Backstage Update On Bryan Danielson’s Influence On AEW Creative Team

Bryan Danielson is one of AEW’s most prominent on-screen stars, and it turns out he has lots of influence behind the scenes as well.

Danielson’s in-ring skill can’t be denied, and with decades of experience in the professional wrestling business, he’s a natural fit to help in backstage roles as well. After the company officially announced the debut of a new Saturday night program called Collision that will debut on June 17th, it was reported by Fightful Select that Danielson would be part of the creative team for the new show.

However, according to a new report from Dave Meltzer, the American Dragon already has considerable influence and Tony Khan regularly bounces ideas off him. Speaking on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer had this to say:

“By the way, Danielson — everyone knows that Danielson has got a lot of booking influence now in AEW. It’s more than people think. It’s funny because when he talked about it last Sunday, and said about how he and Tony Khan, their thought process is very similar when it comes to wrestling, and basically from Tony Khan’s standpoint it’s kinda the same thing.

They have ideas, and they’re bouncing stuff off, they love bouncing stuff off each other.

The Friday show [Rampage] was an example of those two guys kind of bouncing an idea like ‘We’re gonna do a championship night,’ and that was what they came up with. But he’s got a lot of influence — he’s a very key part of creative right now.”

Danielson recently made waves when he challenged Kazuchika Okada to a match at the upcoming AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2.

h/t Inside the Ropes