Tag: Bryan Danielson

Will Ospreay credits Adam Copeland for guiding him through recovery struggles 

Posted on by Rosanne Raphael

Will Ospreay disclosed how Adam Copeland and other AEW stars supported him during recovery from neck injury.

In an exclusive interview with Rob Wolkenbrod of Forbes, Ospreay recalled Copeland telling him of his experience with a triple fusion neck surgery. He comforted and encouraged Ospreay to reach out to him if it became mentally challenging. He also cited support from Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong and Bryan Danielson during the trying recovery period. 

“Yeah, I spoke with Adam Copeland quite a lot about it, just because I guess he’s kind of the godfather of this surgery. He’s had three of them. I think he’s had a [triple fusion neck surgery]. I remember when I got told how severe it was because I didn’t realize how bad it actually was. I’d been wrestling on it for like 10 months. It only really started getting bad around May, and then it started f****** destroying me.”

“But I spoke to him, and he gave me the whole backstory of when he found out about his surgery and what was going to happen. He gave me his number to keep in contact because he knows it can get really depressing at times. So if I ever needed to vent or bullshit, he was always a great person to call or text about stuff.”

“There were a lot of times he was in London too, so I got to chat with him during good hours. I never felt like I’d text him and have to wait until the next morning because of the time zones. So he was really good.”

“I spoke with Kyle O’Reilly as well. He was great. I spoke with Roddy and Bryan Danielson a little bit, but not much. Everybody’s just been super cool because it really is such a good group of people backstage. I feel like news got around very quickly, and it was one of those things where it was really lovely having the support of my peers and everybody wishing for me to come back.”

Ospreay suffered two herniated discs and was written off AEW TV from August 2025 until his return at Revolution this year. He continued to wrestle through the injury which worsened over time forcing subsequent surgery and time off.

Willow Nightingale reveals praising from fellow AEW star Adam Copeland

Posted on by Rosanne Raphael

Willow Nightingale opened up about high points in her career, naming her experience working with Adam Copeland as one of them. 

Nightingale reflected on the proudest moment of her wrestling career in AEW during an interaction with Dani of Black Girl Wrestling. She named an instance with Bryan Danielson backstage after a match where she was upset about underperforming but he applauded her work.  

“I think I’ve been thinking recently about interactions I’ve had backstage with people I really admire.And how much that means to me. I recently remembered a match that I actually hate watching back. It’s a match that one of my biggest, I don’t I guess regret one of my biggest like in ring regrets after after that match Bryan Danielson actually comforted me and was like ‘hey, you know what I was actually going to say when you were giving us fire in that match and you were all amped up. I wanted more of that.’ He’s like ‘I wasn’t even going to critique the stuff you did. I was just going to..’ and I was crying and I was like, ‘Really? Thank you.’”

Nightingale added that working with Adam Copeland was a notable point in her AEW career. And he told her that she was the best babyface on the promotion. 

“Working with Cope, with Adam Copeland, that is something that has meant so much to me, and he’s said things to me, like, ‘I think you’re the best, biggest babyface that we have,’ and for him to see something like that in me, it moves me a lot.”

Nightingale and Copeland teamed up in April 2024 for a mixed tag team match against Brody King and Julia Hart. Last year she also assisted him in his feud with FTR. 

A couple of weeks ago, Nightingale issued an open challenge for the TBS Championship on Collision. This past weekend, she was attacked by Kamille who made her AEW return after nearly 530 days. 

WWE fan backlash altered creative plans before, so is Pat McAfee next? | Opinion

Posted on by Rosanne Raphael

Pat McAfee’s involvement in Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes’ feud for WWE WrestleMania 42 has stirred much debate among fans and the wider wrestling community.

His sudden addition to the storyline and siding with Orton has questioned narrative relevance. Fans and wrestlers alike have expressed dissatisfaction with the situation. However, WWE is yet to proceed in the creative direction amid growing concerns. 

This isn’t the first time fans have pushed back on creative decisions or forced WWE to alter the direction of feuds. Over the years, several moments have provoked protests from fans, both online and at arenas.

