Bryan Danielson: AEW doesn’t approach other companies in a ‘warlike’ fashion

Bryan Danielson likes how AEW handles itself in competition with WWE.

Speaking with Talksport for an interview published this week, Danielson said that — while he doesn’t know the right strategy — he likes that AEW doesn’t approach other companies in a “warlike” fashion. That approach is a natural fit for Danielson’s personality, but he doesn’t know if there will be a point in the future where AEW needs to go more on the offensive.

“We don’t, at least it seems like to me, 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,” Danielson said. “But that’s not the same as the other side. So we have to — we’re constantly kind of on the defense in that. I don’t know the right strategy. I like the way Tony Khan handles things, because that in my mind, it makes us the good guys, right?

“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.”

Danielson explained that AEW’s Brodie Lee memorial show in 2020 was something that drew him to the promotion when he was still with WWE. Danielson loves that Tony Khan is a wrestling fan who cares about the wrestlers and the fans.

“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,” Danielson said. “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.”

Though he can’t predict the future, Danielson believes AEW should continue growing as a business.

“I think, obviously we can’t tell the future, but I think there’s going to be a lot of growth for AEW,” he said. “I think there’s a tremendous opportunity right now in the media landscape to put a wrestling product out that is the kind of focus that Tony likes to put into AEW. So if I were to guess, I would say that we’re going to grow, but it’s impossible to tell.”

Danielson has been on a media tour to promote AEW & NJPW’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view that’s being held in London this August. Addressing his own in-ring future, Danielson has not officially retired but said he has no desire to wrestle right now.

“I have no inclination right now, and no desire to wrestle right now. The last six months of my career built up to that actually, I look at it now as a blessing,” he told The Metro. “Because the six months leading into my last match were so hard and my neck was so bad. And, I mean, there’s things that I couldn’t physically do.”