Bryan Danielson Says AEW Always On Defense In Wrestling War
Bryan Danielson thinks AEW are the good guys in the wrestling war, and that’s why the company is always playing defense.
There might not be a weekly TV ratings war in wrestling anymore, but if you don’t think WWE is taking the fight to AEW in every way possible, then you’re not paying attention.
AEW holds its biggest US show ever in July when All In heads to Texas. The date of that show has been known for many months at this point, but that’s not stopped WWE from holding Saturday Night’s Main Event on the very same night, a show that WWE Champion John Cena is now scheduled to be at. Wrestling fans are now forced to choose which show to watch, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to WWE’s aggressive approach.
Tony Khan famously claimed that an army of bots was being employed to spread anti-AEW messages, and he not so subtly suggested that it was WWE paying for that to happen.
But are AEW the good guys in all of this? Bryan Danielson seems to think so.
Speaking to TalkSport, Bryan Danielson discussed AEW’s approach in a hostile wrestling environment and said he likes the way Tony Khan handles things, even if that means a defensive approach:
We as a company don’t approach other companies in a warlike fashion, right? We don’t feel like we’re in a war with anybody. But that’s not the same as the other side. We’re constantly kind of on the defense in that. I don’t know the right strategy, but I like the way Tony Khan handles things because that it in my mind, it makes us the good guys.
But I don’t know if at some point we need to go more on the offensive. I’ve had friends bring that up to me like, ‘Oh, you guys should attack.’ I’m like, wait a second. Like one, that’s not my personality. Two, that’s not Tony Khan’s personality. And I think that’s one of the things that drew me to AEW. When I was in WWE, I was watching the way AEW did things.
Brodie Lee Show Opened Bryan Danielson’s Eyes To AEW
Bryan Danielson pointed to the Celebration of Brodie Lee’s Life episode of Dynamite after Lee’s tragic passing in 2020. It was then, while still in WWE, that Danielson realised that perhaps AEW were the good guys in the pro wrestling world:
We had a wrestler, Brodie Lee, who had passed away. They did this incredible tribute show. At that point, I was still with WWE. And the way that they did that show, Brodie was my friend, it touched something in me and in my mind. I was thinking like, ‘Oh, these are the good guys of professional wrestling’.
There’s going to be times where we make wrong, or bad decisions, that happens everywhere. But one of the things that I like to think about AEW is that we try – and we don’t market ourselves as this – to be good. Tony Khan never says it. He never says, ‘We’re the good guys in professional wrestling.’ But that’s one of the things that I thought of when I was in WWE.
I was like, ‘Oh, the people behind this, who are running this thing, they care about the wrestlers. They care about the fans, too.’ The one thing that I love about Tony is that he is a wrestling fan and he wants to produce a show for wrestling fans, or that wrestling fans will enjoy.
Bryan Danielson ignored Vince McMahon when naming wrestling’s best executive recently, and while his in-ring days could be behind him, the American Dragon seems committed to flying the flag for AEW.