Pro wrestling icon and reality TV star Bryan Danielson hints at retirement after grueling, blood-soaked Iron Man match

• It looks like Bryan Danielson may retire — again.
• The pro wrestling icon and reality TV star delivered a dramatic speech Wednesday.
• "It's time for me to go home," he said, days after wrestling MJF for an hour on AEW pay-per-view.

Wrestling icon Bryan Danielson hinted in a dramatic speech this week that it may be time to call an end to his career — again.

The AEW wrestler, formerly Daniel Bryan at WWE, endured a grueling and blood-soaked Iron Man match in Sunday's pay-per-view event "Revolution," which AEW held on March 5 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Danielson headlined the show alongside the charismatic, polarizing Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF), and lost 4-3 in a sudden-death overtime match that lasted 65 minutes and 20 seconds.

From the entrances, and characters involved, to the skills inside the ring, the match received rave reviews as critics called it "pro wrestling perfection."

However, if it's not Danielson's last ever match, it may well be one of them as the 41-year-old delivered a promo during Wednesday's "Dynamite" show on TBS, saying it was time for him to go home.

Danielson said his body didn't 'have any strength anymore'

"I always thought I was doing this for my kids," said Danielson, who shares two children with hiw wife, fellow WWE star Brie Bella.

Danielson referenced a prior retirement, when he called the curtain on his WWE career in 2016 for medical reasons. He returned to the ring two years later.

Danielson, who was a regular fixture on the reality TV show Total Bellas from 2016 to 2021, left WWE two years ago but made a surprise appearance in AEW that same year.

"When I was forced to retire, I wanted to teach them that if you love something, you have to fight for it," he said.

Danielson then noted that, between waking up "from being unconscious," and finding himself "in a LeBell Lock," his instinct was to fight, but his body was giving up on him. "My left leg didn't have any strength anymore."

He added: "When Max said, after the Iron Man Match, that I wouldn't be able to play with my kids … it dawned on me. He's right.

"I was putting myself before my family," Danielson rued. "More than tapping out, that made me more ashamed than anything else. It's time for me to go home."

Watch the promo right here:

—All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 9, 2023