Following AEW President Tony Khan's decision to fire CM Punk, the returning Bryan Danielson has become the face of AEW Collision. The American Dragon also replaced the Best in the World in a Strap Match against Ricky Starks at All Out, but Collision's ratings have still taken a noteworthy hit without Punk.
Danielson remains one of the best pro wrestlers working today and the former WWE Superstar has been able to embrace his independent wrestling roots as part of AEW. He's also believed to be someone Khan has come to rely on in terms of creative advice.
During a recent Sports Illustrated interview, Danielson shared his take on Punk being fired by AEW.
"In any job, when you lose somebody who’s very important, or you lose somebody you really like working with, that’s hard," he acknowledged. "But everyone keeps doing the job. And any time there is loss or controversy or struggle inside an organization, it’s a chance to bring people closer. It’s also a chance to divide people. So you have this thing where you can use struggle to make your life worse, or you can use struggle to make your life better."
"When I lost my father, I came out on the backside. I was worse. Struggling with my depression, I’ve come out of it better. So how you approach something and how you learn from something, that’s what makes the difference."
Danielson is clearly choosing his words carefully there but did talk a little more openly about his recent suggestion he plans to retire next year. He's suffered a number of injuries in AEW and explained that, while his time in the ring is winding down, he doesn't expect to ever fully walk away.
"I don’t think I’ll ever reach a point where I declare I’m absolutely done," Danielson confirmed. "I want the ability to show up when I want to show up. Terry Funk is someone I always admired. He retired a million times, but he loved it so much he couldn’t help but keep doing it. And he did it when he wanted. For me, it might be a couple times a year, or it might be years between matches."
"I always thought I’d wrestle until the day I die. But it’s not going to be this regular, weekly wrestling," he adds. "I don’t even know if it’s going to be wrestling at big shows. I’ve always wanted to wrestle for DEFY in Seattle. How easy would it be for me to call the promoter and pop in some weekend? They wouldn’t even need to promote me. I could come in, surprise people, and do my thing."
It doesn't sound like the former WWE Champion has any plans to return to that company, no great shock when they would likely want to sign him to a multi-year deal. However, it appears Danielson is also looking beyond AEW...