Bryan Danielson On Former WWE Tag Partner CM Punk's AEW Departure: 'That's Hard'

Throughout their respective careers, Bryan Danielson and CM Punk have largely been intertwined, working together in ROH as opponents, WWE as both opponents and tag team partners, and then later in AEW, though the two would ultimately never cross paths in the ring. And now, even after Punk's departure from AEW, after the promotion terminated him with cause, they are still connected, with Danielson expected to take on a role similar to the one Punk held as one of the top stars on "AEW Collision."

Talking with "Sports Illustrated," Danielson briefly touched upon Punk's firing from AEW. But rather than talk about Punk himself, Danielson instead turned the focus towards the AEW locker room and how they would choose to handle the departure of a star like Punk, who proved to be both valuable and controversial to the promotion.

"In any job, when you lose somebody who's very important, or you lose somebody you really like working with, that's hard," Danielson said. "But everyone keeps doing the job. And any time there is loss or controversy or struggle inside an organization, it's a chance to bring people closer. It's also a chance to divide people. So you have this thing where you can use struggle to make your life worse, or you can use struggle to make your life better. When I lost my father, I came out on the backside. I was worse. Struggling with my depression, I've come out of it better. So how you approach something and how you learn from something, that's what makes the difference."