Despite still being booked as a top Superstar in WWE, Bryan Danielson - formerly known as Daniel Bryan - decided to leave the company and made his AEW debut in 2021.
He's since become a key figure in the company both in the ring and behind the scenes and, at an SXSW panel this weekend, he shared his take on what AEW needs to find even greater success. He also revealed that Vince McMahon was keeping a close eye on AEW and once asked him what it was doing that WWE wasn't.
"If you look at Dynamite and look at, 'Where can we make improvements to gain an audience here or to touch people to a different level,'" Danielson explained. "The idea is you can’t make big changes because Dynamite is already successful. This is what we were talking about in WWE."
"Vince McMahon actually called me one night, I was part of WWE creative, and he called me one night and said, 'What is AEW doing that we’re not doing?' I went back and watched eight straight weeks of TV within the span of six days and was like, 'There is a whole list of things.'"
"What you don’t want to do, in getting to the next level, is to change the things that are already working because there are so many things already working," he added. "Then, it’s experimenting with different things."
Since that call, McMahon has been ousted from WWE and the company is on a hot streak thanks to Triple H taking charge of creative. AEW, unfortunately, is on the decline and is no longer receiving high ratings or the acclaim it once did.
"'It's not something I get paid for," Danielson previously said of his AEW role backstage. "I'm just like the other wrestlers in the sense of I don't have a contract outside of being a wrestler contract."
"But I was honored to take on more when they asked me to take on more roles backstage. That sort of thing that's something that I'm kind of looking at, going forward as far as like, what other things could I do besides being in the ring that could help? So yeah, so it's been good."
The American Dragon is also a member of AEW's disciplinary committee alongside two unnamed attorneys, a decision which has led to a great deal of debate online, especially after recent allegations of sexual misconduct involving a top star.
Danielson is expected to end his career in AEW and, as of now, we don't expect him to re-sign with WWE.