During the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, AEW’s Bryan Danielson spoke on transitioning to commentary and some of the challenges, why he signed with AEW and if Brie will return to the ring.
On making the move from being in the ring to commentary:
“It’s been interesting because I wasn’t anticipating being a commentator. So I was at home, and then they asked me to come in because Taz was getting shoulder surgery, and to come and help out a little bit. But traveling has been difficult for me. That’s one of the things I didn’t expect, because I’ve traveled my entire adult life. It’s no big deal. But with my neck as bad as it is, all of a sudden, it was almost, gosh. It was like eight or nine months where I was only traveling maybe once a month. I’d go to the pay-per-views and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, the weekly travel has been a lot, and it’s just been made sleeping hard and that sort of thing.”
On having to sit on the plane and traveling from city to city:
“It’s also just lugging luggage around. So I typically just have a carry-on in a backpack, or whatever it is. But then it’s like being uncomfortable in the chair. I’ve made some adjustments, so I have a cervical pillow now that I travel with me, because for a while I was just sleeping with one of those hand towels underneath my neck, just so it’s not being pushed up or anything like that. But it’s impossible. I live on the West Coast, and then I also live an hour and a half to two hours from the airport, so it’s impossible for all these cross-country flights to stay in good posture the whole time, that kind of stuff. And then, heaven forbid, I fall asleep and I do this, and then I wake up like, oh no, I can’t feel my hand.”
On preparing for commentary as opposed to preparing for an actual match:
“It’s way different. From a performer’s perspective, I really just need to know what my match is, what they’d like for a finish, how much time you’ve got, and then it’s like, okay. Then you talk with your opponent, whatever it is, and then it’s the physical preparation. I would take 30 to 45 minutes to warm up for a match. I learned that from Randy Orton. Randy Orton was the best guy at warming up in WWE. He would do all these things, and if he had to do something on short notice, he’d get pissed. He’s like, ‘I don’t have time to do my shoulder routine’, or whatever. Just think of how many matches Randy’s done. His entire career has been in WWE, and during that time where they’re doing tons of live events every year and all that kind of stuff, so his body’s been through a lot. So he prepared it, and I would see it, and I had my own 10 to 15 minute warm-up. But then as I’ve got older, it became much more like, Okay, I need 30 to 45 minutes to warm up. So yeah. But now from a commentator perspective, I tend to go around and talk to people about their matches. I tend to be in Tony’s office trying to understand what the main story is that we’re trying to tell throughout a match, or whatever it is, and then I write a bunch of notes. This is the thing, with most things, you write a bunch of notes, most of them you don’t ever use. But there have been times where I’ve sat there and Excalibur asked me a question, and I just go like this [blank face]. So I found out I was doing full-time commentary while I was doing a media tour of Australia, I found out it was like, ‘Okay, starting this Wednesday…’ And I was like, Oh no, I have to get from Brisbane, Australia all the way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then I have to do commentary and all this kind of stuff. I was so jet lagged and tired when I got [there], there were a couple times during that, obviously Taz and Excalibur carried the bulk of the thing. There was one time Excalibur asked me a question, and I just went like this. I didn’t even say, ‘Er?’ And then Excalibur just goes, ‘Well, Taz?’ But it’s been good and fun. Commentary is a skill, so it’s something that you have to learn. I’ve been really lucky and grateful to have Taz and Excalibur and then Tony. I asked Tony Schiavone when he’s not busy backstage, and he’s super busy, and said, Can you give me some tips? Because it’s not something that I’m naturally good at.”
The reason he signed with AEW:
“Yeah. Also the idea of wanting to try something new, I always kind of wanted to push myself. I knew it was probably the last wrestling contract I’d ever sign. I had watched Cody wrestle Penta, and I used to ride with Cody. They’re both standing on the top and Cody did this top rope Frankensteiner I was like is that what you have to do? Part of it is scary, and part of it is intriguing, like, Oh, can I do this? I used to be able to do this style. Can I still do this style? The style that I gravitate towards is a more athletic, sports-based style, so I wanted to see that. There was also the idea at the time, the pandemic was just kind of ending, and we’re starting to do live shows again. I didn’t know if WWE was going to start doing the live events and stuff again, because at that point we had two kids, and I was like, I don’t want to do that schedule anymore. At AEW, it’s just Wednesdays. At the time, it was just Wednesdays. And I was like, that was a very appealing schedule to me, for my family. And then I also wanted to see if my body could still do some of these things. Some of it could, and some of it couldn’t. You learn that the hard way.”
If we will see Brie Bella return:
“Yeah, only in certain contexts. She doesn’t want to come back and do a singles run or anything like that. If she comes back, she would want to do it with Nicole. But I think there’s something in her too, and I can appreciate this, because our kids see her as just a mom, just a mom, as if that isn’t the hardest job in the world. Part of her, I think, has a desire to have the kids see her in that light too. I didn’t realize it until later, how amazing my mom was, right in the sense of, okay, we didn’t have any money. She was a single mom. She was working two jobs, going to college. I don’t know if it was my junior year or senior year of high school. She was going on a walk with a friend, and she just collapsed from exhaustion. She had to be taken to the hospital, to the emergency room. She was somebody who probably needed food stamps, but we lived in a small town, she didn’t want to [use them], she was ashamed. She didn’t want to go to the grocery store and pay with food stamps, all these sorts of things. My mom is also an inspiration to me. She went to college, got her master’s degree in psychology, and ended up working with underprivileged kids. She worked with the Native Americans. She worked in the prison. She got attacked in a prison being in a room with an inmate. You think about that, and you think of like, okay, I grew up knowing I was loved. Which is like, okay, Brie and I can fail at everything else in this life, but if we let our kids know that they’re loved. But all of that to say, I don’t understand how my mom did it. Now I’m in amazement, right? Because financially, we’re doing okay. We didn’t have any of the financial stressors that my mom had, and she still made a lot of time for us and like I said, made us know that we were loved. With Brie, this whole mom thing, one day our kids will realize what a great mom she is. But it’s fun to see when they don’t appreciate it. So it’s like, I was FaceTiming her and the kids this morning, and then just our son being as wild as he is, and then our daughter and part of me, but you never say that as a parent. You never say, “Do you realize how much I’m doing for you?””
Danielson also talks more about his neck issues, that he is not really fully retired, his first WWE contract, his quick loss to Sheamus, the Yes! movement and more.
Click in the X post below to listen to entire interview.
All quotes are courtesy of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.