Bryan Danielson’s injury reportedly occurred during his AEW Collision ‘dream match’ with Andrade

In the wake of AEW revealing that Bryan Danielson will be out for the remainder of the year, several questions were being asked about the latest injury to hit the company in general and Danielson in particular.

Among them was when exactly Bryan’s orbital bone was broken. The closing scene of the Oct. 25 Dynamite was clearly meant to convey the idea that Orange Cassidy & Kazuchika Okada had hurt Danielson in their tag team main event. But the way that was staged and shot screamed “WORK”, and sent fans & observers looking elsewhere for the spot that led to surgery and at least two American Dragon-free months of AEW shows.

That led some back to the previous Saturday on Collision, and particularly to the “dream match” Danielson and Andrade had on Oct. 21.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso (and since confirmed by Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer), “Gene Creemers” was on the right track. Barrasso wrote:

Danielson was hurt last week on Collision during a superb match against Andrade, doing damage to his orbital bone, Sports Illustrated has learned.

Neither SI nor the Observer specify the precise moment in the Andrade match when Danielson’s orbital bone was broken, but both say he worked last Wednesday’s show with the injury in order to involve Okada and Cassidy in the storyline — something made clear by the promo on Collision from the man who wrestled most of the Dynamite tag match for their side, Bryan’s Blackpool Combat Club teammate Claudio Castagnoli.

Castagnoli faces Cassidy tomorrow night (Nov. 1) on Dynamite, and could replace Danielson for a big match in Japan against Okada. There’s no new information in the report from Barrasso or the confirmation from Meltzer about how long Bryan will out of action. He obviously hopes to be back in time to work New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s big Wrestle Kingdom PPV at the Tokyo Dome on Jan. 4, but it’s possible he won’t be cleared by then.