It’s the Fi-nal Count-down!

For a specific generation, just reading those words conjures up memories of big hair, spandex, and synth-rock horns blaring in the late 1980s. For another, those same six syllables bring visions of vicious kicks, flying knees, submission maneuvers, and daring feats inside a wrestling ring.

The lyrics to Europe’s ballad and Bryan Danielson’s iconic theme music share an ironic similarity in that we are rapidly approaching the end of Danielson’s 25-year career as a professional wrestler. When it comes to the AEW World Champion, we quite literally are witnessing a final countdown.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s not tenable,” Danielson told Uncrowned ahead of Saturday's AEW WrestleDream event. “Even when I started [with] AEW, we knew this was going to be the trajectory — I’m going to sign this contract and it’s going to be the last wrestling contract I’ll sign.”

Danielson joined AEW in 2021 after a prolonged and successful career spent in Ring of Honor, on the independent circuit, and in WWE. After reaching the pinnacle of the business during his decade-plus run in WWE and having a “lifetime job” available to him, AEW presented a new opportunity for the beloved star, a chance for the "American Dragon" to return to his roots and turn back the proverbial clock.

“I would say [joining AEW has been] more fulfilling than I imagined,” Danielson said. "Part of it is the wrestling that I have been able to do and the style that I have been able to do."

When AEW burst onto the scene in 2019, it was presented as an alternative product to WWE, tapping more into the independent style of wrestling that almost every performer cuts their teeth practicing when they enter the business. Obviously, the basics are still the same when comparing AEW and WWE, but there are nuanced differences in how the in-ring product is put together and presented.

Part of what makes Danielson extraordinary is his ability to be successful in both environments. He's one of just four stars to hold both WWE and AEW's top men's championships.

“I loved wrestling at WWE and the people at WWE, so this is not a knock on them. They have their playbook, and [Paul “Triple H” Levesque] will talk about this. They send people to NXT because you have to come and learn their playbook, which is very successful. I’ve kind of always liked wrestling under my own playbook and experimenting with different plays. That’s been very rewarding.”

Aside from the stylistic difference, working in AEW has also allowed Danielson to experience life as an independent wrestler again as well.

While the majority of the performers fans see on television are contracted by WWE and AEW, there’s a large portion of the talent pool that jumps from promotion to promotion both domestically and internationally.

In 2024 alone, Danielson had the opportunity to wrestle against Kazuchika Okada and Zack Sabre Jr. on New Japan Pro Wrestling shows, plus team up with Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, and Matt Sydal in a tag match for CMLL in Mexico.

“I was very proud of being an independent wrestler before I was with WWE,” Danielson said. “I liked the idea of my main job being Ring of Honor, but I got to go over to Japan, go to Mexico, Europe, and get to do all these things in fun, different atmospheres. That’s one of the things that was really rewarding for me when I was younger. I had never been to Arena México before, but I got to work Arena México twice this year for CMLL, rather than going down there with AEW.”

Despite the admission that Danielson expected his AEW contract to be his last as a full-time wrestler, a neck injury suffered in a match against Will Ospreay in April seemingly accelerated that timeline. Although the AEW Dynasty match against Ospreay was hailed by critics as an instant classic, Danielson’s future was as murky as ever in the aftermath.

“Physically, I have had my ups and downs,” Danielson said. “I hurt my neck really badly in April in the Ospreay match, and because of circumstances I wasn’t able to get an MRI until May. When that happened, it was questionable if I’d even be able to finish the Owen Hart Tournament [in July].”

Danielson’s health held up and he managed to win the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, earning himself an AEW World Championship match against Swerve Strickland at All In London in August. Prior to the contest, Danielson put forth the stipulation that if he failed to win the championship, he would quit wrestling. Of course, Danielson won in another impressive showing, but he announced shortly after that his career will be over once he loses the AEW World Championship.

Even considering the fly-by-night nature of professional wrestling stipulations, when you add in the touching moment the newly crowned champion shared with his family after the Strickland match, Danielson’s latest self-imposed condition felt like it had a finality to it.

“Emotionally, I’ve stayed pretty level,” Danielson said. “The high point, obviously, for me was All In and winning the title. Having my kids there, it was the first time my son’s ever seen me wrestle live and then they got to get in the ring with me. For kids, sometimes it’s hard to see things through their eyes until you get that little glimpse. My daughter, she’s at an age where she’ll remember that for the rest of her life, so that was really special.”

The Danielson farewell tour continued in the weeks following All In. At September's AEW Dynamite Grand Slam event, Danielson wrestled against Nigel McGuinness, reviving a feud that goes back more than 15 years, when the two waged wars in Ring of Honor. It was McGuinness’ first match in 11 years.

“Getting to wrestle Nigel McGuinness for the first time since 2009 was something I was thrilled to be able to do,” Danielson said. “He and I made our names kind of against each other, you know what I mean? That was really fun to be able to do that one more time, when honestly we didn’t think it was going to happen.”