Here’s a few notable instances when it happened: 

Daniel Bryan’s ‘Yes Movement’ implodes in 2014 

In 2013 to 2014, Bryan had become a fan favorite. Arenas erupted with ‘Yes’ chants every time he appeared. 

So, it came as no surprise when his absence from the 2014 Royal Rumble sparked an uproar. When Rey Mysterio entered as the 30th entrant, the crowd reacted with heavy boos despite him being a face. 

It became worse when Batista won the Rumble to secure his spot at WrestleMania XXX against Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. However, the backlash was so severe that it forced WWE to add Bryan into the fold. 

Bryan was then given the ultimate hero’s challenge to earn his spot in the WrestleMania main event. He had to defeat Triple H earlier in the night with the stipulation that if he lost, he would not be added to the main event. Bryan not only defeated Triple H, but also won the WWE World Title later that night. 

CM Punk chants taking over arenas after WWE walkout 

CM Punk’s 2014 departure triggered one of the most ruthless crowd protests in WWE history. 

While 2014 seemed to peak with fans unhappiness on WWE’s creative booking surrounding Bryan, Punk’s exit worsened it — although his situation intensified the overall sentiment among fans. 

Punk walked out of WWE in January 2014 due to creative differences and lack of respect among other reasons. A few months later in June, he was fired by WWE on his wedding day.

The dissatisfaction of his absence in the ring led arenas to chant for Punk at almost every WWE event for years. Even if major stars were featured on the card or competing in the ring, his name would still be heard from the crowd.  

Punk was viewed as a representative of the fanbase. His departure sparked a rare moment in wrestling history which created sustained pressure on how deeply audiences were invested in his presence. 

Punk eventually returned to WWE at Survivor Series 2023 to a thunderous reaction at the Allstate Arena. 

John Cena hatred at ECW One Night Stand 2006  

At ECW One Night Stand, Cena walked into one of the most hostile wrestling crowds in history. 

ECW was revived in 2006 after being purchased by WWE a few years earlier. To promote the merger WWE produced ECW’s second edition of their One Night Stand pay-per-view. But it turned out to be more chaotic as WWE stars were featured on the match card which drew strong negative reactions from hardcore ECW fans. 

The main event featured Rob Van Dam against Cena for his WWE Championship. The reaction was brutal and the atmosphere at Hammerstein Ballroom was intense. The champ walked out to boos, obscene gestures and jeers. 

This event featured the viral ‘If Cena wins, we riot’ poster along with explicit laden chants directed at him.

Edge’s interference in the match did not go in vain. After the referee was knocked out, Paul Heyman took over and counted the pinfall which made RVD the new WWE Champion that night. 

Given that Cena was positioned as WWE’s babyface at the time, this moment remains a notable example of fan reactions determining the crowning of a new champion. 

#WeWantCody taking over social media 

Cody Rhodes won the 2024 Royal Rumble and chose to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania that year to ‘finish his story’.

Despite facing off in the WrestleMania 39 main event, Rhodes was still on a mission – to win the undisputed WWE Championship. 

On the February 2, 2024, edition of SmackDown, The Rock returned and confronted his cousin. For quite a while, it was marked a blockbuster match by many for Rock to battle Reigns at WrestleMania.

The Rock shook hands and embraced Rhodes who gestured for him to proceed in his confrontation indicating that he was stepping down from his Mania match.

Fans were baffled and instantly expressed discontent at the next few events and online. Almost instantly, #WeWantCody began trending worldwide on social media. 

This forced WWE to adjust plans and re-align Rhodes in his coveted spot in the WrestleMania 40 main event. 

It steered the rivalry into Rock and Reigns uniting against Rhodes. And eventually led to Seth Rollins backing Rhodes for having a common enemy in The Bloodline. 

R-Truth’s 2025 Money in the Bank return  

On June 1, 2025, R-Truth announced on social media that he was released from WWE, ending his 17-year association with the company. It instantly received a jarring reaction online and on the following editions of Raw and SmackDown. 

