Bryan Danielson's Future; Updates on WWE's Cody Rhodes and AEW's Adam Cole, Adam Page

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

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Bryan Danielson Says AEW Contract Is Last as Full-Time Performer

Bryan Danielson wants to wrestle until the day he dies—just not on a full-time contract. Danielson reiterated his desire to step away from being a full-time performer when his current contract with AEW ends.

"I’m not gonna be a full-time wrestler for much longer," Danielson said on One Fall with Ron Funches. "When my AEW contract is up, that’s pretty much me being done being a full-time wrestler but I like the way some people like Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler and those kind of guys do it where they do it for fun, right? And don’t do it all the time, they do it here or there, that sort of thing. But as long as I have fun doing it and as long as I experience joy doing it, it’s something I wanna continue doing for the rest of my life."

Danielson signed a three-year contract last year, keeping him with AEW until at least 2024. He has maintained he has no desire to return to WWE even when that contract expires, preferring the freer schedule AEW provides.

While some fans have been disappointed with Bryan's booking—he's largely worked with younger talent rather than being in the title picture—it's clear this is the type of work he prefers at this juncture of his career.

Danielson is the rare wrestling purist who seemingly actually means it when he says he wants to spend his late-career years giving back to the sport rather than soaking up the spotlight. It's a virtual certainty he'll wind up carrying AEW gold at some point; it's just not going to be anytime soon with the MJF era underway.

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Brandi Rhodes Teases Cody Return

Cody Rhodes' return appears to be on the horizon.

Brandi Rhodes appeared on the Ten Count podcast and said her husband "looks ready" to get back in the ring.

"He needs to wrestle. It’s in his blood. It’s part of his makeup," Brandi Rhodes said. "But now, he’s been great through all of this. All of the work that he’s been doing to get back has been really good. I went with him to his physical therapist yesterday to finally see because he’s been ragging on me the entire time, ‘You haven’t come, you haven’t come, you have to come.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m coming to see.’ I was really just impressed with how he looks now. He doesn’t look like anything happened which is crazy because he had major surgery. So he looks like the same Cody to me. The muscle mass is all there, you know, he looks ready to me, but I’m not a doctor."

Cody has been out of action since defeating Seth Rollins at June's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. He wrestled the match with a torn pectoral muscle and then was written off television the next night in an attack by Rollins.

It's unlikely the Rhodes vs. Rollins feud will continue when Cody is back with Seth now being booked as a babyface.

The most obvious return date will be January's Royal Rumble, especially given WWE will not be holding the Day 1 event this year. It's possible WWE will book Rhodes on a Raw ahead of the Rumble to announce his entry, but the "surprise" return would garner the biggest pop.

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Tony Khan Updates Adam Cole, Adam Page Status

While Saturday's Full Gear pay-per-view was viewed as a well-received cultural reset following the mess after All Out, AEW's still missing some high-profile talent due to injury.

Adam Cole has not wrestled since suffering a concussion at June's Forbidden Door event, while Page suffered a concussion last month in his AEW championship match against Jon Moxley.

Tony Khan spoke to reporters after Full Gear and offered a small update regarding their return.

"I've been in contact with both of them," Khan said. "They're both doing very well."

Khan added he's "optimistic" both will return to AEW when they're healthy but noted the difference in the severity of their respective injuries. Little has been said about Cole's injury publicly, but Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported last week that a "number of people" have been concerned about his status.

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