Bryan Danielson is staring down the barrel of what could be the last match of his wrestling career ... but, if he ends up beating Swerve Strickland for the AEW title, he'd love to become the face of AEW!
Danielson chopped it up with Mojo Muhtadi on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs nightly on FS1) to discuss his Title Vs. Career match going down this Sunday at AEW All In.
While people are busy reflecting on the career of BD -- with speculation he could be done after the match -- he told us if he were to win Sunday, he'd welcome a role he's rarely been allowed to fill ... being considered "The Man."
"One of the things I got to experience in Ring of Honor but never really got to experience anywhere else is being the man," he said.
"Being the guy. Even in WWE, when I won the World Championship at WrestleMania 30, I wasn't their guy. They had plans as far as, like, okay, we really wanna transition to Roman Reigns being the guy."
Danielson recalled a sit-down he had with Vince McMahon back in the day regarding the direction of his title run ... with the WWE honcho telling him they wanted Reigns to be their next John Cena.
"He's saying this to me, and then I just kind of said, 'Okay, that's great, but I would kind of like to be the next John Cena.'"
"I just remember seeing the look on Vince's face where he's just like, 'Oh, I didn't even think you saw that as a possibility for yourself.' It was really funny. This was the only time Vince has ever backtracked with me."
If Sunday is the end for Bryan, though ... he's not stressing about how he'll be remembered.
"What I want, is for people who go to All In or people who view it or whatever it is, for them to take away some sort of memory that has meaning to them," he said. "That would kind of be the ideal, and for me personally, I just want to be present for that moment."
Check out the full conversation with Bryan and Mojo!