At Money in the Bank, Cena teamed up with Logan Paul against Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso. During the bout, Paul hit a moonsault on Uso through the announcer’s table while Cena and Rhodes were in the ring. With the referee distracted, Cena grabbed the WWE title belt and hit Rhodes with it. A hooded figure jumped into the ring and attacked Cena and later revealed himself – it was R-Truth. 

Everyone at the Intuit Dome were on their feet, rooting and embracing the return of their beloved star. And it all transpired within a week. 

Later, reports revealed that the overwhelming backlash forced Nick Khan to step in and renegotiate Truth’s WWE contract for a return. 

Final Thoughts

These examples prove the influential role fans play in WWE storytelling. While creative decisions lie in the hands of the promotion, sustained negative reactions and protests can detour the original plans. WWE history has shown a consistent pattern of altering feuds and storylines based on fans pushing back. It also proves that audiences are not just reacting to it but also actively shaping it.

This trend could be reflected in the ongoing discussions on McAfee’s integration in Rhodes and Orton’s WrestleMania 42 clash. The growing retaliation could sway WWE’s creative booking.

AEW wrestler says he was slotted for two different top factions

Posted on by Rosanne Raphael

Former Olympic and pro boxer, infrequent wrestler and current Shane Taylor Promotions member Anthony Ogogo says he was set to join Blackpool Combat Club and Inner Circle in AEW. 

In an interview with ITR Wrestling, Ogogo revealed he was initially set to be a part of Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle — an idea greenlit by Tony Khan who wanted Jericho to mentor him. However, Jericho had other plans with Jake Hager eventually stepping up given their time together in WWE. 

“With Jericho, I was supposed to be Jericho’s bodyguard, part of his Inner Circle group. That was supposed to be me. I think Tony Khan’s idea was for me to work with Jericho and learn from Jericho,” he said, also giving the inaugural AEW World Champion credit for being a real life “Learning Tree.”

“Especially in the early years, he was the learning tree and I would always ask questions and he’d teach me stuff. He’d always watch my matches and give me critique and say ‘Do this, don’t do that. He’s the man who knows how to get over so Jericho is someone I definitely learned a lot from,” Ogogo said.

Ogogo, a former Olympic medalist and boxer officially made his in-ring AEW debut in 2021. He was trained by Cody Rhodes, QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes. 

He then said at one point, he was working with both Bryan Danielson and William Regal who he said were training him to join the Blackpool Combat Club.

“At that point, I was being groomed to join the Blackpool Combat Club before it became the Blackpool Combat Club and it never really materialized. So, I trained all this time with Danielson and Regal and put in all those hard work in to learn,” he explained.

He then further elaborated on their guidance both with Danielson’s impact in wrestling and Regal teaching him old school British wrestling style. 

“The whole thing about pro wrestling is you can be who you wanna be. Just because I wrestle like big and strong and do like power moves. Regal taught me this as well, Regal taught me this old school British wrestling big guy, tough styles. Just because you do the impact stuff doesn’t mean you can’t learn the intricate stuff. It just thus far hasn’t been called to use, doesn’t make sense for me to be using it.”

“He (Danielson) taught me so much, again, not just wrestling stuff, but how to get over. He got this thing [(he Yes chants) over. And when someone does a move, or a quote, and it transcends outside of wrestling, that guy knows what he’s talking about. Tremendous guy, wonderful man. Really really nice guy as well. Super nice guy.”

The 37-year-old last competed on this past weekend’s ROH TV tapings in Jacksonville, Florida — his first match since last November, also in ROH. That was his first action in a Khan-owned company since August 2024.

The Blackpool Combat Club was formed in 2022 with Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli with Regal as the group’s manager. By 2023, Regal departed AEW and returned to WWE in a backstage role. 

Danielson’s dispute with Moxley after his betrayal at 2024’s All Out led to the pivot to the Death Riders.

