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  • 6 weeks ago
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00:00Now I'm joined by one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Bryan Danielson.
00:05Bryan, how's Australia been treating you?
00:07Oh, it's been great.
00:08Yeah?
00:08Yeah, love it here.
00:09What's the first thing you did when you got to Australia?
00:11Got coffee.
00:12Straight coffee, straight away?
00:13Uh, yes.
00:14What was the order? What was the go-to order?
00:15Uh, cold brew.
00:16Cold brew?
00:17Yeah, I only drink cold brew.
00:18It's like an Americano, like an iced Americano.
00:20Oh, no, no, no.
00:21Tastes nicer.
00:22So, yeah, so I think it tastes nicer.
00:24So a cold brew, what it is, is it's like an iced Americano is an Americano that you put over ice.
00:29Mm-hmm.
00:30A cold brew, you brew it overnight in the fridge.
00:33So you let, so for example, you let the ground coffee, you put it in water, and you put it in your fridge overnight, and then it just...
00:40Now, I know you're big into, you know, vegetarian, vegan diet.
00:44Yes, yeah.
00:45Is cold brew coffee better for you?
00:47I don't know.
00:48I don't know.
00:49It actually has a higher caffeine.
00:51Okay.
00:52And so I'm not convinced that it's, that more caffeine is what our society needs.
00:58Okay.
00:59It's just as a parent of two, and especially with our son being five years old and a maniac, more caffeine is what I need.
01:07Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:08Now, speaking of wrestling, a lot of, you are, in a promo you had with AEW, you said a lot of people call themselves the best in the world, but you are the effing best wrestler in the world.
01:19Are you still the best wrestler in the world?
01:20No.
01:21No?
01:22No, no.
01:23Not even close.
01:24Not anymore?
01:25No.
01:26I, in the last, gosh, even when I did that promo, I was not the best wrestler in the world.
01:34You know, like there was, there was a point where I stopped being able to do some of the things that I could normally do because my neck was so bad.
01:44And so shortly before my last match with Jon Moxley, I wrestled Okada on TV. And I never get tired when I wrestle. Ever. Right? And my legs, because my neck was so bad, my legs started giving out.
02:00Yeah.
02:01And it's like, I was like, oh no, what do I do now that my legs aren't working? And it's just like, it's just, it's just like, oh, okay, well, I'll, I'll try to get through this. And the, and which is really hard because the story of the match was he, you know, he's the continental champion.
02:15The first 20 minutes I needed to be pushing him because the continental title was only up for grabs for the first 20 minutes and I needed to be pushing the pace. I needed to be pushing the pace, but I couldn't because my legs weren't working. So it's like, so, so yeah, if my body was fully functional,
02:30I feel like my mind is as good for wrestling as ever, but my body's not fully functional.
02:35Well, in your eyes right now, who are the best wrestlers in the world?
02:38Okay. So I'm going to limit this to AEW because there's so many different styles of wrestling and all these different things of, of, of what you think. But as far as the people in AEW.
02:49And, and it's where the best wrestle.
02:51Yes. And, uh, but I think Bandido has had this incredible year. I don't know. He, uh, he's the ROH world champion.
03:00And he just had this match with Hedgesero on a ring of honor pay-per-view that was just like, it was awesome.
03:05And, uh, and so the Will Ospreay swerve hangman hangman's freaking awesome.
03:14I think, uh, Kyle Fletcher, Sydney's own Kyle Fletcher. Yeah.
03:19I mean, there's just, there's just so many guys. I mean, so, and then, I mean, and then, then you have to, that's even discounting the women. Right.
03:28And you look at Tony storm and Mercedes and they're, they're both, they're both fantastic. So yeah, I mean, I can't, it's hard for me to say because everybody wrestles kind of a different style.
03:37There's a new Japan wrestler that I love, uh, named Zack Sabre jr. And I think Zack, he's wrestling a completely different style than anybody else.
03:45And I just find it to be super compelling.
03:48Well, like you said, we've got a W grand slam coming to Sydney in 2026. I want your professional opinion.
03:55Who is the best Australian wrestler right now? You mentioned your Kyle. We've got buddy Matthews, Tony storms there in your eyes.
04:03Who's the best Aussie wrestler?
04:04Who do you know? I'm, I think I'm going to say Tony storm. Um, well, cause she has a full package.
04:11Yeah. She, she blows me away. Right. And, um, you know, wrestling, you know, wrestling is so difficult to get right.
04:23Right. To like really understand who you are as a character to go out there and perform and, you know, and that sort of thing.
04:30And sometimes I watched Tony storm wrestle and then just her character stuff and everything. And I'm just blown away.
