AEW World Championship challenger Bryan Danielson has said it would be “incredible” to compete in the G1 Climax.
In an interview with Raj Prashad of UPROXX, Danielson stated that it would be a “dream” to take part in the iconic New Japan Pro Wrestling tournament, especially with some of his AEW friends.
He was realistic, however, about the chances of being allowed a month away from AEW television. He commented:
I don’t know because that requires Tony (Khan) to allow me to be off of TV for four weeks or whatever. You have to look at it from a Tony investment point of view, right? Does he really want somebody like me who is older to go through that many hard matches, be off of TV for four weeks, and potentially get injured? Probably not.
Turning to who he would like to travel to Japan with, he added:
Although, I do have a dream that me, Mox and Claudio [Castagnoli] and maybe Eddie Kingston, just so we have somebody to pick on, would all be able to go do one G1 together, because that would be just so much fun.
To go do those incredible matches, but do it with your friends so that you all have this experience together. I think that would be incredible.
Now, if you’re asking me if Tony is going to let me go do a G1 and is it a smart move for him? Probably not, but the odds of him letting me do it, I would say a 33 percent chance. The odds of him letting me, Mox, and Claudio all be gone for a month off of TV, an astronomically small percentage, but I haven’t even talked to him about it.
Elsewhere in the interview, Danielson spoke about the chance to become the face of All Elite Wrestling by winning the title at AEW Revolution from MJF this coming Sunday. He said:
The AEW World Championship is the centerpiece of the promotion. You can’t say that about every wrestling company in the world, but you can say that about AEW. That’s why guys like Jon Moxley have been considered the man in AEW for the last couple years, Kenny (Omega), a little bit after that. When you’re the champion, you’re the one in charge of carrying the company. And it would be … for really the first time since I was in Ring of Honor that I’d get the opportunity to do that.
Despite main-eventing WrestleMania 30 as a fan favorite, he also commented that he “was never the guy” in WWE:
After WrestleMania 30, when I had won the championship and just main evented WrestleMania, they had a meeting with me where it was like, “Okay, what we’d really like is to do is to set this other guy up to be the guy.”
I literally just main evented WrestleMania, and you’re already telling me directly — and I actually appreciated that — that you don’t see me as the guy. That’s good for me because (I knew) this is what I have to overcome if I want to be that.
I never got there in WWE as far as being the company’s guy. When Ric Flair talked about to be the man, you gotta beat the man. In AEW, that’s really how it is. To be the man, you’ve gotta be the AEW World Champion.
