Bryan Danielson has revealed that he once had some blunt criticism for Vince McMahon after being set an unusual task by his former boss.
In early 2020, Danielson was still working for WWE but was taking a short break from the company while on paternity leave. The star has now explained that during this period he received a surprising phone call from Vince McMahon. Speaking to Bloomberg, the American Dragon said that McMahon asked him if he saw anything AEW was doing better than WWE.
Bryan Danielson Critical Of WWE
For the next two weeks, Danielson watched multiple AEW shows before returning his verdict. The star told McMahon that AEW “committed more time to and placed more value on the craft of fighting in the ring,” while adding a somewhat blunt summary about WWE.
“It feels like you’re watching a wrestling show without any wrestling,”
Danielson remained with WWE for a little over a year after his research assignment, before allowing his contract to expire. His final match for the company came on the April 30th, episode of SmackDown where he lost a “Title vs. Career” match to Roman Reigns.
Although WWE attempted to get the star to sign a new deal, he had his sights set elsewhere. On September 5th, 2021, Danielson made his AEW debut at All Out confronting The Elite who had been joined by Adam Cole who made his own debut just moments earlier.
In his early months with the company, Danielson squared off against the likes of Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page but the AEW World Championship continued to elude him.
However, Danielson has found himself back in title contention in recent weeks as he feuds with current champion MJF. The star is set to face MJF in an Ironman Match at Revolution, but only if he can keep winning matches in the meantime.