04:35I think, I think she's fantastic. And I mean, uh, I'm blown away by Kyle Fletcher too, especially with how young he is and everything like that.
04:42Uh, he, he, he's to me going to definitely a future world champion, but it's like right now I would say Tony storm.
04:50I like his new look too. He's getting absolutely jacked. Oh my gosh. Shaved the head. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
04:55He was like, last time I wrestled him, he was already super strong and now he's even stronger.
05:01And it's just like, Oh, why are these young guys so big and strong? I just, I don't, I don't like it.
05:07It seems like we're going back in time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
05:10Now we want to see John Moxley here in Australia. I'm thinking, I hope he makes the trip out for grand slam.
05:15Last time you came across John Moxley, you wrestled him. He tried to suffocate you with a plastic bag.
05:20Yeah. And did you want to alert the authorities? It was kind of like an attempted murder on me.
05:24Yeah. In my hometown. And actually, but it wasn't actually him. He gave the bag to Wheeler Uda.
05:28Yes. And Wheeler Uda suffocated me. Then Claudio.
05:31He's an accomplice.
05:32Yes. And, and Claudio, my friend who I've known for 20 plus years stomped my head in with a chair.
05:37So it's like, yeah. Crazy. Yeah. And so one of the things is, is like, we, we've been our family, me, my wife, we've been to John and Renee's house.
05:49You can't go there anymore. No, no. That's for an awkward dinner party. Try to suffocate you. Yeah. Yeah.
05:54Like it's, it's not like, you know, trying to strangle you with a tie. He actually tried to suffocate you.
05:58Yes. Yes. And you know, I was supposed to be on the zero hour for our last forbidden door pay-per-view and, uh, and they advertised me for it.
06:07But when I saw the thing of me being on there with Renee, I said, uh, uh, not going to do it.
06:12Okay. I won't even associate with, uh, John Moxley spouse.
06:16Well, yeah, that, that's, that's what I would do if I were you, but no, you, you kind of got one back on him.
06:21Yeah. Yeah. You got into, you entered yourself into the hangman match. Yes. You got your revenge.
06:27How did it feel getting back in the ring?
06:29Yeah. Yeah. It felt, it felt good while I was doing it.
06:32And, uh, and then the next day it didn't feel so good.
06:35Really? It's a bit sore.
06:36Yeah. I mean, I think your wife said she was a bit worried.
06:38Yes.
06:39And she thought your doctor might have the shits a little bit.
06:41Yeah. What was the doctor's reaction and how did you feel?
06:44He just shook his head. He's just like, Brian, you're an idiot.
06:47Yeah. It was a suicide dive that maybe put him off of it.
06:49Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
06:51He was just, Brian, you're an idiot.
06:52And then I go out there and like the blue Panther mask.
06:54Yes.
06:55Uh, it was really funny because my wife was like, why did you wear the blue Panther mask
07:02when like, it's very, and then you start yesing right away when you get in.
07:06It's not like you're, and I said, well, originally the blue Panther mask was not to hide my identity.
07:12Once I get to the ring, it was to get through the crowd without, without somebody noticing me.
07:18Yes.
07:19Right. But then when I tried to hop the rail, I couldn't get it off.
07:23So I also had this hoodie, right? So I had the hoodie and then I was like, I got the hoodie off, but then I just had the blue Panther mask.
07:29But what it looked like it was Brian Danielson didn't do the yes.
07:32Yeah.
07:33The blue Panthers.
07:34Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
07:36Well, like speaking of that, you, you are recovering from the neck injuries and it seems like neck injuries are becoming so common in wrestling.
07:44You know, Will Ospreay. Yep. You got Cope who's had neck injuries. He's still wrestling.
07:49Will having to go get surgery and he has two herniated discs. Yeah.
07:53Do you have to provide any advice to those guys and like, what's the best course of action for them and their wrestling style going forward?
07:59Yeah. So, you know, it's really interesting because the, like my neck stuff is complicated by my previous neck stuff.
08:10And so if you, the, the big thing is to prevent it before it starts getting bad, you know, and realize.
08:19So for example, Will Ospreay, he can do 10 million amazing things. He doesn't need to do all of the amazing things.
08:25He can pick the amazing things that don't hurt his neck. Right. But he is built very much like me where you just want to go out there and give everything you've got every time out.
08:36Right. And so, um, so yeah, but, but I think one of the things that we need to start doing as wrestlers is to one monitor ourselves as far as the things that we're doing in the ring.
08:49And hey, saying that, like, listen, we all have these internal contradictions of things that we believe and that we do something completely different.
