Bryan Danielson isn’t worried about legacy, as he focuses on deriving satisfaction from the art of wrestling itself.
The former WWE Champion is renowned as one of the best wrestlers in the world, and he continues to deliver remarkable matches on a regular basis. Danielson has a catalog of five-star matches, but he recently made it clear that he doesn’t focus on them, and he doesn’t intend to once he retires.
Speaking with Cameron Hawkins of The Ringer, Danielson noted that he has no interest in the broad idea of legacy, as he’s not convinced wrestling itself will be around in 50 years.
“I have no interest in legacy in the sense of I’m not even convinced professional wrestling is going to be around in, say, 50 years. And even if it is, I’m not overly concerned with what people think of my wrestling in 50 years’ time.”
Danielson made it clear that, as far as he’s concerned, he’s happy with wrestling itself, rather than putting pressure on himself to sell shows.
“It makes the boss happy when people want to buy the pay-per-views,” Danielson said. “I derive joy from the satisfaction of actually doing it, of the energy that I feel afterward.”
In some ways, “The American Dragon” focuses on the fun aspect of wrestling; he noted that when young talent work with him, he asks them if they enjoyed themselves. He emphasized that wrestling is subjective, so he tries to get the talent to reflect on how matches felt to them.
“One of the things that a lot of the younger guys—and it’s very wise of them to do this, but it’s not necessarily my cup of tea after I’ve wrestled them—they say, ‘Do you have any feedback for me?’ And my thing is, ‘Did you have fun? Did you enjoy?’ Because to me, immediately after a match is not a great time. Especially when I’ve wrestled them. … It’s cultivating the idea, the sense that you can go out and really enjoy what we do, as opposed to about whether it’s good or bad. Wrestling is such a subjective thing. I could watch something and not enjoy it at all, and other people could watch it and think it’s the greatest thing ever. … You see all these social media things about, ‘Oh, these guys don’t know what they’re doing.’ And then the people who love the guys that they just talked about, they’re just like, ‘No, the guys that you like don’t know what they’re doing,’ or, ‘They’re boring,’ or, ‘They’re this or they’re that or whatever.’ And the idea is, it’s not like football, where if you give a running back the ball and he gets 5 yards every single carry, he’s a great running back. … Do people enjoy it?
“Anyway, my thing with the younger talent,” Danielson continued, “is mostly, ‘Hey, did you have fun? Were you able to experience joy out there? How did you feel about the match? Did you feel good about it?’”
Danielson will challenge MJF for the AEW World Championship in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match.
