Bryan Danielson Says 'Smoke And Mirrors' Helped Work Around His Injury At AEW All Out

Last night, All Elite Wrestling's All Out pay-per-view took place at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, and one of the show's highlights saw Bryan Danielson defeat Ricky Starks in a strap match. Danielson broke his arm at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door in June, but nonetheless returned over the weekend during AEW's time of need. Speaking at the post-show media scrum, Danielson revealed that his arm is healing well and that he and Starks were able to work around his injury without a problem.

"Nigel McGuinness has succinctly pointed out, many times at this point, that we have 206 bones in our body. 205 of mine are perfectly okay," Danielson said jokingly. "We have great doctors here, and there's a certain magic to pro wrestling, you know? ... There was a lot of smoke and mirrors tonight, and I was in no danger whatsoever, other than the regular danger that you could [be in] getting a hip toss. But I didn't even throw a strike with my right arm, and I don't think anyone noticed."

The AEW star revealed that he and Starks had not only run every aspect of the match by the company's Dr. Sampson, but Danielson also spoke to a surgeon about performing in the match and was reassured that there were no problems with the idea. Danielson even clarified that he spoke to doctors both within and outside of AEW to be sure.

Danielson stepped in last minute to fill in as Starks' opponent. It had been reported that the original plan for All Out would have seen Starks take on CM Punk in the main event, but the last eight days made that an impossibility, culminating with Punk's AEW firing on Friday. Though Starks came up short in last night's bout, it was an undeniably incredible performance from the 33-year-old.