Bryan Danielson’s AEW World Championship Win at All In | WWE News

Bryan Danielson secured his first title in AEW on Sunday night at All In, emerging victorious over Swerve Strickland to claim the AEW World Championship. However, reports indicate that Danielson had no personal desire to hold the title. According to “Fightful Select,” Danielson was firmly against the idea of becoming a champion in AEW, but AEW CEO Tony Khan managed to persuade him to take on the role.It was reported that Khan was particularly eager for the pay-per-view to conclude with a triumphant image of Danielson holding the championship belt high in celebration. This desire was so strong that there were lighthearted discussions backstage about staging a “reverse Montreal Screwjob” scenario to ensure the outcome.
The report also clarified that the widely speculated Strickland vs. Will Ospreay match was never a part of AEW’s plans. Instead, the Strickland-Danielson main event had been penciled in as early as April. Within AEW, there is a belief that Ospreay will have his chance to main event at Wembley Stadium in the future. At All In 2024, Ospreay was indeed on the card, where he delighted his fellow countrymen by defeating MJF to regain the AEW International Championship.

With this victory, Danielson joins an elite group of wrestlers, including Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, and CM Punk, who have held both WWE and AEW world titles. Earlier this year, Danielson publicly stated that he had no interest in holding any title in AEW, as he preferred to focus on elevating younger talent. He cited the title reigns of MJF and “Hangman” Adam Page as examples of what he hoped to achieve by stepping aside.
The storyline leading into Danielson’s match against Strickland at All In was that it could be his final match in professional wrestling. The stipulation for the match was that if Danielson lost, he would retire from wrestling. In the lead-up to the pay-per-view in London, Danielson explained that his desire to retire stemmed from a wish to spend more time with his family, especially his two young children.

Bryan Danielson Discusses Why He Hasn’t Held the AEW World Championship

Bryan Danielson was one of the first high-profile wrestlers to leave WWE and join AEW in 2021, where he quickly became a key figure in the promotion. Despite participating in numerous high-profile matches on major events, Danielson has yet to capture a title in AEW. This has sparked some concern among fans who followed his career in WWE and ROH, especially after his eight unsuccessful attempts to win gold. During a recent SXSW Panel, Danielson addressed his future in wrestling, noting that while he doesn’t see his career ending soon, another title run is not his primary goal.
“I don’t use the R-word [retire], I already had to do that once and I don’t want to do it again. I want to leave it open to wrestle when I’m 75 if I so choose,” he said. “One of the things I loved about AEW, and just the idea of it, is that it made the pro wrestling industry healthier. So, when I look at that, how do I make this industry that I love, that I’ve loved since I was a child, healthier? And the idea is to pass on what stardom I have been given, to try and pass it on to the younger wrestlers.”
Danielson also directly responded to the criticism that he should have a title run, stating, “No, the champions we’ve had have been great. ‘Hangman’ was a great champion. MJF was a great champion. It elevated these younger people, to now, these people are stars … It would be easy to just take stars of the past and make them your champion and make them your top guy, that’s the easy way. It’s much harder to take somebody like MJF, who had not been on national television, and turn him into a star that draws ratings. That was my bigger goal, to transfer stardom from one generation to another.”