As one of the greatest wrestlers of his generation, Bryan Danielson has stepped in the ring with just about every major performer of the 21st century. With his active in-ring career now behind him, Danielson took a moment to name his favorite opponents from his runs in both WWE and AEW.

While promoting AEW Grand Slam Australia, which will take place in Sydney on Feb. 14, 2026, the American Dragon sat down for an interview with Nick Stav. When asked about his wrestling “soulmates,” Danielson dropped the following names:

Hangman Adam Page

“Hangman Adam Page — I just think the world of him, he’s fantastic. The first time we wrestled was in that hour-long match and he had never wrestled more than 30 minutes in a singles match, ever. I forget how many matches we ended up having, maybe five. With Hangman, I had never stepped foot in the ring with him, had never locked up with him, had never done anything with him and then we go and wrestle an hour on TV. It’s magic.”

Jon Moxley

“He beat me every single time [laughs]. But I feel like we wrestle very well together.”

Randy Orton

“In WWE, one of my favorite opponents was Randy Orton. I always felt like our best matches were never on TV or PPV, our best matches were always on these live events. I always loved wrestling Randy… we got time to gel with each other on these live events. From a wrestler’s perspective, he’s just incredible.”

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Nigel McGuinness

“We only had one match in AEW, but as far as my career in its entirety, he was so much of how I became the wrestler I became today.”

Claudio Castagnoli

“Claudio is similar to Nigel, except we wrestled each other more in AEW. I wrestled him in Ring of Honor and all these different types of things… I just think he’s fantastic.”

AJ Styles

“Then [there’s] AJ Styles. AJ Styles is fantastic.”

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Bryan Danielson recently recommended some old wrestling matches for hardcore fans, one of which took place nearly 100 years ago. Click here to see those recommendations and check out the full interview with Danielson below.

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