Bryan Danielson's retirement is not permanent, says WWE legend, anticipates him to return sooner than expected (Exclusive)
Bryan Danielson is set to retire as a full-time wrestler this year. His match at All In 2024 in Wembley Stadium might be his last time inside the squared circle.
At the upcoming AEW's biggest event scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 25, The American Dragon will wrestle Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship in a Title vs. Career match. He has promised that if he loses this weekend, he will never step inside the ring again.
WWE legend Dutch Mantell sat down for a virtual exclusive interview with SP3 and Rick Ucchino on this week's episode of Smack Talk. During the podcast, Mantell was asked to comment on Bryan's upcoming match at All In.
He stated that he feels Bryan Danielson will come out victorious from the match on Sunday. Following that, he will return to television and take on other non-wrestling roles.
"When people say, 'Oh it's my last match. I'm not gonna do anymore.' [It's not permanent]. No kidding. Terry Funk had retirement for 20 years, and Ric Flair. I think he wins. That's gonna be a pretty good crowd and I don't think they want to be disappointed. I think he wins and he'll come back to do TV or something. That's what'll happen," Mantell said. [58:58 onwards]
Potential spoiler on Bryan Danielson vs. Swerve Strickland match at All In
In a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, veteran journalist Dave Meltzer shared that Bryan Danielson might defeat Swerve Strickland at All In. He stated that when the match idea was pitched months ago, it was decided to put Bryan over Swerve.
“Put it this way, when it was originally told the scenario, and this was months and months and months ago, it was Danielson winning then,” Meltzer said.
As mentioned above, the decision to crown the former Daniel Bryan winner was taken way before, and a lot could have changed since then. So the chances of Bryan winning are still 50-50, as AEW could have changed the original plan.