While Danielson made it through the McGuinness match relatively unscathed, his match on the Oct. 2 edition of Dynamite — a title-for-title, de facto rubber match against Okada — served as a reminder of the somewhat tenuous physical ordeal he’s dealing with every time he steps through the ropes.

“Midway through the match, I started losing strength in my legs,” Danielson admitted. “There’s a point later in the match where I’m trying to kick him and I can’t turn over my kicks. That’s something that I have the body mechanics to do because I have been doing it for so long, but here I am and I can’t turn my hip over for this kick.

“When I got to the back, I went to the trainer right away and they worked on me for like 30 minutes. They said it was stemming from the neck stuff. It’s getting to a point where, physically, we’re seeing the signs. I haven’t been sleeping well because I have been having this shooting pain down my arm.”

In an ironic twist, however, it’s all made Danielson's decision to walk away — whenever it does happen — all the more easy.

“It would have been really hard to be done wrestling if I felt great, right?” Danielson said. “I love it so much, I still love it so much. I get out there and it’s a rush, when I’m out there I don’t feel pain. Wednesday, I just noticed it and there was this awareness that I didn’t have the strength in my legs that I normally have. That’s the point where it’s getting kind of hard.”

Danielson’s inevitable curtain call won’t be the first time his in-ring career has come to an end. In 2016, Danielson — then wrestling as Daniel Bryan in WWE — was forced into retirement due to a series of concussions. At that point, Danielson hadn’t wrestled a match in more than a year while unsuccessfully trying to get medically cleared. Two more years passed before Danielson wrestled for WWE again.

This time around though, Danielson admits his daughter has been ready for him to be home for more than a year now and he’s excited to be a full-time dad to his two kids — complete with coaching his son’s tee ball team.

“I can tell the difference [in retirement scenarios] just by my emotional state,” Danielson said. “It was this huge, deflating moment when they told me that I couldn’t come back [in WWE]. It was like this part of me almost died. With this, I honestly feel like I am mentally ready, and part of it is because of my physical struggles. Then, Brie [Garcia, Danielson's wife] and I were married but didn’t have kids yet so we didn’t have this life that we have now, where I love coming home and being with my kids.”

For someone who has authored some of the most memorable moments in wrestling history and is as passionate about his craft as Danielson is, he’s not overly concerned about his legacy, opting to not get too high or low when it comes to how he’s perceived by fans — the ultimate barometer for success in the business.

Danielson recalled a moment early in his career that defines how he approaches his ego and performances nearly 20 years later.

“There was actually a match I had with CM Punk that really got me thinking about this, because it was kind of devastating at the time,” Danielson explained. “Punk and I had wrestled a match for a company in Florida, it was called Full Impact Pro, and it was maybe 30-40 minutes long. There were less than 100 people in the crowd and I can remember hearing two guys in the front row saying, ‘Man, these guys aren’t very good, are they?’ They weren’t jeering us, they were just having a casual conversation. If you let people’s praise lift you up too much, you’re letting people’s negative comments destroy you. I really tried to mentally take that out of the equation.”

Danielson’s mentality isn’t coming from a disingenuous place. He’s grateful for the praise he receives from fans and it’s undeniable that for a large portion of the fanbase he’s on the short list of the greatest professional wrestlers of this century, if not all time.

It was simply just never about the pop of the crowd.

“The reality that I’ve come to is that I’ve always done wrestling that isn’t necessarily for the fans, but kind of for myself because I love to do this, I love the act of wrestling,” Danielson said. “I wondered for a long time, if I loved going out there, if it was because of the fan reaction and how it makes you feel special. Even during the pandemic, I loved wrestling when we were at the WWE Performance Center with absolutely zero people in the crowd.”

There will be plenty of people in the crowd for Danielson’s next title defense — potentially his final match — Saturday at AEW WrestleDream (8 p.m. ET, PPV), which is coincidentally being held in his home state of Washington. Danielson will be facing Jon Moxley, his former Blackpool Combat Club stablemate, in the presumptive main event after Moxley turned on him at All Out in September.

If it is the end, it’ll be fitting, as Moxley was an unknowing catalyst in driving Danielson back into the ring during his previously forced retirement eight years ago.

“I remember there was this Mox-AJ Styles match that I sat ringside for [in WWE], and there was a moment where I said, ‘You know what, [expletive] this, I gotta get back to wrestling, what am I doing here?’” Danielson said. “That was kind of the moment where I stopped accepting the idea that I couldn’t wrestle anymore and I started pushing. This is way different. I don’t think I would have put this stipulation on my career if I wasn’t comfortable being done with wrestling.”

Whether it’s at WrestleDream or sometime in the not-so-distant future, the countdown will inevitably hit zero and Danielson will go out on his back — a long-standing tradition in the world of professional wrestling where you lose your last match.

It will mark the end of a career with a closing chapter that leaves Danielson finally at peace.

“Getting to spend this time with people I know and loved for a long time, that’s been very rewarding,” Danielson said. “You can never take things back, but if I had the opportunity to make that decision again, I would do it 99 times out of 100.”