Bryan Danielson wants to move away from the spotlight after he has retired from wrestling.
The 43-year-old will be putting his career on the line when he challenges Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Title at Sunday’s All In event. Bryan has previously revealed that his contract with the company has already expired, so there is a lot of chatter about what he plans to do after the show.
Tony Khan has stated multiple times that he would love for Danielson to stick around in whatever role he sees fit. For someone as knowledgeable as the wrestling veteran, there are a lot of career opportunities even if he chooses to never wrestle again.
During a recent interview with TMZ Sports, fellow WWE alumni Dean Muhtadi asked the AEW star about his plans after his retirement. Bryan explained that a lot of options have been presented to him, but he isn’t interested in any of them:
“So I don’t know. I’ve had people want me to do lots of things and I don’t really want to do any of them. I’d really like to just disappear. At least from the public eye.
What I’d really like to do is help with the community, help with…like be involved in my kids’ lives. As far as like my wife got to coach our son’s t-ball team last year, I’d love to be able to do that this year. Those sorts of things. Those are the kind of things that I’m putting focus and priority on.
I’d Like To Just Retreat Into The Forest: Bryan Danielson
Bryan Danielson then revealed an interesting conversation he had with fellow BCC member Claudio Castagnoli, while also discussing the downsides of being in the spotlight:
“Claudio had just mentioned to me on Wednesday when we were driving back to our hotel after Dynamite, he goes, ‘You know, Bryan, whenever you’re done, I kind of hope I never see you again.’ What he meant by that, and then he added later, he was like, ‘I mean I’d love to come visit you at your house, like far away from everybody, but I kind of hope that that’s it.’
Because I think he kind of knows that that’s what I want. You know what I mean it’s to kind of disappear. There’s definitely benefits to being in the spotlight but then there’s also a lot of trade-offs. I think sometimes if you experience mental health issues and stuff like that, being in the spotlight isn’t necessarily a good thing.
So yeah, I’d like to just kind of retreat into the forest. I don’t watch a lot of TV but I vaguely remember Homer Simpson, he’s in the bushes and he just slowly disappears out, right. That’s me but into the woods.”
AEW All In will be coming live from the Wembley stadium in London. International viewers can check out local start times and other details for the show here.
