Bryan Danielson says he’s still winging it as a commentator in AEW.
Former WWE and AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson competed in his final match at WrestleDream 2024. In September 2025, he transitioned to being a full-time color commentator for Dynamite and pay-per-view events.
While fans believe he’s been doing a good job, Bryan Danielson explained why he remains overly critical of his abilities as a commentator during his recent interview with Justin Barrasso of Undisputed.
“A lot of times, I still think I’m rotten,” said Danielson with a laugh–though it is no joke that he is his own harshest critic. “It’s hard to gauge the show in terms of what worked and didn’t when I’m doing commentary. I do the show and then I watch it back, and I’m getting advice from a lot of talented people.
“In a sense, doing commentary, it is like wrestling,” said Bryan Danielson. “There is an exhilaration to it. I love whenever I get the chance to work with Excalibur, Taz, or Tony Schiavone. The whole experience, it’s fun. So I enjoy the feeling of doing it. Then I go and rewatch and listen, which is similar to what I did as a wrestler. I’m not where I want to be. I’m also giving myself some grace–almost everyone else in that position has been trained and I’m winging it.”
Bryan Danielson Reveals The Only AEW Match He Was Nervous For
During a recent appearance on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Bryan Danielson revealed he was nervous before his match against Kazuchika Okada at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023.
“Shawn Michaels told us — because I was trained by Shawn Michaels — he told the whole class, ‘The day that you stop being nervous before you go out there is the day you need to retire,’ right?
“When I came back from being forced to retire, I thought that for that first match I’d be nervous, and I wasn’t. I was just happy. And I never really got nervous before a match again,” Bryan Danielson said.
“There was one match where I was nervous, and that was the match I had with Okada at Forbidden Door in 2023. The only reason I was nervous was because it was a five-hour show, we were on last, and we had to follow Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay. I had watched that match and I was like, ‘Oh no.’ And then there were still two more matches before me and Okada had to go out there. I was like, ‘Oh.’ I was stressed. But that’s the only time I remember being nervous before a match.”
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