Bryan Danielson: Everyone In AEW Has Access To Tony Khan
Everyone from the top to the bottom of the card
Sep 23, 2021
Bryan Danielson has described AEW wrestlers' access to Tony Khan as "wonderful" ahead of his debut match against Kenny Omega at Dynamite: Grand Slam.
Danielson had spent the last 11 years in WWE, where access to Chairman Vince McMahon can often be difficult, with stories of talent waiting outside of McMahon's office for hours being a regular occurrence.
That isn't the case in AEW with President Tony Khan, though, and Danielson told Bleacher Report that "everybody has access" to the boss.
Speaking about the differences between the WWE and AEW locker rooms, Bryan said: "It's hard for me to say honestly, it's weird because WWE itself has changed so much in the time that I've been there. People go in, and I think this happens in every company regardless, and push for ideas that will make them look good. And so everybody does that. So I think more of the politics, the struggle in WWE is that the system is so big that it's hard to get access to the people you need to get access to, to get anything to change.
"One of the wonderful things about AEW is that almost everybody has access to Tony [Khan]. He's very friendly and very approachable. It's not just me, it's people lower on the card who will go up and talk to Tony. It's a very open-source system. And as the company gets bigger, that might actually not be functional.
"One thing I will say is that I feel like the locker room is more upbeat at AEW. I think most of the talent feels like they're a part of something. They feel like they're not only just a part of this company, but they're also a part of an industry-type change. They feel like they're a part of the wrestling business changing, and I think that that's really cool. And I also think it's interesting because there are a lot more younger people in the AEW’s locker room."
Elsewhere in the interview, Danielson revealed that he would love to compete in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax.