Bryan Danielson’s surprising reason for skipping John Cena’s farewell year in WWE
WWE (https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe)
When he wrestled as Daniel Bryan, he was nearly like a brother-in-law. Here’s why he hasn’t watched Cena’s retirement arc…
Dec 9, 2025, 10:10 PM UTC
WWE
Sean Rueter (https://www.cagesideseats.com/authors/sean-rueter) has spent more time than most thinking about pro wrestling, dating back to WrestleMania I, and has been blogging for SBNation & Cageside Seats since around WrestleMania 28.
In a fresh interview with Justin Barrasso (https://undisputed.substack.com/), Bryan Danielson was asked about his colleague, former roommate, and nearly-brother-in-law, John Cena.
The two shared the ring many times — Daniel Bryan even defeated Cena for his first WWE title — but they weren’t sworn rivals. Yet given how intertwined their lives were before Danielson joined AEW in 2021, one might have expected him to tune in to Cena’s retirement run. He’s always shown curiosity about Cena’s journey, and it would be natural to compare it to his own path, or to see Cena face AJ Styles in Australia a few months ago.
But Danielson is a one-of-a-kind character. A deep thinker who also finds humor in crude jokes (yes, that line of thinking is part of his charm). That lens colors his response to Barrasso’s question about Cena:
“I honestly haven’t watched. I’m entering this experimental phase of my life where I’m intentionally consuming less media. On a recent 13-hour drive to visit my mother, I didn’t listen to music, I didn’t listen to podcasts. It was all silence. The only times there wasn’t silence were when my wife called, I joined an AEW call, or I spoke to my mom.
“As I experiment with reduced input, that also means less wrestling content. So I haven’t seen any of John Cena’s final year. I’m not watching, but I genuinely hope it goes incredibly well for John. That guy deserves a phenomenal last year of his career.”
Many people are looking to cut down screen time, but a 13-hour stretch of silence takes it to another level.
Anyway—that’s Bryan Danielson’s reason for not watching Cena’s final WWE year.
Note: Randy Orton cashed in moments later to take the belt from Cena, though Cena briefly held it at SummerSlam 2013.