VIDEO: AEW announcers pay tribute to Kerwin Silfies on Dynamite

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: WWE

The influence of the late Kerwin Silfies was felt on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite as the late WWE director was recognized on air.

Silfies passed away at 75 years old on Tuesday after battling health issues, first reported Wednesday by PWInsider. Silfies was a longtime WWE director, joining the company in the mid-1980s after already having many years of television experience working at Channel 39 in his native Pennsylvania.

In the show’s first hour and seen below, the show cut to Excalibur, Bryan Danielson and Tony Schiavone at the desk to talk about Silfies who Schiavone said he first met in 1989. He called him “a great man and an even better director,” adding that he was calm under pressure which “in this business, is something else.”

Danielson then got emotional when talking about Silfies, saying that he was “very kind and very patient” and that when Danielson got to WWE, he didn’t know anything about TV production but Silfies was kind in teaching him.

Earlier in the day, AEW broadcaster Taz posted a short audio tribute to Silfies who he first worked with when he came to WWE, recalling the first night when ECW talent “invaded” Raw and how Silfies made them feel wanted.

Bryan Danielson addresses possibility of in-ring return

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Bryan Danielson isn’t ruling out the possibility of an in-ring return, but his increased travel schedule has been a reality check for him.

In September 2025, Danielson took on a new role when he joined the AEW Dynamite commentary team on a full-time basis. It’s a job that Danielson enjoys, but being on the road every week has taken a toll on his injured neck. He told Undisputed that, before starting the commentary job, he was having “delusions” of wrestling a couple of times per year. The commentary role has made that less likely.

“The traveling is so hard on my neck,” Danielson said. “Once I started traveling again, I went back to sleeping four-and-a-half hours a night. There was a point around Forbidden Door [last August] that I had delusions of wrestling a couple matches a year. After traveling for commentary, I don’t see how it would be possible. And that’s without bumps.”

Danielson said he was having trouble sleeping for about a year after facing Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty 2024. His neck pain would wake him up after only a few hours. Adam Copeland recommended a physical therapist that Danielson should see, which proved to be a “game changer” until Danielson started to get back out on the road for commentary.

“In April of 2025, Adam Copeland sent me to his physical therapist,” Danielson said. “He said the guy was a miracle worker. This guy worked on me for two days in a row, six hours each day.

“After the first night, I slept nine hours straight. After the second night, I slept eight hours straight. After that, I was sleeping seven or eight hours almost every night. That’s a game changer for how you feel.”

Danielson ended his full-time career in the ring in October 2024. Whether he’ll ever wrestle again remains to be seen. He would like to avoid ever having to undergo surgery for his neck injury.

“I don’t close it off,” Danielson told Undisputed about a potential return. “Maybe…

“The traveling itself is so taxing, so I don’t know. We’ll see.”


Bryan Danielson credited with training The Bella Twins before WWE Royal Rumble

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

After years of absence, Brie Bella made her return at the 2026 WWE Royal Rumble, shortly after which she credited her husband for training her.

Recently appearing on Notsam Wrestling Live! (h/t Fightful) Bella narrated how Danielson helped her get ready for the Royal Rumble.

“Obviously, my husband [Bryan Danielson] might be one of the greatest coaches in the world. And he’s a very hard coach,” Brie Bella said.

To which Nikki Bella also responded with, “I mean, you should see my text message from him. I’m showing (William) Regal, like, ‘So this is what Bryan wants me to practice today.’”

Bella’s last wrestling match was at the 2022 Royal Rumble, following which she made her comeback last month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Hall of Famer returned after a span of almost four years, after repeatedly hearing no.

The twins reunited on January 31st, 2026, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and now plan on going after Rhea Ripley and IYO Sky’s tag team titles. Nikki Bella was recently involved in a Women’s Championship feud against Stephanie Vaquer.

While the sisters have now returned to WWE, Danielson currently works in AEW and had also taken on commentary duties with Excalibur and Tony Schiavone on Dynamite during Taz’s absence. Following his last in-ring bout at AEW WrestleDream 2024 against Jon Moxley, Danielson returned for a short bout against Max Caster last year during an episode of Collision in June 2025. Following this, he has completely stayed away from any in-ring matches.

