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Bryan Danielson has wrestled in three matches so far since he debuted with AEW last month, and they’ve all been great. A lot of pro wrestling fans are stoked to see the American Dragon perform at the highest level in the ring, and it appears he will deliver on those expectations in AEW.
In an interview with Action News on 6abc to hype up AEW’s Philadelphia card this week, Bryan explained that AEW’s emphasis on in-ring action is one thing that differentiates their product from WWE.
“This is one of the things that drew me to AEW, and why I kind of wanted to come to AEW, is that AEW is like a wrestling-first company. It’s a wrestling company for wrestling fans...and sometimes WWE is more just based on general entertainment. They want to reach as many casual viewers as possible. Where I think AEW is like, hey if you love wrestling, here’s this. But also, even if you’re not a wrestling fan, we’re putting on wrestling, and the wrestling itself is gonna bring you in. You know what I mean?”
“And I think that’s one of the really unique things about AEW. If you were to do a comparison of the two, like just watching the shows, you’ll see that there’s a lot more wrestling in the two hours of Dynamite than there is even in a three hour Raw. And sometimes there’s more wrestling on an AEW Dynamite show than there is in Raw and SmackDown combined.”
“So that’s one of the things that drew me to it. Because as a fan, I mean when I was in high school everybody loved The Rock and Steve Austin. They were my least favorite people, ‘cause all they did was talk! So I liked the wrestler wrestlers, you know?”
In other words, AEW caters to wrestling fans first, while WWE is more focused on casual fans.
Do you think Danielson’s comparison of AEW and WWE is right on the money?