Bryan Danielson made his AEW debut during last night's epic All Out PPV, and addressed fans after the cameras stopped rolling. As you can see, the man formerly known as Daniel Bryan has set his sights on The Elite, and he's ready to "f***ing go!" That's not something he could have said in WWE, of course, and Danielson addressed his status with them in a media scrum.
"I hate to say this, but Vince [McMahon] and I have a great relationship. And I love him, I do," he confirmed. "Sometimes he's overprotective of me. And I want to be able to push my limits. That's one of the things that I love about this, is the physicality of what we do and being able to push my limits."
Danielson added that being married with kids has obviously led to him settling down, but when it comes to AEW, "I need one part of my life that's a little bit wild."
After noting that he doesn't believe Brie Bella will join him in AEW because of her many commitments to WWE, he confirmed that the company was going to allow him to do at least some things away from them had he signed a new deal. Ultimately, it seems there was more freedom on offer with AEW, but leaving the company he's called home since 2009 was not an easy decision.
"WWE was so gracious to me as far as the offer that they gave me. They were going to let me go do some other stuff outside," said Danielson. "I really battled back and forth, because there's a lot of people there that I consider family, that actually are my family, and people that I love there. So, it was a really tough decision."
As for whether the "Yes" chant will live on, he noted: "I respect the people that I have worked for before and their intellectual property. The fans doing it is great, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it."
Check out the full media scrum below: