Bryan Danielson On WWE Releases: Things Like That Led Me To AEW

On November 4, WWE made their latest round of cuts, releases 17 talents from the main roster and NXT. 

For the year, WWE has released over 70 wrestlers including names like Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Andrade, Mickie James, Malakai Black, and more. 

Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Bryan Danielson, who left WWE on his own accord following his contract expiring in April, gave his thoughts on WWE making mass releases. 

“In some ways, I get it. In some ways, I feel like it’s not right. It’s hard because my father-in-law [John Laurinaitis] is head of talent relations and he is the one who has to call them all. One of the things that I’ve always had a hard time with, and I’ve been fired from WWE twice, so I kind of get this; it’s one thing if somebody does something bad. If you’re under contract and you’re not happy with the company, if they can fire you and give you 90 days, you should be able to give them 90 days to be released from your contract. On the flip side, if they’re only firing you because of budget cuts when they’re profitable than ever, I just don’t think that’s right.”

Danielson continued by saying, “They signed a lot of people behind contracts with AEW started to keep people from going to AEW then they realized, ‘AEW can’t sign all these people,’ so now the people that have too many high-end contracts, if they feel like they are getting paid more than they should be getting paid, they’ll let them go. You offered them a contract to be with you for three years, if you overpaid them, that’s your bad and you’re still a very profitable company. I wish they wouldn’t, but I also understand it’s business in America. Profits tend to be the most important things for companies You can even talk to the people within the company. I love Vince McMahon and have learned so much from him, but companies are not people. Corporation are their own people but for whatever reason, even good people make decisions that benefit a company that hurt the people that have worked so hard for the company. That’s hard on me mentally but it’s also the system that has been rewarded financially in the United States.

“I kind of just accepted that that’s what it was, except now I work for AEW. Tony Khan, he’s only let go of three people since the pandemic started and they were all disciplinary reasons. Other people, who are no longer with the company, if he didn’t want them, their contract expired and they weren’t re-signed. That’s how he approaches it. Until I saw that and dealt with that, I always thought (WWE’s way) was unfair, but ‘it’s just the way wrestling is and it works,’ except Tony Khan came in and he doesn’t do that. AEW from a money standpoint makes way less money than WWE. Things like that led me to want to go to AEW as well.” 

AEW releases Jimmy Havoc for disciplinary reasons and talents like Sadie Gibbs and CIMA due to travel restrictions during the pandemic. 

AEW has signed a handful of released WWE talent this year including Andrade El Idolo, Malakai Black, Bobby Fish, Tony Nese, Ruby Soho, and others. 

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