Bryan Danielson and Kazuchika Okada had a thrilling match at the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view, which lived up to the hype in more ways than one. Unfortunately, Danielson didn’t make it out of the match 100%, as he revealed in the press scrum after the event that he suffered a fractured forearm with about 10 minutes left in the match. Medical trainers said they expect him to be out six-to-eight weeks, and today Danielson’s wife Brie Garcia revealed the injury was worse than they thought. She shared an x-ray of the injury on social media, which shows a large break in the bone.
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It’s a significant fracture, and in the post, she also added that she’s not sure if she should be proud of him for wrestling for the last 10 minutes with it or upset that he kept going. On social media, Brie wrote, “Not sure to be proud or chastise him for wrestling 10 more minutes with this break!! Definitely worse than we thought!!”
It’s unclear if he’ll be out for more than the estimated six to eight weeks, but the first event he’d be able to be back for would be All In. All In takes place in August, where he could end up facing Zack Sabre Jr. or Will Ospreay. There’s a chance he might not be recovered in time, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
In the media scrum, Danielson said the injury was a freak accident, as when Okada landed an elbow drop Danielson didn’t have his arm in a safe spot. Danielson’s actually been banged up since the 60-minute Iron Man Match against MJF. That’s why the only match he’s really been a part of has been the Anarchy in the Arena at Double or Nothing, but even then he was more protected. Those injuries weren’t going to keep him from facing Okada though.
“I wanted this match for so long without ever thinking it was a possibility. I started watching him while I was in WWE, but there was no place to go work where that match would ever be possible. Then AEW started. That’s why this is so special to me. I wanted it for so long, and it’s now actually going to happen,” Danielson told Sports Illustrated.
Fans got a welcome surprise before Danielson and Okada’s match even started, as Danielson’s original Final Countdown music hit during his entrance. During the media scrum, Danielson talked about bringing the music back and why it hasn’t been used more, and it just comes down to financials.
“Tony and I talked about a couple of things,” Danielson said. “We had talked about ‘The Final Countdown,’ but that was way too expensive,” he said. “I hate talking business stuff when I don’t exactly know what it was, but it wasn’t just the amount of money. They would only let [AEW] play it like 20 times a year or something like that. For several $100,000 you can play ‘Final Countdown’ 20 times a year. That doesn’t work for us. I had kind of wanted something a bit different, so I reached out to my friend, Elliott Taylor, and said ‘Hey, here’s an idea. But I don’t know if it’s any good. Could you do something like this?’ He dropped everything. I think he’s done 72 hours in the studio and made the song that I come out to now, which I think he’s also going to do a full-length release because it actually has like two chorus lyrics.”
We wish Danielson a speedy recovery and let us know what you thought of the Danielson vs Okada match in the comments. You can also talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB.
