There's a reason why fans call Bryan Danielson the greatest wrestler in the world.

No matter what promotion he works for, from Ring of Honor to WWE and now AEW, the “American Dragon” has found a way to get himself over, get himself on top, and stay there despite from bigger, stronger, and more athletic challengers almost constantly trying to bring him down.

Why? Well, you don't get called the greatest technical wrestler in the world – with The Wrestlering Oberserver's Award for technical wrestling literally called the “Bryan Danielson award” – unless you can really go in the ring regardless of the obstacles set in his way.

But, you may wonder, what is the biggest difference between working in WWE and AEW? Well, as Danielson laid out in a pre-All In interview with GQ about his fitness regimen, the answer is just that: WWE is bigger.

“Because AEW is a smaller roster—not everybody is a giant like it was in WWE—I don't feel the need to be as big,” Bryan Danielson told GQ. “And that's so much better for my body, because for years and years and years, I was always trying to be big. For somebody who's not naturally big, lifting heavy weights all the time is really hard on your body. And now I still lift heavy weights, but I cycle in and out of it. So I'll progressively get heavier on my deadlift. Take a week off from deadlifting, or two weeks off, or even three weeks off from deadlifting, go back at a lighter weight, and then start cycling kind of back up again. So just a smarter training regimen and not being afraid to take a day off from what would be considered intense training and do something lighter, like yoga. And as I've gotten older, I've gotten more into the yoga and that sort of thing than I was earlier in my career.”

While some fans – and non-fans – shouldn't be too surprised by Danielson's statement, as WWE does have a noticeably bigger, albeit less athletic roster, the idea that performers of the “American Dragon's” caliber would tune their training in order to fit into the style of the promotion that's cashing his checks is pretty incredible.

Bryan Danielson explains the importance of discipline for young wrestlers.

Elsewhere in his interview with GQ, Bryan Danielson was asked about getting to work with younger performers like Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta and how they explicitly work on their bodies to get where they need to be in order to reach their maximum potential.

Though Danielson admits that every performer is different and there isn't a one-size-fits-all pro wrestling workout plan that works for everyone, having the discipline to find a regimen and stick to it is the key to consistent progress.

“So, the most important thing is that everybody's different in this regard—everybody needs different things. There's not one thing that everybody needs, you know what I mean? But one of the things that I really try to preach is getting yourself into good habits and being disciplined when it comes to training and how you approach wrestling. I found in my career that a lot of people within pro wrestling don't work on getting better at pro wrestling with any sort of disciplined structure. And I don't know what I would have done without it. There are times when I don't want to watch wrestling, right? But I watch wrestling (or maybe something akin to wrestling that I can learn something from) every day and make sure that I devote x amount of time to it, even when I don't want to. That's the discipline of it. And it's the same thing with working out and eating and all that kind of stuff,” Danielson noted.

“So, for example, I think we've actually talked to Wheeler [Yuta] about this as far as aesthetically getting in better shape, because that's important for wrestling. But also creating good habits as far as functionality, because in AEW, especially, you need to be a functional wrestler. You can't just be a body guy. You look at even Big Bill right now, who looks fantastic, but he's got to be able to move—and he's a giant. Maybe you need to put on weight, or you might need to add mobility, or somebody needs to do injury prevention. And everybody's different as far as what they need. So then just approaching them as individuals with their training regimen.”

Despite not having a dedicated Performance Center from which to train the next generation of AEW stars, it's encouraging to see older performers like Danielson helping performers like Yuta out on screen and Garcia out behind the scenes, as he famously rejected the Blackpool Combat Club in order to stick it out with the ill-fated Jericho Appreciation Society. While some performers may simply show up, work their matches, cash their checks, and leave, it's clear Danielson is instead committed to the process of building up the future of the sport while he's still capable of mixing it up in the ring at the highest level.