Bryan Danielson critiques his AEW commentary performance

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Four months into his new AEW role, Bryan Danielson still feels like he’s finding his footing on commentary.

Danielson became a member of the AEW Dynamite announce team in September 2025, taking on a new on-screen position one year after retiring as a full-time wrestler. He recently spoke to Undisputed and critiqued his performance on commentary so far.

“A lot of times, I still think I’m rotten,” Danielson said while laughing. “It’s hard to gauge the show in terms of what worked and didn’t when I’m doing commentary. I do the show and then I watch it back, and I’m getting advice from a lot of talented people.”

Though he still thinks he needs to improve, Danielson noted that he’s giving himself grace because he’s learning the job on the fly. He’s having a lot of fun on commentary and loves the people he gets to work with.

“In a sense, doing commentary, it is like wrestling,” Danielson said. “There is an exhilaration to it. I love whenever I get the chance to work with Excalibur, Taz, or Tony Schiavone. The whole experience, it’s fun. So I enjoy the feeling of doing it. Then I go and rewatch and listen, which is similar to what I did as a wrestler. I’m not where I want to be. I’m also giving myself some grace — almost everyone else in that position has been trained and I’m winging it.”

One difficult part of the job for Danielson has been the weekly travel schedule, which is hard on his injured neck. He hasn’t fully closed the book on having more matches in the future, but Danielson is doing everything he can to avoid ever having to undergo neck surgery.

Bryan Danielson reflects on ‘very pleasant’ 2025

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Bryan Danielson’s first year since retiring as a full-time wrestler was a “very pleasant” one.

Appearing as a co-host on the latest edition of the Nikki & Brie Show, Danielson reflected on what the past year has been like. When asked about big moments he had in 2025, Danielson said this year was more about spending time with his family. He’s gotten to coach his son’s T-ball team and teach his daughter how to ride a bike.

“I don’t have any specific moments that were just like, ‘Oh, wow, this’ or ‘Oh, wow, that.’ It’s just been a very pleasant year,” Danielson said. “I was done full-time wrestling and got to be, like, I got to coach Buddy’s T-ball team. I get to be home more with the kids regularly doing stuff. This happened — I think this happened this year — finally teaching Birdie to ride her bike. It was because I was able to be home more and physically do it with her. And then one of my favorite things ever is just riding bikes with her now…

“With Buddy, it’s just been so much fun because he started to get really into the things that I’m into. Like, he loves martial arts, and he loves wrestling, and he loves that sort of thing. And sometimes it turns sour real quick. But, yeah, those have been great things.”

Danielson added that he’s also been able to spend more time with his mother due to being home more often.

“The general pleasantness of my life has greatly increased, just being at home with everybody,” he said.

Danielson did not wrestle any real matches in 2025, but he has been on the road more often lately since becoming a full-time commentator for AEW Dynamite. He started in that role in September, and the travel has been difficult on his injured neck.

It remains to be seen whether Danielson will ever wrestle again. In 2026, the thing he’s looking forward to most is watching his children progress at the activities he’s been doing with them.

“I look forward to doing more things with the kids,” Danielson said. “Especially as they get older, they’re getting, I mean, they’re just getting so independent and able to do these — like some of the hikes that I was able to do with Birdie and Buddy this last year. And even in this coming year, I think they’re going to be able to do more longer bike rides.”

Hall of Famer lied about Bryan Danielson to get him signed by WWE

Posted on by Shounak Chakrabarti

WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry recently recalled how he had lied about Bryan Danielson’s height to get him signed by the promotion.

Long before his run as a part of AEW, Danielson, known as Daniel Bryan, was one of the top names in WWE. Recently, speaking on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast, Mark Henry opened up about how he had lied about Danielson’s height to get WWE’s attention toward him.

