Bryan Danielson Breaks Silence on CM Punk

It took over a week, but Bryan Danielson has broken his silence regarding the recent AEW firing of CM Punk. Danielson is a trusted ally of AEW President, Tony Khan, and filled Punk's shoes at the AEW All Out PPV event on September 3 in Chicago.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Danielson spoke openly on the Punk departure for the first time since Punk was fired on September 2 and said his departure has as much of a chance to be positive as it does negative. Danielson also simply admitted that losing Punk was hard.

“In any job, when you lose somebody who’s very important, or you lose somebody you really like working with, that’s hard,” Danielson said. “But everyone keeps doing the job. And any time there is loss or controversy or struggle inside an organization, it’s a chance to bring people closer. It’s also a chance to divide people. So you have this thing where you can use struggle to make your life worse, or you can use struggle to make your life better. When I lost my father, I came out on the backside. I was worse. Struggling with my depression, I’ve come out of it better. So how you approach something and how you learn from something, that’s what makes the difference.”

Punk was released from the company due to a backstage altercation with Jack Perry at the All In PPV event in London. Perry made some off the cuff comments about Punk's criticism of him during his match against Hook and was confronted about it. The confrontation got physical and even reached for Tony Khan. A moment that Khan said was "life threatening." After conducting an investigation, Khan decided to sever the relationship with Punk and cut his ties to AEW.

Punk is a Chicago native and was scheduled to appear at the All Out PPV, but didn't because of being fired. He was reportedly scheduled to face Ricky Starks in the show's main event. Instead, Bryan Danielson returned AEW and faced Starks in a Strap Match.

In other recent interviews Danielson has alluded to this being his final full-time year in pro wrestling. He will face Zack Sabre Jr. at the WrestleDream PPV event at the beginning of October.