Major AEW Star Growing In Influence Backstage
This top AEW player was growing in backstage stature pre-CM Punk's latest eruption.
Bryan Danielson has grown in backstage influence in AEW over the past six weeks, reports PWInsider's Mike Johnson.
Johnson reports that Danielson's spurt in political influence goes back to before August's All In event, with the Blackpool Combat Club member "taken on responsibility to trying to facilitate between talent."
All In turned out to be the last night in CM Punk's controversy-laden AEW career. The 44-year-old was involved in another backstage fight, this time with Jack Perry, leading to an internal investigation and the unanimous decision for internal and external stakeholders (including legal professionals) that Punk should be fired. AEW announced the Chicagoan had been let go last Saturday.
Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter before All In, AEW founder and CEO Tony Khan stated that should anything ever happen to him, Danielson is whom he'd trust to run the company:
He hasn’t been around as much lately, because he’s been recovering from an injury. But if I got hit by a bus, or if I was ever incapacitated for some reason, the person I told my father that he should turn to is Bryan Danielson.
June saw Danielson sidelined with a shattered forearm while wrestling Kazuchika Okada at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view, though he returned to face Ricky Starks at All Out last week. The 'American Dragon' is understood to be involved in creative for Collision - and is now expected to make the Saturday night show his home going forward.