Bryan Danielson recently appeared as a guest on The Nikki & Brie Show for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, "The American Dragon" spoke about getting injured at AEW & NJPW: The Forbidden Door 2 as the reason he won't be competing at AEW ALL IN 2023 on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
"He did an elbow drop to me off the top rope," he said. "It ended up breaking my arm. I wrestled another ten minutes with a broken arm, which the doctor said made it worse. That said, I find a certain joy in doing things that are hard. Even though it probably caused me a little bit more damage, I got more value out of it that it happened versus if it had not happened. Even though, if I could take it back, I would wish my arm never got broken and that I’d be able to wrestle at All In in Wembley, it’s going to be one of the biggest wrestling crowds in history, and I don’t get to take part in it because my arm is still healing."
Danielson would go on to explain what he actually enjoyed about getting his arm broken against Japanese legend Kazuchika Okada at The Forbidden Door 2 show.
"Despite that, and I wouldn’t ask for my arm to be broken if I could do it over again, but because it did happen and I couldn’t control it, it almost gave more meaning to how I felt about the match itself," he said. "Also, I did a press conference with my broken arm. We didn’t know how bad it was at the time. I do this a lot with fasting, and there are a lot of health benefits to fasting, when you put yourself in an uncomfortable position or you do something and it’s uncomfortable and you keep doing it, it’s not like, ‘yay, I did it.’ It’s ‘can I do this?’ For example, while fasting or wrestling with a broken arm, can I do this and keep a good attitude while being in pain, while being starving? Those are things I think to myself when things are happening. That’s one of the matches I really like if I’m looking back on something versus experiencing something in the moment. I enjoyed that match with Okada."
Check out the complete interview at Stitcher.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
