NJPW chats with Danielson ahead of Wrestle Kingdom.
One of the bouts on the marquee for Wrestle Kingdom 18 on January 4th is the singles rematch between Bryan Danielson and Kazuchika Okada. The two talents last went one-on-one at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II and during the bout, Danielson suffered a broken arm and finished the match.
With a week left to go before Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan rolled out their sit-down interview with Danielson. He shared that he still does not have full strength in his arm because he came back too early from the injury he suffered in the match against Okada.
And because I wrestled for another 10 minutes with a broken arm and because I fought through, I couldn’t hold my son for two months. I still don’t have full strength in my right arm, because I did come back a little bit early, because I come back when people need me to come back…
In the interview, Danielson reflected on the time he spent with New Japan early in his career. He remembers there being a point when he stopped getting booked.
He wondered what he had to do to get back to NJPW, but said here he is almost 20 years later and is about to compete inside the Tokyo Dome.
I’m really excited. So New Japan, when I started wrestling, that’s where I always wanted to be. When I envisioned myself as a professional wrestler, I didn’t envision myself being a big star in the United States. What I really wanted to do was go (and) be a big star in Japan. The idea of being able to go wrestle in Japan with the best wrestlers in the world in a wrestling style that I like most, that was really appealing to me and then — and I don’t know what happened. I was training at the Inoki Dojo and I was going regularly on tours. I went on like eight tours in 2004 for New Japan and me and Curry Man had won the IWGP Junior Championships as a tag team and then all of a sudden, I just stopped getting booked and it was really, really frustrating and for a long time, I was like, ‘What do I gotta do to get back to New Japan?’ And here we are, almost 20 years later. I’m going to Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome.
Prior to Wrestle Kingdom, Danielson is going to be facing Eddie Kingston in the Blue League final of the Continental Classic tournament.
The winner of that match will meet the winner of the Gold League final three-way between Jon Moxley, Jay White and Swerve Strickland. AEW Worlds End on December 30th will host the championship match between the two league winners.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the original source with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
