During the main event of the July 27 edition of AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite, Daniel Garcia worked Bryan Danielson's head while The American Dragon sold like he'd been concussed and the whole thing just felt gross. This was Danielson's first match back since presumably sustaining a concussion during the Anarchy In The Arena fight on May 29. Due to that injury, he missed the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view and it seems likely that he would have been involved at ROH Death Before Dishonor given his history with the brand.
To recap: one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, who had literal years taken off of his career due to concussion issues, missed two months with what appeared to be a head injury... and AEW decided to use that as a plot device to further a stale feud between the Jericho Appreciation Society and Blackpool Combat Club. Given everything that scientists know about how concussions affect brains over time - and wrestling's incredibly dark history with the injury - it felt misguided, out of touch and if it got Danielson any sympathy from audiences, it was for all the wrong reasons.
It's obviously something Danielson would have had to sign off on and that's not the issue here. The issue is that, unlike a surgically repaired shoulder or taped-up back, brain trauma changes the way that people behave forever. If this was Bryan selling some sort of knee injury, then fine. That's a common tactic fans witness almost every time they sit down to watch wrestling for more than 10 minutes. Watching Danielson stumble around the ring, looking dazed, confused, and concussed wasn't fun. If it was supposed to make the performer look tough for "pushing through" a concussion, then that's a horrifically misguided booking decision. It also makes Danielson look bad in storyline because wrestling while concussed isn't tough. It's dopey and not the kind of story that Tony Khan should be going out of his way to tell. Blurring the line between reality and wrestling is fine, but maybe not when the reality includes potentially degenerative brain trauma.
This could go one of two ways in the coming weeks. One of them is decent long-term storytelling with a bad first chapter. The other direction would result in cringe-inducing, turn-off-the-TV heat for Garcia. If Khan and AEW use this match as a reason for Danielson to calm down his in-ring style, thus putting him at odds with Blackpool Combat Club's modus operandi, then that could work. Especially if, in an odd way, it was done to protect Bryan down the line.
If this is just a reason for Garcia to cut a promo where he gloats about worsening Danielson's head trauma, then it's just disgusting. The professional sports landscape is littered with forgotten and faceless athletes who had their lives forever changed due to repeated blows to the head and team doctors telling them "hey, it's OK, rub some dirt on it." AEW perpetuated that gnarly and outdated tough guy mindset on live television during a heavily viewed main event, and it deserves to be called out for doing so.