Danielson on why he won’t win the AEW World title

Bryan Danielson on why he won’t win the AEW World title:

“When I came to AEW, CM Punk had just debuted several weeks before and he had talked about like wanting to help the younger talent. I watched his interview and I was like, ‘That’s what I was gonna say.’

So then they asked me about my goals in AEW, and I was like, ‘ah I’m gonna kick everyone’s heads in. I don’t care about pushing younger guys to the top.’ But that’s actually not the reality. As somebody who’s 42 years old and who has two kids.

One of the things I loved about AEW is that it made the pro wrestling industry healthier. And so when I look at that, how do I make this industry that I loved since I was a child, healthier. The idea is the stardom that I have been given, pass that on to the younger wrestlers.

I’ve had some people say things to me like ‘Bryan you should be champion’ or
‘you should’ve been champion’ or ‘you should’ve this’ or ‘you should’ve that’ and the reality is to me, no.

The champions that we’ve had have been great. Hangman was a great champion. MJF was a great champion and it elevated these younger people. These people are stars.

You put Hangman now on TV, he draws a rating. You put MJF now on TV, he draws a rating. It would be easy to just take stars of the past and make them your champion or your top guy. That’s the easy way. It’s much harder to take somebody like MJF who hadn’t been on national TV and turn him into a star who draws ratings. That was my bigger goal.”