Bryan Danielson doesn’t understand WWE’s decision to counter program AEW.
As of late, WWE has been really aggressive in counter programming AEW. While the company did that during the infamous Wednesday night wars, WWE eventually backed off when NXT was forced to switch nights after being completely destroyed by AEW in the ratings department.
But in 2025, WWE has re-ignited the war between the two companies. The latest example is Wrestle Palooza, which was made for the main purpose of competing against All Out. Allegedly.
Speaking to Ned & Josh, the former AEW World Champion gave his thoughts about WWE’s counter programming tactics.
“That’s not my game. I don’t worry about those kinds of things. There is (that saying), ‘Grant me the serenity to change the things that I can, accept the things that I can’t change, and the ability to know the difference between the two.’ We can only do on our end what we can, and they’re going to do what they do. I’m not saying this in a negative way. I was in WWE for 12 years. This is the way they’ve operated since 1984, as far as seeing a competitor.
There is nothing AEW can do to stop WWE from making over a billion dollars a year. They have these TV rights deals, they have this incredible back office where they are great at making deals with Netflix. There is nothing anybody can do, nobody can stop them from making billions of dollars a year. I would love to know, obviously, I know people in WWE who are great people. I don’t even like framing this in the terms of, ‘That’s bad.’ What is your decision-making process? What’s the process like of wanting us to not be there or not exist?”
Danielson continued, “It gives you options. AEW focuses on different things than WWE does. Having different wrestling companies allows different types of entertainment. Not only is it good for the fans, it’s super important for the wrestlers. Having two companies where you can make a living is really good for the wrestlers and production people in wrestling. I would think most wrestlers in WWE want AEW to keep existing because it’s good for them, but certain people there obviously don’t want us to exist. I’m not saying anything bad about them. I’m just saying, I’m curious as to why they desire that.
“There is going to be incredible talent in WWE, who WWE misses on, and they succeed in AEW. Great examples of that are Toni Storm and Swerve Strickland. There is going to be talents who AEW misses on, and they will succeed very well in WWE. It’s good for both.”
Danielson is certainly right about it being better to have two major companies in professional wrestling, but WWE clearly doesn’t care about that. They seem adamant about slowing AEW’s success and that likely won’t change any time soon.