08:57So I realized that as I'm saying this, you can say, uh, but Brian, you didn't do that. And like, yeah, it's always easier to say it when you're done, when you're done with the wrestling.
09:09And so, uh, but then I also think that we need to do the preventative stuff, which is stuff I was really good at doing.
09:15And that's why, you know, I had, I started having really bad neck stuff in two, in 2013 and I was able to wrestle hard for, you know, there was the three years where I was forced to retire, but my, my run in AEW, my neck didn't get bad.
09:29It was other stuff. I like, I broke my arm. I fractured my orbital bone. Um, it was other stuff that I would get injured by.
09:37And then it was only the last six months that my neck got really bad again. And so it was like, uh, but it's doing the preventative stuff that's like day in and day out.
09:46And that's the thing. That's the thing is once you have an, an injury, any sort of injury, neck, shoulder, whatever it is, it's like, you have to work on that pretty much every day of your life.
09:56Have you, have you spoken to Will and kind of giving him some tips?
09:59Uh, no, I mean, the last time I spoke to Will was at Forbidden Door and I, because they were doing that cage match.
10:04And I said, Will, I'm begging you, please don't do anything stupid.
10:09And then jumped off the cage.
10:10And then he jumped off the cage.
10:11Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:13Yeah. But you know, but, but I get it right. Like, um, in WWE, it was, uh, it was right before I needed neck surgery.
10:21So I was having these shooting pains down my arm for months and they said, eventually you're going to get neck surgery, but you can keep wrestling until you lose strength in your hand.
10:31And, uh, I couldn't unlock my car door.
10:35Yeah. And so, um, but so they're like, okay, you're going to need surgery. We're going to do it, you know, in two weeks or whatever it is.
10:44Uh, but before that you have this Falls Count Anywhere match with Kane. And I still did a diving headbutt off a forklift knowing that my, like, but it's just like you, you're in the moment.
10:57You're in the moment. Yeah. You do these things. Right. Also, I don't want to say this about all wrestlers, but I'm speaking about myself.
11:05I can be really dumb, right? There are times when I might sound smart, but it's just soundings. I'm, I, when you put the, when you make a list of the dumbest people alive, I might be.
11:20You might be on the list. Okay. Well, someone that has come back from neck injuries and like you came out of retirement, Cope.
11:26Cope's now back with Christian, his best friend. Now I have to ask you, could you forgive your best friend after he tried to end your career as well?
11:35So it's interesting. The, what I think of, I think of friendships a lot like old growth forests.
11:43Okay. Right. Once you clear cut an old growth forest, it takes 500 years to, for it to grow.
11:50There's some tough stuff that he told me to go F himself. I think he almost gave him a concerto at one point. Like, hard to look past, but they're back together.
11:58Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, but I suspect Adam Copeland came into AW with this idea of the, getting the band back together.
12:09Yeah. The reunion. Right. Yeah. Okay. So it's, uh, yeah. If you, if you don't have that as your goal, then, and then you're just, you try to be a goal.
12:19Just you try to be present as to what things actually are. Then you realize, Oh, okay. Here's, here's some trust issues that I have.
12:28It's good to see him back together. Hopefully we get to see him five second pose or something again. That'd be great.
12:32Yeah. But I want to ask you about Tony Khan. He's running the show now. AW has been around for six and a half years.
12:39It is competition. It is now full fledged wrestling outfit. How has Tony Khan evolved as a boss over the last six and a half years?
12:48Yeah. So I think he's, uh, I haven't been there the whole time, obviously, but during the time that I've been here, he's gone through phases where letting people in and then sometimes realizing that he's letting too many people in.
13:03Right. In the sense of the decision making and, um, and that sort of thing. And so, yeah, so, but he's all, he's always been great to work with.
13:11And he, one of the things that I like is he really respects talent's point of view on things and, and yeah, he's a, he's a great boss to work for.
13:18Now there's a lot of free agents on the market right now in wrestling. AW works with New Japan Forbidden Door. It's nice to see everyone kind of coming together. If you could pick one free agent on the market right now to come to AW, who would it be?
13:33Oh gosh. That's really hard. Um, I don't know who all the free agents are.
13:40They kind of, it's, everyone's kind of confused right now.
13:42Yes. Because you don't know if it's real or not.
13:44Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I'm going to say, I don't know.
13:50Okay. Yeah. That's a, that's a fair answer. Yeah. Is that the waters are too murky right now?
13:54Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now there's a lot of wrestlers that go down the acting route. Okay.
13:59They retire. Now you've seen MJF be happy Gilmore's son. We know the rock and Batista, great actors.
14:06Did you ever want to get into the acting route after your wrestling career? No. Not at all. No. And so, and, uh, I don't watch TV. I, I don't watch movies.
14:17Really? Yeah. Like what I, what, what I do for entertainment is I read books and I like wrestling.
14:24Okay. And so it's like, you know, so for example, uh, 15 hour flight here, I read a lot and then I watched some old eighties wrestling, uh, with, with kind of the premise of showing younger wrestlers who have it.
14:41There's a couple of wrestlers who ask me for like, Hey, what should I be watching wrestling wise or whatever it is?
14:46And so I watched the, these, these matches, which I suit, which I really enjoyed.
14:50And then wrote down notes for them as like, okay, pay attention to this or pay attention to that.
14:53And that's, I enjoy doing it. Like I, I, I do it for fun. Now, if you were to say, Brian, let's sit and watch a 90 minute movie together.
15:03I would probably fall asleep.
15:05Yeah. Or decline the offer.
15:07Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, although my wife, my wife, she likes, she likes shows.
15:13Reality shows.
15:14Well, yeah, actually she, she never, she never watches reality shows, but like, she likes watching shows or whatever it is.
15:20And sometimes she'll be like, Brian, you and I should watch a show together before we go to bed.
15:25The kids are down. Let's watch a show together.
15:27And then I watch it. I'm like, Oh, you know, there's been, there's been some ones, but it's not like, I don't, I don't look at television and be like, Oh, that's something I'd like to do.
15:40It's like, yeah, no, it just has, it really doesn't hold any interest.
15:44Do you think you could be a good actor? I mean, you know, some of your best work has been on a television show.
15:49Right.
15:50Do you think you could be a good actor?
15:51Well, I don't know. I mean, so actually here's, here's what I will say about that. I think I can learn to do anything.
15:59I, I, and I, and I don't think I'm special in that regard. I think most human beings, if they learn how to learn, can learn to do just about anything.
16:09If you put them on to it.
16:10Yes. Yeah. And so, but, but, but you have to put all your focus into it, right? You can't, I can't become an actor if all I do is just like, if I don't go to acting classes and I don't go do these things or whatever it is.
16:23One of the things that I really respect about Batista is that he's all in on acting, right? He wants to be a serious actor. He wants to, he wants to do these different roles and this kind of thing. And so it's like, so if you want to put that level of effort into it, great. But that's not my priority in life.
16:39And how has life been after not being a full time wrestler, you keeping yourself in shape, how are you doing it? And are we going to see more of you in the ring here and there? Like you did it all in.
16:50Uh, so I don't know how much you'll see of me in the ring. Um, but maybe doing some more commentary stuff. Like, uh, I did commentary for, for, for Ben Doerr. Um, I'm backstage at AEW sometimes.
17:04Yeah. Um, so some of that kind of stuff.
17:07There's like a crashing indie show recently as well. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's like, yeah, it actually, from a wrestling perspective, it seems to be more fun to go like do an indie show in front of 200 people or something like that.
17:23Mm-hmm. Not because, and not, and that doesn't say anything about AEW. It's just that the expectations for me would be so much less.
17:30Yeah. In the sense of like, okay, I don't feel like my body can do what I would be expected to do in AEW.
17:36Mm-hmm. In a, and that's one of the great things about going to AEW shows is that there's so much, it's action packed, it's hard hitting, it's, it's great. But I don't feel confident that I'm able to perform at that level anymore.
17:47Now, now that you're not a performer, what are you doing to keep yourself in shape?
17:50Oh, I mean, I, I lift three times a week and then I do cardio three times a week and then I cold plunge, sauna, yoga, physical therapy, all that kind of stuff. I do a lot of hiking.
18:00You know, I'm very active. I like to be, I like to be active, but, uh, like I was talking to you guys before we started filming, I'm in like a strength phase right now, which is I haven't been able to do a strength phase.
18:12I wasn't able to do a strength phase while I was, while I was wrestling, uh, for like the last three or four years.
18:20Crazy. So yeah. Yeah. No, enjoy it. Yeah. Enjoy it while you can. Now things, something that's been gone crazy online is the transformation of the rock.
18:29Okay. He's a guy that likes to keep fit outside of the ring. Yep. But everyone's saying he's not so jacked anymore. He's kind of leaned out now. I don't know if it's for a role or if he's just, you know, trying this new look.
18:40Have you seen how the rock looks online? No. It's skinny a rock right now. I mean, okay. Is it skinnier or is it skinny?
18:49I'll show you a photo. I want to get Daniel. I want to get Brian Danielson's raw reaction to the rock new look. Okay. Okay.
