Secret Power Players Pulling Strings In Wrestling Today
3. Bryan Danielson
Bryan Danielson, when speaking to the New York Post in September last year, was keen to play down rumours that he had joined the AEW creative team and that he had effectively supplanted CM Punk in the role of Collision co-booker.
He said that “80%” of the show - “if not more” - is booked by Tony Khan. Collision is a “Tony Khan-run” programme. Danielson referred to himself as a sounding board who is sometimes asked for his thoughts, but not always. Often, he’s as surprised as you are when the match cards are announced. He will offer suggestions to tweak details, but that - according to Danielson - is the extent of his input.
Tony Khan meanwhile has indicated that Danielson’s input is more valuable than that. A month before Danielson claimed that his position had been embellished, Khan disclosed to the Hollywood Reporter that, were he unable to perform his duties as head booker for whatever reason, Danielson would succeed him as part of AEW’s continuity plan.
This was interesting, particularly since Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, Executive Vice Presidents, had until December 2019 formed part of the booking committee alongside Khan (and Cody Rhodes).
The Elite clearly have control over their direction - their identity is all over their quite incredible 2024 resurgence - but this choice still highlights the extent to which AEW is a very different company to the one that first promised to change the world.