Bryan Danielson Explains Why AEW Didn’t Use ‘The Final Countdown’ for His Entrance Theme, Why AEW’s Younger Talent Is the Future

– Bleacher Report’s Chris Mueller recently interviewed AEW’s Bryan Danielson ahead of his in-ring debut tomorrow night against Kenny Omega on AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam. He discussed not bringing back Europe’s “The Final Countdown” as his entrance theme when he signed with AEW, along with his thoughts on the younger talent on AEW’s roster. Below are some highlights:

Bryan Danielson on going with his new theme song over “Final Countdown” in AEW: “Tony and I talked about a couple of things. We had talked about ‘The Final Countdown,’ but that was way too expensive. 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.”

His thoughts on the younger talent in AEW: “The younger guys in AEW are the future of the business. And they’re all different, which is what’s really cool,” he said. “Darby Allin is very different from Sammy Guevara, who’s very different than Jungle Boy, who’s very different than MJF. But I think variety is the key to the future of athletes. It’s because, especially now, people get tired of the same old thing relatively quickly. One of the things that I’m interested in, in general, is the idea of actually learning from younger talent. Picking one person is so difficult, because they’re all developing at such a fast rate. But I think Allin has such a smart mind for wrestling and a great balance between crazy stuff and excellent storytelling. I think he’s really good at that. Then you’ve got someone like MJF who is such a great talker. His style is also very story-driven, but more action-packed than it would have been if he had come in when I came in 21 years ago. There’s going to be somebody who comes in that none of us expect, and they’re just going to blow everybody away.”

Bryan Danielson on Darby Allin: “I saw Darby in Evolve before he was in AEW. I thought ‘Oh, yeah, this guy’s fun.’ I would have never expected that if you put them on national TV. He’s one of AEW’s most popular guys right now just because he connects to people through stories. He is a very smart person in general and has a lot of drive. I was talking to him at my first Dynamite. I was like ‘Woah, he does a lot of stuff.’ He put out a skateboard with Tony Hawk or something like that, and he wasn’t bragging about it. We were actually talking about meditation, and he was asking me about my meditation practice. He was talking about his method and how he is very goal-driven and focusing on these things, and mine is the complete opposite. It’s like the absence of goals. But it was really interesting to talk to him about it.”

As noted, Danielson also wrote a thank you message to WWE ahead of his match with Kenny Omega.