Bryan Danielson Talks WWE-AEW Differences, Says Vince McMahon Had Him Scout AEW

AEW is celebrating its fifth anniversary, coming off, arguably, one of its most momentous events yet, Revolution 2024. Another unforgettable AEW pay-per-view was All Out 2021, which closed with the surprise debuts of Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson, who both made the jump from WWE. Danielson's move to AEW from WWE was astonishing, as he had competed in the main event of WrestleMania 37 earlier that year.

Danielson recently participated in a wrestling panel at "SXSW," and discussed the success of "AEW Dynamite" before revealing that WWE was more interested in AEW than appeared, "Vince McMahon actually called me one night, I was part of WWE creative, and he called me one night and he said: what is AEW doing that we're not doing? And so, I watched eight straight weeks of TV within the span of like six days and I was like: oh my gosh, there's a whole list of things."

Bryan complimented AEW President Tony Khan for being in tune with the wants of wrestling fans, and discussed the balance between stability and innovation, "I think we just have to look at ourselves objectively, we have to find things that: ok, I think we should try this. But we can't mess up the things that have gotten us to this place to begin with," the former WWE Champion advised. "It's a hard line to straddle as far as change; order vs. chaos, that's the whole yin vs. yang thing as far as what do you change, what do you keep the same? And that's something that we really have to look deeply into."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "SXSW" with a H/T to Wrestle Inc. for the transcription.