AEW Star Bryan Danielson Explains Why He's Ready To Retire

For a man who was once forced into early retirement, it's hard to imagine Bryan Danielson wanting to hang up his wrestling boots for good. However, that might become a reality if he loses his upcoming AEW World Championship match against Swerve Strickland at AEW All In on August 25, where Danielson will call time on his career if he doesn't leave Wembley Stadium as the champion.

Despite the match having such high stakes, Danielson is at peace with the idea of retiring, to the point where he revealed on his wife Brie Bella's podcast, "The Nikki and Brie Show," that he is ready to be home. 

"I'm kind of ready to be done," Danielson said. "I'd rather be at home, but ... I don't want to miss out. There's this small portion of our kids' lives where they actually want us there. Soon — and I see it with my friends and my sister and all that kind of stuff — all of a sudden Birdie is going to ... she's seven now, she's going to turn into a teenager and she's going to have other things and she's not going to want daddy there. Now she wants daddy there all the time, and I want to be there for that."

Family isn't the only reason Danielson is ready to retire as he has suffered several injuries throughout his career and knows that his body can't keep going forever. As much as he can't imagine the past 25 years without wrestling, he can imagine the next 25 without it. 

"My body's broken down. The odds are I'm probably going to have neck surgery before the end of the year, so I've got all those kinds of things," said the AEW star.

Please credit "The Nikki and Brie Show" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.