Bryan Danielson referenced by AEW protege in heartfelt post

Bryan Danielson's full-time wrestling career came to an end a couple of months ago in AEW. One of his most important rivals this year - Swerve Strickland - recently took to social media to pay tribute to the former world champion.

Danielson's last run as a full-time competitor in the Tony Khan-led company resulted in the former WWE Superstar having some of the best matches in his career against a variety of talents, in the US and abroad. Arguably two of the most significant of these bouts saw The American Dragon take on Will Ospreay at Dynasty 2024, and a few months later, challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Title at All In.

Bryan's showdown against Ospreay is held by many to be a match-of-the-year contender, and his victory over Swerve at Wembley Stadium was undoubtedly one of the highlight's of All Elite programming in 2024. A user on X/Twitter recently shared a clip from Dynasty, depicting The Aerial Assassin hitting Danielson with his Hidden Blade maneuver in an acclaimed spot. The footage was quote tweeted by Strickland, who heaped praise on both Danielson and Ospreay, writing:

"I love both these men. The true art of what we do right here in 20 secs," wrote Swerve.

Check out Swerve Strickland's tweet below:

The New Flavour had been open about his respect for Bryan prior to their All In clash. Notably, Swerve also defeated Ospreay earlier this year, retaining his AEW World Championship against the latter at Forbidden Door.

Danielson, on the other hand, lost the world title to Jon Moxley at WrestleDream, after which he was brutalized by The Death Riders.

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AEW's Swerve Strickland is feuding with another former WWE Champion

Since the end of October, Swerve Strickland has been locked in a program with The Hurt Syndicate. After being ambushed by Shelton Benjamin, MVP, and Bobby Lashley following the latter's debut, The Realest faced The All Mighty one-on-one at Full Gear 2024. However, Lashley ended up defeating Swerve at the pay-per-view, forcing him to pass out to The Hurt Lock.

Strickland clarified afterwards that he was not done with the former WWE Champion. To that end, the 34-year-old star assaulted Lashley and The Hurt Syndicate last week on Collision, helping Daniel Garcia and Mark Briscoe rally against the heel faction.

It remains to be seen if Swerve and Lashley will lock horns again at AEW Worlds End later this week.