Red Velvet: Bryan Danielson ‘has been great to me’ in AEW
Bryan Danielson has been a big help to Red Velvet behind the scenes in AEW.
Appearing on a new episode of Close Up with Renee Paquette, Velvet listed Cody Rhodes, Brandi Rhodes, and Dustin Rhodes as three names who were instrumental in helping her adapt to AEW when she first started with the promotion. Danielson has also given advice to Velvet, including helping her with the injuries she’s dealt with.
“Bryan Danielson, he’s been great to me and just helped me so much in like the later parts of AEW,” she said. “And just even after injury too, it was like, he was so helpful in like, how do I move differently to protect my knee from that time? So that was a good turning point at that point.
“But I had so many. I had Arn Anderson, I had QT [Marshall] — so many people just standing behind me when I first got there. And I will just forever be grateful for that.”
Velvet suffered her knee injury in 2023 and was out of action for most of that year. She was sidelined again for a few months in 2025 due to neck and shoulder issues. Velvet said Danielson — along with Claudio Castagnoli and PAC — was again helpful in giving her advice on how to heal from those injuries.
In November, Velvet was able to return to the ring. She regained the ROH Women’s Television Championship from Mercedes Mone at Final Battle 2025.
Danielson retired as a full-time performer in 2024 but is still with AEW as a commentator and backstage consultant.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.