“I didn’t train Bryan Danielson, I just saw Bryan on TV and said ‘hey y’all need to get this dude,'” Henry noted. “Because I saw a match he had and I was like ‘this dude is as good as people we’ve got in WWE’.”

“And I lied, I told them he was like six feet tall because they wanted bigger guys, like 200 lbs, and Bryan’s 5′ 11” maybe. To have somebody that’s a Hall of Fame-calibre wrestler that you can hang your hat on is pretty damn cool.”

Initially signed on a developmental contract, Danielson stayed with WWE from 2000 to 2003, before returning in 2009 and 2010 and staying there till 2021.

Not wrestling anymore, Danielson currently performs as a commentator for All Elite Wrestling, with his last match dating back to a dark match on Collision against Max Caster on June 25th, 2025.

Red Velvet: Bryan Danielson ‘has been great to me’ in AEW

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Bryan Danielson has been a big help to Red Velvet behind the scenes in AEW.

Appearing on a new episode of Close Up with Renee Paquette, Velvet listed Cody Rhodes, Brandi Rhodes, and Dustin Rhodes as three names who were instrumental in helping her adapt to AEW when she first started with the promotion. Danielson has also given advice to Velvet, including helping her with the injuries she’s dealt with.

“Bryan Danielson, he’s been great to me and just helped me so much in like the later parts of AEW,” she said. “And just even after injury too, it was like, he was so helpful in like, how do I move differently to protect my knee from that time? So that was a good turning point at that point.

“But I had so many. I had Arn Anderson, I had QT [Marshall] — so many people just standing behind me when I first got there. And I will just forever be grateful for that.”

Velvet suffered her knee injury in 2023 and was out of action for most of that year. She was sidelined again for a few months in 2025 due to neck and shoulder issues. Velvet said Danielson — along with Claudio Castagnoli and PAC — was again helpful in giving her advice on how to heal from those injuries.

In November, Velvet was able to return to the ring. She regained the ROH Women’s Television Championship from Mercedes Mone at Final Battle 2025.

Danielson retired as a full-time performer in 2024 but is still with AEW as a commentator and backstage consultant.

AEW Dynamite Winter is Coming post-show segment with Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston shared a heartfelt moment in a post-show segment at Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Winter is Coming.

Kingston challenged Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship in the main event of Wednesday’s Winter is Coming episode in College Park, Georgia. After the match, Kingston took the microphone to address the crowd, pausing to joke with Danielson as the “American Dragon” left his post at the commentary desk.

Before Kingston could speak, Danielson led the crowd in an appreciative cheer for Kingston, noting that he was in just his fifth match back since missing over 500 days due to a leg injury.

Danielson said that he believes in Kingston, that Kingston should not hang his head in defeat, and that Kingston has more heart than anyone in professional wrestling.

Kingston then thanked the Atlanta-area crowd and noted that he had loved the city since his first trip there for an independent match years earlier.

The full segment with Danielson and Kingston is embedded below.

Bryan Danielson: John Cena ‘deserves the last year of his career to be awesome’

Posted on by Ian Carey

Bryan Danielson says John Cena deserves for the last year of his career to be “awesome.”

Danielson recently spoke to Justin Barrasso of The Undisputed and mentioned that he hasn’t actually seen any of Cena’s retirement run but hopes that it’s gone well.

“I honestly haven’t watched,” said Danielson. “I’m entering this experimental phase of my life where I’m experiencing less input from media. When I went to visit my mother recently, I made a 13-hour drive. I didn’t listen to any music, I didn’t listen to any podcasts. There was nothing but silence. The only times there wasn’t silence was when my wife called, I got on an AEW call, or when I called mom.”

“As I experiment with less input, that also means less wrestling input. So I haven’t seen any of John Cena’s final run. I’m not watching, but I hope it goes really well for John. That guy deserves the last year of his career to be awesome.”

Danielson also addressed the possibility of him wrestling again during the interview. Danielson said he has “delusions” of wrestling a couple matches a year. However, he also noted that the traveling he does just to work commentary for AEW shows is taxing on his body.

