Bryan Danielson: ‘Final Countdown’ Was Too Expensive, We Could Play It 20 Times For Several $100,000

Bryan Danielson made his AEW debut at All Out, coming out to a “Ride Of The Valkyries” remix put together by Elliott Taylor.

Many fans were hoping Danielson would use “Final Countdown” by Europe, which was his theme during his ROH and Independent wrestling run.

Speaking to Chris “Doc” Mueller of Bleacher Report, Danielson confirmed that the rights to the theme was a bit too costly.

“Tony and I talked about a couple of things. We had talked about ‘The Final Countdown,’ but that was way too expensive,” he said. “I hate talking business stuff when I don’t exactly know what it was, but it wasn’t just the amount of money. They would only let [AEW] play it like 20 times a year or something like that. For several $100,000 you can play ‘Final Countdown’ 20 times a year. That doesn’t work for us.

“I had kind of wanted something a bit different, so I reached out to my friend, Elliott Taylor, and said ‘Hey, here’s an idea. But I don’t know if it’s any good. Could you do something like this?’ He dropped everything. I think he’s done 72 hours in the studio and made the song that I come out to now, which I think he’s also going to do a full-length release because it actually has like two chorus lyrics.

“I really, really liked it. And it also incorporates a chant that people would do when I was on the independents. I kind of wanted to get it in there. I would love for people to start chanting it again.”

The theme includes a chant of “You’re gonna get your fucking head kicked in,” a football chant that Danielson popularized during his time in ROH.

Danielson is set to make his AEW in-ring debut on Wednesday when he faces Kenny Omega at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam.

Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Dynamite Grand Slam beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday.