Bryan was active in the ring while retired.
In early 2016, Bryan Danielson announced that he would have to put his in-ring career on the shelf due to concussion-related issues. It was two years later that Danielson was cleared and began to wrestle on a full-time basis again.
A story from Danielson’s ‘inactive’ period was shared by Mike Rallis a.k.a. Riddick Moss as he was doing a virtual signing for East Coast Autograph Auctions.
He recounted a secret in-ring training session with Bryan Danielson at the WWE Performance Center. Rallis was sworn to secrecy as there was no one else allowed to be at the P.C. when this happened. Rallis could not believe how sharp Danielson was in the ring.
When he was officially retired, I was called into the Performance Center for a secret, a super secret mission and it was to train with him in the ring when no one else was allowed in there and I was sworn to secrecy for that and I just gotta say, that guy is as good as advertised. I couldn’t believe how good he was in the ring… Daniel Bryan (is who I’m talking about). He was just so smooth and everything was exactly where it should be. He was amazing, and so I’ll take credit for his comeback (Rallis laughed).
After defeating Katsuyori Shibata on the 3/16 AEW Collision, Danielson promoted his match against Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty and spoke about being told he’d never be able to wrestle again.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit East Coast Autograph Auctions with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
