Bryan Danielson On WWE Counter-Programming AEW, ‘People Who Crave Power And Money Play Weird Games’

Bryan Danielson comments on WWE counter-programming against AEW, whether AEW poses a threat to WWE, his belief that Cody Rhodes wouldn’t be in his current position without AEW’s creation, nor would CM Punk have returned, and more.

Bryan Danielson is one of only four people who can claim to have held both the WWE World Championship and the AEW World Championship. He can also say that he has headlined major events for both promotions and worked behind the scenes for both.

Recently, WWE PLEs have often been held on the same day as major AEW shows. The WWE NXT Great American Bash occurred on the same day as AEW All In, and WWE NXT Battleground happened concurrently with AEW Double or Nothing. WWE NXT Heatwave counter-programmed AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, and the upcoming WWE Wrestlepalooza card will be held on the same night as AEW All Out.

The Kairouz Bros recently asked Bryan Danielson how he feels about WWE’s counter-programming tactics. Danielson gave a very realistic answer, saying that he doesn’t believe it’s because AEW is a threat to WWE, as they are still operating on two different playing fields.

“I’m just curious, like, what the people who are making these decisions, what they’re thinking, right? In the sense of like, ‘Oh, okay, this AEW thing. It’s a real danger to our billion-dollar business.’ That can’t be it,” he said. “AEW existing and being this challenger brand, and being as successful as we’ve been, has changed the landscape for wrestling, for the wrestlers themselves. Wrestlers are being paid more now than ever from a sports rights perspective. So, for example, in most major sports in the United States, the players get anywhere between 40 to 50% of the revenue. WWE was paying their wrestlers nowhere close to that. Now, keep in mind, they’re still not paying anywhere close to that, but they do have to pay more, because if they don’t, the talent is going to leave and go to AEW. AEW does pay that 40 to 50% of their revenue to their wrestlers. You know, despite making much less money. I mean, our TV rights deal was incredible, but we’re still the challenger brand catching up on however many years WWE has.”

Danielson continued by saying that, despite how America treats them, corporations are not people. Danielson happens to like the people he’s worked with at WWE and questions why certain decisions are made. However, when he finds himself thinking too deeply about it, he says that it’s not his problem to be concerned with.

“It’s interesting because we’re, we’re not at the point of being a threat. It’s one of the things that people who really crave power and a lot of money play these weird games that I don’t understand,” he said. “I don’t understand, it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna run all the competitors that might be competitive with us out of this business.’ Why? It’s good. It’s good for the wrestlers. It’s good for the wrestlers, both in AEW and in WWE, it’s good for them. If AEW wouldn’t have started, would Cody Rhodes be where he is right now? No, they have a megastar because AEW exists. Would CM Punk ever have come back? Probably not.

“I would be really interested, and I’m not saying this in the sense of like, ‘Oh, those evil people. Because when you think of corporations, they are not people, right? In the United States, I don’t know if it’s like this in Australia, but corporations have been, have been determined as, like, legally, as people, they have the same rights as people. It’s just like, wait, what? But they’re not people, right? So that these corporations make these decisions, but the people in WWE, a lot of people I know, are great people, right? So it’s like, I’d be interested to know, okay, what’s the decision-making process in this?”

Fans can read Tony Khan’s recent comments on WWE’s counter-programming efforts here.

Check out the full interview embedded above.