Whenever Bryan Danielson suffers an injury in AEW, the fans hold their breath.
Despite being one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Bryan Danielson has had some terrible injuries in the past.
He did eventually return to the ring, signing for AEW in 2021, just months after main eventing WrestleMania 37.
Bryan Danielson has suffered four injuries in AEW so far, causing him to miss some huge matches, and maybe even AEW’s biggest ever show.
1. Concussion
At AEW Double or Nothing 2022, Bryan Danieslon suffered a concussion during the Anarchy in the Arena match.
With his history of concussions (he was forced to retire in the WWE due to head issues), fans and wrestlers alike were very weary of his condition.
He feared himself he would have to retire, and the planned Zack Sabre Jr vs Bryan Danielson match at the first Forbidden Door show was cancelled as a result.
Luckily, the debuting Claudio Castagnolu was on hand to replace him, while Danielson made a full recovery and was not forced to retire again.
2. Torn Labrum
At some point in his 60-minute Iron Man match at AEW Revolution, Bryan Danielson came down with a torn labrum.
The details of the injury were not revealed, although it was reported that he could not lift his left arm following the event.
The labrum is a cartilage in the shoulder, and deeply affects mobility if torn. The injury kept him out of the ring until Double or Nothing 2023, although his first real wrestling match was against Kazcuhika Okada at Forbidden Door.
While speaking on the Unconsciously Coupled podcast, Danielson revealed that he couldn’t lift his left arm after the match, showing just how bad the tear was.
“Legitimately, I’m in a ton of pain. I just wrestled for over 65 minutes. I’ve got a black eye. I can’t lift my left arm past here [partially raises arm]. I have shooting pain going down my leg.“
“There’s this big gaping wound on my stomach. Those kind of things, it’s like, ‘Oh, sorry, daddy is in a lot of pain.’ They understand that, but as they get older, they’re going to understand that some of this is not physical,” Danielson said.
3. Compressed Vertebrae
Bryan Danielson revealed that he suffered some compressed vertebrae during his match with MJF at AEW Revolution 2023.
It is unknown where in the match this injury happened, but he did not wrestle a real match until some months later.
In the Forbidden Door post-show media scrum, Bryan Danielson also confirmed that he suffered compressed vertebrae during his hour-long draw with MJF.
“Revolution after the Iron Man match with Max, I had a torn labrum and some compressed vertebrae, you know, the usual wrestler stuff. But don’t worry, I’m fine. We just decided to take precautionary measures.” Danielson said.
4. Broken Arm
The most recent injury Bryan Danielson has had in AEW was a broken arm at Forbidden Door.
During the AEW Forbidden Door main event, Bryan Danieslon broke his arm 10 minutes before the end of the match.
The dream match was spoiled by the injury, which happened from an elbow drop by Okada onto Danielson.
The American Dragon went on to win the match, forcing Okada to tap out to a modified LaBelle lock, owing to Danielson having no use of his broken arm.
He revealed the fractur in the Forbidden Door media scrum, with doctors giving him an 8-week recovery time.
I was planning to wrestle on Wednesday this week. I don’t think that’s going to happen because, in this match specifically, we think I fractured my right forearm with about 10 minutes left to go.
The AEW doctors think it’s going to be six to eight weeks for this specific injury.