Bryan Danielson appears at Arena Mexico ROH: Global Wars taping

Former AEW champion Bryan Danielson made his first on-screen appearance since October of last year during AEW’s Ring of Honor Global Wars taping at Arena Mexico on Wednesday night.

Danielson, whose full-time career in the ring came to a close when he dropped the AEW Championship to Jon Moxley at 2024’s Wrestledream PPV, ran in with other babyfaces to make the save for Blue Panther after his match with Lee Moriarty, where Panther was attacked by Moriarty’s fellow stablemates from Shane Taylor Promotions.

Danielson has long talked of his admiration for Blue Panther, the lucha libre legend. The two men worked together twice last year in Arena Mexico. In March on opposite sides of an 8-man tag match, and then against one another in a singles match in April.

Un momento bastante emotivo entre Blue Panther y Bryan Danielson en la Arena México. pic.twitter.com/oJJiiNc6Jd

The key thing to note from the appearance would be the delivery of his running knee and the subsequent bump taken on his back. In the final months of his career, Danielson was plagued by neck issues that limited how much he could compete. He has spoken in the time since about potential routes to recovery, surgery and stem cells. 

In an interview with Jamal Niaz in April he spoke about how his neck was “wrecked”, and how the chances of him wrestling came down to weighing the risk vs. the reward, and his desire to live a comfortable life with his wife and children, and how he thought enough was maybe enough. 

Still, while last night’s appearance should maybe not cause anyone to get their hopes up too high - it’s taking place on the taped Ring of Honor show rather than live on Dynamite would suggest something less than total committal to the future - what he was willing to do physically has to at least indicate that we’ve not seen the last of The American Dragon in a squared circle.

Or that’s the tease, anyway.

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