Shortly after it was revealed CM Punk had entered talks with AEW, Bodyslam.net's Cassidy Haynes reported that Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson is also heading to the company. Now, he's elaborated on the biggest story he's ever broken and revealed a few more key details.
"I know that he asked to have less dates, comparable money," Haynes tells Wrestling Inc. "He wanted to work in Japan, and he wanted to be able to have creative input on his character and storylines and stuff and he got all that. It’s not really control because everything goes through Tony [Khan], but it’s input. He wanted creative input."
There had been reports Bryan was working on SmackDown's creative team, hence why he was making an effort to put over wrestlers like Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. However, they were soon sidelined for Bryan to be put in WrestleMania's main event, something many fans questioned at the time because he'd spent weeks losing to those Superstars.
Clearly, Bryan wants a little more input than WWE allowed, and Haynes would go on to elaborate on what the former WWE Champion has planned when he heads to Japan.
"The only thing I heard was he wanted to go to Japan. So that makes me think New Japan stuff, and of course, the dream match guy in any of us are going, ‘What does that mean for the G1?’ You start thinking about all those match-ups, but with him saying that Japan was a factor in him signing, that’s as far as I know as far as potential Japanese match-ups. That would be something else. There’s plans for potential opponents. Japan was a factor in where he wanted to go."
It's definitely exciting to think about what comes next for Bryan, and he's bound to make a major impact in both AEW and NJPW. Whether he plans to bring the Yes Movement with him remains to be seen, but something tells us the former WWE Superstar will bring back his American Dragon persona.
Rumour has it Bryan is debuting for AEW in September, but we'll be sure to keep you updated.