Bryan Danielson Recalls Time AEW Programming Aired Opposite WWE

In early October, "AEW Dynamite" transitioned to airing its weekly episodic show to Tuesdays, thus going head to head with "WWE NXT." This first "Title Tuesday" saw the in-ring debut of Adam Copeland (formerly Edge in WWE), while "NXT" responded with special appearances by The Undertaker, Asuka, Cody Rhodes, and even John Cena.

Speaking with Justin Barrasso on the "SXSW" pro wrestling panel, AEW's Bryan Danielson was asked about that infamous Tuesday night. "I think everybody in the company was really proud of that show that we did. In my mind — and this is probably a little bit different from the way Tony [Khan] views it, from like a business perspective — I don't necessarily look at what the competitors are doing (on that particular night). I wasn't worried about it."

The former WWE Champion continued by saying AEW should focus on improving their product rather than competing with other promotions. 

"Let's put on our best possible show and not worry about necessarily what's going on on a different channel because realistically it's not just that particular Tuesday night when we were moving nights."

He added by saying that AEW is competing with sports, TV shows, and people scrolling on their phones every show, and not just rival wrestling promotions. "How do you keep people's attention? In my mind, it keeps going back to this idea of quality, and something I said when I first joined AEW is that: if you put on excellent professional wrestling, people will enjoy it, and so that's kind of the goal — to put out an excellent professional wrestling show."

"NXT" pipped AEW in the overall viewership when the two went head-to-head last year, with WWE's developmental brand drawing 921,000 viewers, while "Dynamite" drew 609,000 viewers.

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