Bryan Danielson defeated Kazuchika Okada in the main event of Sunday night’s AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door II pay-per-view event.
During the post-show media scrum for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II, Danielson expressed his desire for a rematch with Okada.
While Danielson emerged as the victor last night, he also suffered a fractured forearm that will sideline him for six to eight weeks.
You can check out some highlights from the post-show media scrum below:
On who he wants to wrestle: “So many people that it’s unfair to name them all. But, to be honest, I kind of want to wrestle Okada again and break his arm. It seems like fair play, right? I love what I do, and I think the worst thing that you can do is you can take it away from me. I saw the BCC vs. Elite match tonight and I saw Ishii beat Wheeler Yuta. One, I was pissed at Wheeler. I’m going to slap him later with my left hand. But then what it really made me want to do is, ‘You know what? I want to fight that guy next.’ You know what I mean? And now it’s gonna have to be six-to-eight weeks, if we can even get him over here, it’s the G1 coming up soon and all that kind of stuff. So that puts me in this mindset of okay, would I rather wrestle Ishii, or would I rather wrestle the guy who’s put me out for six to eight weeks, and honestly? Just try to end him. There’s something very gratifying to that, and especially when people call him the greatest wrestler of a generation when I think that’s very debatable.”
On going to other companies like NJPW (for the G1) and DEFY, instead of talent coming to him: “So both. Both is what I’m interested in but my main focus is AEW. I love this company. And realistically, you know, I have lofty goals and things, but then you have to realize, ‘Oh I’m 42. I’ve been wrestling for 24 years and wrestling a pretty hard style. Is it smart for me to do the G1?’ And I was like, maybe not. So as much as I would love to wrestle for DEFY, because it’s in the Seattle area where I’m from…is it worth the risk? Because anything can happen on any given night, like this, right? So right now my main focus is doing my best for AEW and making AEW the best place it can be.”
On mitigating risk in a match: “You have to skate that line, right? So for example, I remember when I was in WWE and John Cena tore his pec taking a hip toss. I go and I talk to our doctors, legitimately, before matches, and I say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? Can I do this?’ And they’re very frank with me as far as saying, ‘No you cannot do that. Yes, we’re okay with this, but only under certain circumstances.’ And I think for the safety of the performers and also it’s the best thing for AEW to do that same kind of thing. I saw the, whatever you want to call it, Tiger Driver 98 [in Ospreay vs. Omega], you know what I mean? I saw that and that kind of stuff does scare me because the injury potential is so great. And I know specifically from a Kenny Omega, who…both him and Will Ospreay are just fantastic. Just fantastic. Was it worth it? You know what I mean? Did it actually make the match better or was it just risking part of their career? And I don’t have the answer for that, you know what I mean? We all did things. I did things to get noticed that I wouldn’t do today. I mean, you just have to balance those things. Those are two very driven men about wanting to put on the best pro wrestling matches that they can. I don’t think it’s my responsibility to say who should do what because I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my career. But yeah, we should be working with our medical staff to approve certain things.”