“The traveling alone is so taxing on my body,” said Danielson. “So I’m not sure how I could go back to wrestling.”

According to Cagematch, the last time Cena and Danielson shared the ring together was at a WWE house show in Baltimore on December 28, 2018, when Danielson defeated Cena in a steel cage match. Their first time wrestling against one another took place on the February 4, 2003, episode of WWE Velocity, when Cena beat Danielson in a little under four minutes. Perhaps their most notable match came at SummerSlam 2013, when Danielson defeated Cena for the WWE Championship with Triple H as the special guest referee.

Danielson’s full interview with Justin Barrasso of The Undisputed is available here.

Update on potential Brie Bella WWE return

Posted on by Joseph Currier

A return to the ring is possible for Brie Bella, but it sounds like it would need to be with her sister Nikki by her side.

Brie recently said she “definitely” has one last run in her and left the door open as to whether it would happen in WWE or somewhere else. Her twin sister Nikki is currently back in WWE but, through this point, has not had Brie with her. It’s been a solo run for Nikki, who unsuccessfully challenged Stephanie Vaquer for the Women’s World Championship at Survivor Series last weekend.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Bryan Danielson said his wife Brie is not interested in having her own singles run. She wants to team with Nikki if she comes back to wrestling.

“Only in certain contexts,” Danielson responded when asked if he thinks Brie would ever return. “She doesn’t want to come back and do like a singles run or anything like that. If she comes back, she would want to do it with [Nikki]. But I think there’s something in her, too, that — and I can appreciate this — because our kids see her as just a mom. ‘Just a mom,’ as if that isn’t the hardest job in the world. Part of her, I think, has a desire to have the kids see her in that light [as a wrestler].”

Aside from an appearance in the 2022 Royal Rumble, Brie has not wrestled since 2018. She and Nikki were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame together as members of the class of 2020.

Brie stated earlier this year that she believes Danielson’s association with AEW has been a “roadblock” toward WWE bringing her back. Danielson wrapped up his full-time career in the ring with AEW in 2024 and remains with the promotion in a role that includes being part of the Dynamite commentary team.

Bryan Danielson gives update on status of AEW in-ring career

Posted on by Joseph Currier

He’s not putting a definitive end on his in-ring career yet, but Bryan Danielson knows he’s no longer capable of being the wrestler he once was.

Danielson had his final match as a full-time wrestler in October 2024 and is now a member of the AEW Dynamite commentary team. It remains to be seen when or if he’ll ever wrestle again, but Danielson has never called himself fully retired. He explained that decision while appearing on a newly released episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.

“I hate the [retired] word because I was forced to retire before [in 2016],” Danielson said. “So I never consider myself fully retired. Like — this is how I think and this is how a lot of wrestlers think, ‘Well, I think I could do this in this situation if needed or called upon or whatever it is.’ But yeah, you know, effectively for the Bryan Danielson that I used to be, yeah, that guy doesn’t exist anymore.”

Danielson addressed whether he would still like to return to the ring if he’s not capable of being who he used to be.

“I would love to, not on TV, right?,” Danielson said before describing how much fun he used to have while wrestling at Butlin’s shows in the United Kingdom early in his career. “I think I could go have fun matches and have fun doing the fun matches. But then I don’t think that that’s the TV — that’s not the kind of wrestling fans would want to pay to see Bryan Danielson do.”

Even in his new AEW commentary role, the neck injury Danielson is dealing with causes problems for him. He told Van Vliet that the increased travel schedule calling Dynamite every week is difficult on his body. Danielson is on the cusp of needing neck surgery but would like to avoid that ever having to happen.

“I’d like to never get neck surgery,” Danielson said. “I was actually doing really well until I started traveling more, and then it’s really gone downhill. I had these weird, they’re not even weird, I wouldn’t even say it’s weird. I had these delusions about like, ‘Okay, maybe I could get back and do a little bit of wrestling or whatever it is.’ Now I see that they were delusions. This traveling is like, ‘Okay, yeah, that would not be a good idea.'”