Despite both being active competitors within AEW at the same time, Bryan Danielson and CM Punk never interacted throughout Punk’s two-year stint in the promotion. The two faced off several times in WWE between 2010 and 2013, most notably clashing over Punk’s WWE Championship throughout 2012 at Over The Limit, No Way Out and Money In The Bank. Their last match together was at Tribute To The Troops 2013 when they teamed up with John Cena to defeat Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan just a few weeks before Punk departed the promotion.
Danielson is now the latest AEW star to give his thoughts on the former AEW World Champion’s unceremonious exit from the company following the backstage incident between Punk and Jack Perry at All In: London. Speaking to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated in a new interview, The American Dragon discussed the impact of Punk’s sudden exit on the promotion and how it may ultimately be an opportunity to bring the roster closer together.
“In any job, when you lose somebody who’s very important, or you lose somebody you really like working with, that’s hard,” said Danielson. “But everyone keeps doing the job. And any time there is loss or controversy or struggle inside an organization, it’s a chance to bring people closer. It’s also a chance to divide people.
So you have this thing where you can use struggle to make your life worse, or you can use struggle to make your life better. When I lost my father, I came out on the backside. I was worse. Struggling with my depression, I’ve come out of it better. So how you approach something and how you learn from something, that’s what makes the difference.”
Danielson recently returned to AEW after being out of action for just over two months with a broken arm which he suffered during his clash with Kazuchika Okada in the main event of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. The former Daniel Bryan looked as fresh as ever when he defeated Ricky Starks in his first match back at All Out and is now looking ahead to his AEW WrestleDream bout against NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr.