With a career spanning more than two decades across WWE, AEW, and the independent scene, Bryan Danielson has faced some of the biggest names in professional wrestling.
In a recent interview with Nick Stav, Danielson was asked to name his wrestling “soul mates” — the opponents he feels most connected to inside the ring.
Danielson admitted it was difficult to narrow his list down, as he has had “so many great experiences with people,” but he highlighted several names from both AEW and WWE.
From his current run in AEW, Danielson singled out “Hangman” Adam Page, Jon Moxley, Nigel McGuinness, and Claudio Castagnoli. “So during my time in AEW, Hangman Page, which, you know, like, I just think the world of him, he’s fantastic,” Danielson said. “The second one would be Moxley… This person, Nigel McGuinness, we only had one match in AEW, but as far as my career in its entirety, like he was so much of how I became the wrestler I became today. And then the other AEW person is Claudio. Claudio is similar to Nigel, except we wrestled each other more in AEW… I wrestled him in Ring of Honor, and all these different types of things. I just think he’s fantastic.”
When reflecting on his time in WWE, Danielson named Randy Orton and AJ Styles as two of his favorite opponents, with special praise for Orton. “And then from a WWE perspective, the two guys that I like that I really love. I mean, there’s more than two guys. I love wrestling. There’s so many guys. But like I said, Randy Orton is one of my favorite. I mean, he’s just incredible… From a wrestler’s perspective, he’s just incredible. Then AJ Styles.”
Danielson is now retired from full-time competition, but his respect for his greatest opponents makes clear just how much they helped shape his legendary career.
Fans can hear the full interview below.
