In front of 50,000-plus diehard wrestling fans on Sunday night at Wembley Stadium in London, England, the legendary Bryan Danielson put his illustrious career on the line. Danielson bet on himself, just like he has done for the past 25 years and it paid off in the biggest way. The American Dragon proved that once again, he is the best wrestler in the world by beating Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship at All In.
Danielson joins Jon Moxley, CM Punk and Chris Jericho as the only four wrestlers to win the WWE World Championship and the AEW World Championship. Danielson is the ninth wrestler to hold the AEW World Championship.
In September 2021, Danielson decided to leave WWE after 11 years to go to AEW. Although Danielson was still having success in WWE, where he competed as Daniel Bryan, as he was in the main event at Wrestlemania 37, he wasn’t able to reach the mountain top. Danielson last was WWE champion in 2018-19 but lost his title to Kofi Kingston at Wrestlemania 35.
Before Danielson joined the WWE in 2010, he wrestled for ROH (Ring of Honor), PWG (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla), and Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan among many other places around the world. Danielson then was regarded as one of the best wrestlers in the world before joining the biggest company in the United States, WWE.
Danielson has a daughter, Birdie (7 years old), and a son, Buddy (4 years old) who had never seen their dad wrestle up until this point. On Sunday that changed. For the first time, Birdie and Buddy saw their dad wrestle. They were in the front row at Wembley Stadium with Danielson’s wife, Brie Garcia, who is a WWE Hall of Famer in her own right. During the match, Danielson was constantly looking over to his kids to check on them because this was the first time they had seen their dad in a fight with a bloodied face.
Danielson famously stated during his WWE journey, “If you fight for your dreams, your dreams will fight for you.”
That quote has stayed with Danielson throughout the years, where he has constantly gotten knocked down inside and outside the ring but decided to keep fighting to prove that he is one of the greatest to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. Danielson has suffered several neck injuries and concussions throughout his wrestling career and had to retire from the ring in February 2016. Two years later, WWE doctors finally cleared Danielson for in-ring competition and he made his return at Wrestlemania 34 teaming with Shane McMahon to defeat Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
Danielson walked out to his original entrance music, “The Final Countdown” which he started using during his career in Ring of Honor. Danielson vs. Strickland was the main-event match for AEW’s biggest event on their yearly schedule, All-In. The match lasted 26 minutes and was the perfect mix of story-telling, and big moves. We even saw Danielson get busted open during the contest. Strickland slammed Danielson onto the ring bell which caused him to land on his head.
Danielson was bleeding and it seemed like he had no hope left. Strickland was beating him down and it seemed the end was near for Danielson’s career. But then the crowd helped inspire Danielson to keep fighting and he returned to his feet and hit Strickland with the Busaiku Knee (Running Knee in WWE). Bryan finished Strickland with his signature submission, the LeBell Lock ( Yes Lock in WWE).
AEW returns to Danielson’s home state in Washington on October 12 for their WrestleDream pay-per-view. Danielson’s hometown of Aberdeen is a short 80-mile drive to the Tacoma Dome, the host of the pay-per-view. In the past few months, Danielson has teased his retirement as he put his career on the line for Sunday’s match vs. Strickland, but the perfect storybook ending to his Hall of Fame career would be to end it in his home state of Washington.
I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is ryanwohl) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information
