Bryan Danielson has a shirt available in the AEW shop to mark the return of "The American Dragon."
But he's not wearing it on weekly television for a good reason.
"I’m really not interested in selling people things, my merch shirt or anything like that," Bryan told Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post.
Instead, Bryan shows up to work in a plain white t-shirt.
"The other idea, this is more of a general concept in my life as far as … if you try so hard to look a certain way, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Steve Jobs just had like five black turtlenecks or something. He didn’t have to choose. I like the idea of simplicity. I like the idea of when people are watching it’s what I say, it’s what I do. It’s not necessarily, “Oh, man, that’s a cool T-shirt.” And hoping and believing that what I say and do is strong enough to keep people watching," he said.
In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Bryan offered more color on his white t-shirt.
"That’s been an intentional thing on my part,” Danielson says. “Not wearing a merchandise shirt, not wearing a Bryan Danielson shirt. Not that I won’t in the future, but the idea is to strip everything down and see if what I present and what I do is enough. And I think it is. I’m at a point in my career where I really want to challenge myself. If I wasn’t already known to people, could I come in and get massively over? I think about that a lot. I also try to simplify my life. The older I get, the less I need. A plain white T-shirt is exactly that in its most abstract form.”
Danielson will face what he is calling the biggest challenge of his career on Wednesday when he battles Kenny Omega at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam.
Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Dynamite Grand Slam beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
