Kazuchika Okada and Bryan Danielson headlined Forbidden Door on Sunday night, but Danielson’s night, despite winning, ended in disappointment when he fractured his arm. He said at the post-show media scrum that the injury will sideline him for 6-8 weeks.
According to Fightful Select (subscription required but recommended), Danielson’s injury forced AEW to make several creative adjustments. They had planned for Danielson to wrestle more on television after Forbidden Door and to be involved in Blood and Guts on July 19 in Boston.
Additionally, Fightful Select reports that people have been praising Danielson for his creative contributions. It was clarified that Tony Khan, not Danielson, was responsible for the Championship Friday episode of AEW Rampage.
Instead, Danielson has been working on the creative for the first few weeks of AEW Collision. He helps in talking to talent about their creative ideas and how to communicate between creative and talent.
While his involvement in Blood and Guts would have amplified the match even more, AEW needs to replace Danielson to team with Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta and Konosuke Takeshita for the already grizzly five vs. five (or six vs. six) match between his Blackpool Combat Club and The Elite. Perhaps it adjusts to four vs. four, but for the chaos of this match, it favors more wrestlers involved.
No one teased joining the BCC on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, but with three weeks left before Blood and Guts, something might come to fruition.
Danielson’s injury timeline predicts that he will return around the time of All In at Wembley Stadium. If he makes it, he will obviously be a huge draw for the likely star-studded match card.
Otherwise, AEW will miss Danielson unless something else transpires for the Blackpool Combat Club before Blood and Guts. We’ll see how the company handles the injury.