Bryan Danielson is ready to break Kazuchika Okada‘s arm.
It’s no secret that “The American Dragon” is winding down his full-time career. However, his 2023 was interrupted by a fractured orbital bone at the hands of Okada’s signature Rainmaker. In a recent sit-down interview with NJPW, Danielson explained what’s going on in his mind ahead of his rematch against Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 18.
“You get in the ring with him and you realize he’s better than what you saw, and that brings out a fire inside of me to be better than I am on a normal day,” Danielson said. “That’s what Wrestle Kingdom’s going to be because when you’re wrestling Okada, not only do you have to be better than you normally are, now there’s a little bit — gosh, I hate to even say a little bit — there’s a lot of resentment and a lot of borderline hatred.
“I hate to even use that word because I am in the twilight of my wrestling career. And Okada, on his own, has taken away over three months of that. In the last year of my full-time pro wrestling career, he’s taken away three months! And when you want to talk about ‘fighting spirit’ and you wanna talk about ‘strong style,’ I don’t know if there’s a better example than breaking your arm and tapping out Okada on the same night when nobody’s tapped out Okada since 2015.
“After doing that and because I wrestled for another 10 minutes with a broken arm and because I fought through, I couldn’t hold my son for two months. I still don’t have full strength in my right arm because I did come back a little bit early, because I come back when people need me to come back.”
Danielson recalled getting in the ring with Okada again and that’s when a Rainmaker caused two fractures in his left orbital bone. Due to blurred vision, he wasn’t able to drive his children to school. While he’s often motivated by his fighting spirit in the squared circle, Danielson’s life is also motivated by his daughter and son. Now, he has one goal in mind for his anticipated return to the Tokyo Dome.
“I’m going to break Okada’s right arm,” Danielson declared. “Then we’re going to see how good he is because the true test of how good somebody is, you take away their best weapon and then you see how good they are. You can take away my arm, you can take away my eye, and I’m still better than 99.9% of the wrestlers on planet Earth. Okada, I’m going to break your arm and take away your best weapon and let’s see if you’re even in the top 50%.”
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit NJPW with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
