Bryan Danielson: People Backstage In WWE Were Saying ‘Women’s Wrestling Should Not Be Like Thunder Rosa vs. Britt Baker’

Bryan Danielson sheds some light on how the matches between Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker were perceived behind the scenes in WWE. 

Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker took part in a Lights Out Anything Goes Match at AEW Dynamite: St. Patrick’s Day Slam 2021. The match was a violent and bloody culmination of that stage in the ongoing rivalry between the two women and it was also one of the first times that North American women’s wrestlers competed in such a violent match on television. 

Bryan Danielson, who was working in WWE at the time as Daniel Bryan, says that behind the scenes at WWE, there was a shared sentiment that women’s wrestling should not feature that level of violence. In Bryan’s opinion, that match helped get women’s wrestling and AEW to the next level. 

“There was a ton of hoopla backstage in WWE when Britt wrestled Thunder Rosa and it was bloody,” Danielson recalled during a recent SXSW Panel. “There were a bunch of people backstage saying, ‘Women’s wrestling should not be like that. This is horrible. We would never do that.’ Except, if you’re talking about equal rights, letting women go out there and do things that men do. That kind of match took Britt and women’s wrestling and AEW to the next level. You’d watch it and be like, ‘These women are stars.’” 

Thunder Rosa recently returned to action and has been spending most of her time on the AEW Saturday Collision show.

Britt Baker hasn’t competed since September 2023 but is currently on the mend. Fans can read her comments on her eventual return here.

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