Big AEW Star Reportedly Working Through an Injury

AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling will hold their much anticipated Forbidden Door pay-per-view this Sunday, and the event will include a number of dream matches for long-time wrestling fans. One such match will feature Bryan Danielson taking on Kazuchika Okada, and that will be Danielson’s first one on one match since his Iron Man match at AEW Revolution in March. A new report from Fightful Select indicates that Danielson’s been working through some injuries, describing him as banged up, which is why he’s been less involved in the ring as of late.

There were some spots that were limited in the Anarchy in the Arena match as a result of working through an injury, and while he has been involved in a number of brawls and in-ring segments, he’s avoided contact in most of them. He’s also been more involved on commentary during Blackpool Combat Club matches, and this seems to have been done so that he could compete at Forbidden Door.

Danielson has recently taken a bigger role in AEW creative as well, including in regards to AEW’s newest show AEW Collision. At the media scrum for Double or Nothing, Danielson was asked about his involvement with creative and how he and Khan bounced ideas off of each other (H/T Wrestling Inc).

“I love working with Tony and I love working in AEW,” Danielson said. “It’s a lot of fun because, sometimes, before I even got here, Tony and I would talk on the phone sometimes for an hour-and-a-half to two hours and we’d just be talking about things and wrestling and that sort of thing. I think we have a lot of similar ideas on wrestling, and sometimes he says things to me and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a great idea,’ and we riff off each other really well. When we do it, it doesn’t feel like work. When you love wrestling, stuff like that is fun.”

Part of what makes working in AEW so fun for Danielson is all the young talent he gets a chance to work with. “To see them grow, in the year and a half I’ve been here, is so rewarding,” Danielson said. “Also, I’ve never been at a place where the company has so much heart for the wrestlers – and that is so meaningful and makes me feel so grateful for this place.”

Forbidden Door is just a few days away, and you can find the full card for the event below.

• IWGP United States Championship: Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay
• Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson
• AEW World Championship: MJF vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Sanada vs. “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
• AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Garcia
• Owen Hart Cup: CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima
• AEW Women’s World Championship: Toni Storm vs. Willow Nightingale
• Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta), Konosukta Takeshita & Shota Umino vs. The Elite (Hangman Page & The Young Bucks), Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii
• Sting, Darby Allin & TBA vs. Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki
• Owen Hart Cup: Athena vs. Billie Starkz (Zero Hour)

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door starts at 8 PM EST on Sunday, June 25th.