMA:
“Part of me wants to do an MMA fight where I just get, yeah, to just feel the difference. Because I’m sure it’s 100% different. You’re bleeding from somebody punching you so hard that your eyes bleeding, I’m sure that sucks, right? That sounds like the worst, right? And I would only want to experience it once, just to know the difference, right? But when you’re wrestling, that’s not what happens, right, the bleeding is completely different. And so it’s — so there’s a unique energy to it. And that’s something that. like, ‘okay, we can’t do in WWE’. The violence, so when I got fired in 2010 for choking Justin Roberts and spitting in John Cena’s face, I came out with a shirt. One of the few times I’ve ever come out with my own merchandise. It said ‘Violent’ on it, and that was by design. It being like, okay, what I did was, one, too violent for television, two, we’re not allowed to say the word violent, right? So, that was a very purposeful use of the term. Now, there’s certain words that are, to me, very — I hate to use the word sticky, but like, you get a strong image in your mind and violence is one of them. So, and, you know, it’s not like, I don’t know. I’m not a violent person, right? I don’t want a violent world, but it’s using the term, there’s a certain gravity to it.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)