Bryan Danielson reflects on world title win at AEW All In London: “It’s something that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life”

As 2024 draws to an end, one thing is for certain when it comes to the past year in professional wrestling: it was a monumental one. One such moment, which AEW CEO Tony Khan ranked as his all-time favorite in pro wrestling history, was the “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson’s win to capture the AEW world title from Swerve Strickland at AEW All In London. How highly does Danielson himself rank his world title win at AEW All in?

“When you look at things from a grand perspective, like All In this year was my favorite moment in my wrestling career, wrestling Swerve [Strickland], who’s right over there,” Danielson told Denise Salcedo. “So All In [next] year is going to be awesome, but I’ve also loved those intimate venues.”

Danielson has expressed in the past that he doesn’t want to be AEW world champion, because the “quality of wrestling in AEW is so high,” so it took some convincing from some of the higher ups at AEW — Tony Khan himself — to convince him that it was the right course of action.

Bryan Danielson waving his finger during an AEW match/AEW YouTube

ā€œI donā€™t want to be in that [world champion] positionā€“I donā€™t feel like thatā€™s my position anymore,ā€ Danielson told SI Fan Nation earlier this year. ā€œThe quality of wrestling in AEW is so high, itā€™s really hard to main-event pay-per-views. Thatā€™s not something my body can really do anymore. I know there are a percentage of fans who would like that, but I donā€™t think itā€™s my place. And hereā€™s the truth: I donā€™t want anything to do creatively with my own stuff. I also donā€™t know where people get the notion that I do. Itā€™s very hard in wrestling to be objective about yourself, so I leave that in the hands of other people.”

Luckily, Tony Khan didn’t have to pull a reverse Montreal Screwjob on Danielson and it allowed the 43-year-old to fully appreciate his championship win.

“Mostly, I was just trying to suck in the feeling of it,” Danielson added in his chat with Salcedo, “and the idea of this is happening with my kids and this is happening with my wife and this is happening with my friends or former friends. It’s really, really cool and really, really special. It’s something that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life. My daughter, when we got to the back, she was like ‘This is the best day of my life.'”

Danielson would go on to lose the AEW world title to Jon Moxley at AEW WrestleDream on October 12th. Following the match, he announced his retirement.

ā€œItā€™s getting to the point where itā€™s not tenable,ā€ Danielson told Yahoo Sports Uncrowned ahead of Saturday’s AEW WrestleDream event. ā€œEven when I started [with] AEW, we knew this was going to be the trajectory ā€” Iā€™m going to sign this contract and itā€™s going to be the last wrestling contract Iā€™ll sign.ā€

Where would you rate Bryan Danielons’s win at AEW All in London 2024 on his list of accomplishments? Do you think it was the greatest moment in his pro wrestling career? Let us know in the comments.

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