Bryan Danielson Wanted To Face Kenny Omega In AEW Straight Away

Bryan Danielson has revealed it was his idea to face Kenny Omega in his first All Elite Wrestling match.

Danielson made his AEW debut on September 5 at All Out and The American Dragon immediately began feuding with Omega. The two men then clashed on September 22 at Dynamite: Grand Slam in New York City and fought to a time-limit draw, leaving the question of who is the better wrestler unresolved.

Speaking ahead of the match with the New York Post, Danielson noted he wanted to face Omega straight away as he wanted to avoid losing momentum in the same way he did after coming out of retirement in 2018 while in WWE.

"This is kind of one of my ideas I came in with is doing this right away. The idea came from when I came back from my retirement (in 2018) there were a lot of matches in WWE people wanted to see and we either took a long time to get to them or even didn't get to them at all and I think we lost some of the momentum when fans were excited about me coming back from my retirement. And at the time I felt yeah, build to these matches, build to these matches," Danielson said.

"I think with so many exciting people coming into AEW you can build to a CM Punk-Kenny Omega match. You can build to some of those matches, but I also think fans want to see something right away to get them super excited. To be fair, I want my first match in AEW to feel like a big deal. So there is no bigger deal than me versus Kenny Omega right now."

After Danielson came out of retirement in 2018, fans were excited about matches with The Miz and the likes of AJ Styles. WWE ultimately delayed booking those matches, though, and Danielson first feuded with Big Cass and then reformed Team Hell No with Kane before the company eventually got around to The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan feud. Danielson would then end the year as WWE Champion after defeating AJ Styles.