Bryan Danielson believes John Cena’s longevity puts him in the conversation as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
The 17-time world champion, who scooped his record-breaking title at WrestleMania 41 last month, is on a farewell tour from WWE having announced his intention to retire at the end of the year.
At Elimination Chamber in March, he turned heel for the first time in two decades, offering a new dynamic to the final few months of his legendary career.
Danielson, who himself impressed as a bad guy after making a shock turn in 2018, discussed where Cena sits amid the giants of the professional wrestling industry.
“It’s hard for me to gauge,” the AEW star admitted, during an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.com.
“But I would have to say that when you look at John Cena‘s career, you would have to say he’s one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
“And certainly from a drawing standpoint, during a certain period, he was the biggest star in wrestling.
“From the time that I started with WWE, until a little bit before I left, he was the biggest star there. And that’s a long run.
“That’s a long run to be a top guy.”
Danielson, who last week pinpointed the AEW moment that paved way for WWE exit, went on to compare Cena’s run as the ‘top guy’ to that of Hulk Hogan.
Explaining why the 17-time champion has the edge, he said: “Hulk Hogan, you know, in comparison from an American wrestling standpoint, he was only the top star in the WWF for about seven years, eight years.
“John Cena was a top star from, I want to say like 2005, for at least ten, 15 years. He’s had an incredible career.
“I hope this is his last year, like what he said. But you know, us wrestlers, we’re pretty tricky with this retirement thing.
“I just hope he gets everything he wants out of this last year of his career.”
Cena and Danielson, of course, have history in the ring.
Back in 2013, when the latter was wrestling as Daniel Bryan, the pair clashed for the WWE Championship in the main event of SummerSlam.
It’s a match that Danielson remembers well, even if it didn’t end the way he wanted, with Randy Orton cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to steal the title away.
“I really enjoyed the match, I’ve always enjoyed John Cena as a person,” he said.
“Mostly what I remember is that I beat John Cena, and then I got Pedigreed by Triple H, and Randy Orton came out and beat me.
“Then it’s like, ‘OK, well, that happened. It was a thing.’”
Danielson, who recently stepped back from full-time in-ring competition, further reflected on his past matches and explained how rivalries are built differently in WWE and AEW.
“Different places handle things differently,” he explained.
“AEW handles things differently to WWE, and the way that rivalries are structured in AEW is very different from the way rivalries were structured in WWE.
“In WWE, you would wrestle the same guy ten zillion times. I would say my biggest rival in AEW, or one of the guys who I had the most number of matches with is, ‘Hangman’ Adam Page.
“I think we wrestled five times.
“And then I wrestled Jon Moxley, gosh, I want to say three times.
“Think about that comparison, I was there for three plus years as an active wrestler.
“To say those are the two guys who I wrestled the most, five times and three times, that’s not a lot.”
