Bryan Danielson was a guest on WFAN’s Moose and Maggie show on Tuesday to promote his AEW in-ring debut against World Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega in a non-title match on Wednesday’s Dynamite: Grand Slam.
During it, he noted that he considered staying away from wrestling for a few years before signing with AEW.
“Oh no, there wasn’t any ‘convincing’ that Tony [Khan] could do. I’d already seen the product. It was a different situation, I was under contract with WWE,” Danielson said. “The hard thing for me is my loyalty to Vince McMahon. I have a great relationship [with Vince], I love that man. He’s done so much for my family and the things that I’ve learned and all that kind of stuff, and that was the hard thing.
“There was also—a lot of people look at it in terms of there being two options, you’re either going to be with WWE or AEW. But part of me was like, ‘I could just do an independent schedule where I don’t sign with anybody,’” Danielson said, before he was asked if he really considered that option.
“Yes I did, and I thought about not coming back at all in the sense of at least for the next couple of years. I wanted to take the summer off because my daughter started preschool and just being home with her. Her whole life, she’s 4, I’ve left every week, or almost every week. And just being able [to be home] — I loved it, she loved it,” he explained, “me being home every, single night.”
Danielson went on to say that they miss each other and still check in now that he’s traveling again, but there was a point where he considered staying home for his two childrens’ formative years.
“That was part of the thing, the idea of maybe stepping away until my son starts preschool so I could be there every day for him and every day for my daughter. But then, you just [question], ‘I’m missing the last, probably, four years of my productive athletic career’ and I might not be the same at 45 than I am at 40,” Danielson said. “So, yeah, lots of things to unpack there.”
