Bryan Danielson isn’t completely closing the door on a potential in-ring return, but the physical toll of his current schedule has forced him to be realistic about what his body can handle. Since September 2025, Danielson has been traveling weekly after joining the AEW Dynamite commentary team on a full-time basis.
While Danielson has enjoyed his new role behind the desk, the demands of constant travel have aggravated ongoing neck issues. Speaking with Undisputed, Danielson explained that before resuming a full-time travel schedule, he had briefly entertained the idea of wrestling a small number of matches per year. That mindset has since changed.
“The traveling is so hard on my neck,” Danielson said. “Once I started traveling again, I went back to sleeping four-and-a-half hours a night. There was a point around Forbidden Door [last August] that I had delusions of wrestling a couple matches a year. After traveling for commentary, I don’t see how it would be possible. And that’s without bumps.”
Danielson revealed that sleep disruption has been a recurring issue since his match with Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty 2024, with neck pain frequently waking him after just a few hours of rest. He credited Adam Copeland for helping him find relief by recommending a physical therapist earlier in 2025.
“In April of 2025, Adam Copeland sent me to his physical therapist. He said the guy was a miracle worker. This guy worked on me for two days in a row, six hours each day,” Danielson explained. “After the first night, I slept nine hours straight. After the second night, I slept eight hours straight. After that, I was sleeping seven or eight hours almost every night. That’s a game changer for how you feel.”
However, once Danielson returned to weekly travel duties, those improvements became harder to maintain. The former AEW World Champion officially ended his full-time in-ring career in October 2024, and while he hopes to avoid surgery, he remains cautiously open to the idea of wrestling again under the right circumstances. “I don’t close it off. Maybe… The traveling itself is so taxing, so I don’t know. We’ll see,” he stated.
For now, Danielson continues to focus on his commentary role while carefully weighing what—if anything—comes next in his wrestling career.