18:55Now it's kind of gone viral. Yeah. They're not calling the rock anymore. They're calling the pebble.
19:02He's, he's almost unrecognizable. Yeah. He looks great. Do you think the new look suits him?
19:11Yeah. I think he looks great. Think he'll be for a new role probably?
19:14Oh, I have no idea. I mean, he might just want to live longer.
19:17That's true. He might just want to be healthy. Yeah. And everyone's saying what's going on with the rock.
19:21Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and you never know. And this is one of the things I always think about, you know, if, if somebody's lost size or whatever it is, you never know what kind of injuries he has or whatever, or because he's an actor, he could just be getting ready for a role. Right.
19:36But it's like, uh, but I mean like, okay, like, okay, I have to start training different or I have to start eating less or okay. The cancer screening came up as this or whatever it is. And now I need to eat a more plant-based diet or whatever it is. There's a million different things that could be. He still looks healthy.
19:53Yeah. But do you know what's funny? Seems he's super handsome, right?
19:57He's good looking blood. He's like super handsome guy. Do you know what it looked like to me when I saw that picture in comparison to the rest of his body? Now it looks like he has a big head.
20:06Guess what, Rock? You're not so handsome anymore. How does it feel? I mean, he's still obviously much more handsome than me. But how does it feel to not be as handsome as you used to be?
20:16Yeah. Take that, Rock.
20:19I can see that. I can actually see that. There you go.
20:23Didn't it look like a big head? It did. It did look like a big head.
20:26Maybe it's because we're just so used to it being in proportion to his like jack delts and stuff.
20:30Yeah. I mean, and it might just be that we never noticed because he was so jack. He just always had this giant head.
20:35And then now it's becoming more nose. No, I don't know if you you like John Cena has a huge head like huge.
20:44It is a large head. Yeah. Yeah. It's a large head. Yeah. But it used to feed him on a very large body.
20:49Yeah. I mean, it still fits him. I mean, so because, you know, my sister in law dated him for a long time. So like I've met his brothers and stuff and they're all just big bone. They all have like big meaty hands. And they're, they're just, I was like, oh man. Like there's big, they're just big humans.
21:07Yeah. So look, I'd say you're, you're still in proportion post wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
21:12Kind of look relatively the same. That's why I think, you know, maybe could be training to keep jumping in that ring. Maybe I'd love to see you in Australia.
21:19Okay. You know, maybe interfere in another John Moxley match or are you done with the Death Riders?
21:24Uh, I don't, you know, I don't know. I'd really like to get out there and just do some hammer locks.
21:29Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure that's what Australia wants is to see, uh, 45 minutes of Bryan Danielson doing the hammer locks, but that's what I'd like to do.
21:38Yeah. And so, yeah. Well, I want to get your thoughts on the current state of kayfabe right now. Cause there's a lot of documentaries out.
21:45Okay. Cooling the curtain back. Okay. Taking a look behind the scenes of wrestling. How do you feel about that breaking the fourth wall and kayfabe no longer being a thing?
21:54So I haven't seen, um, the, the, that documentary WWE is doing unreal. So I haven't seen it. So I don't know. I don't know anything about it.
22:03You know, it was, it's really interesting because I think, uh, I actually talked to, it was Dusty Rhodes, you know, and, and, you know, and Cody was there. And so it was like, uh, but he had said something about like, you know, oh, all you, Dusty was saying to me. And it was something along the lines of, he was giving me a little bit of crap and saying like, oh, you guys are all, you guys all break kayfabe and all we're friends.
22:27Or I said, wait a second, you guys are the ones who started it your generation because all those, all those shoot interviews came out like in the early two thousands or whatever it was YouTube internet. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, and it was like, you know, you get all the eighties wrestlers saying things like, oh man, I worked with so-and-so and it was this and it was that. And then you have the, you know, but maybe that's like, that was for hardcore wrestling fans. Like you, I would go watch a Scott Hall shoot interview or something like that.
22:55Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But now it's almost showing the casual viewer. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's kind of different.
23:01Yeah. Well, and this new series that they're doing is the, is like, no, it's a show put out there to expose the thing.
23:11Yeah. But I, you know, I don't, I don't know. Like I don't have any, I don't have any predictions for the future as how it will affect wrestling.
23:21It's not like anybody thinks wrestling is real. Right. Um, so either you like it and you get caught up in it and you're, and you appreciate like, oh, cause I had actually, gosh, who was I just talking?
23:36I was just talking to somebody recently and it was like a, it was a casual person who, it wasn't anybody involved in wrestling.
23:42And they said, you know, I watched that thing and like, it, like, I didn't realize all that went into wrestling.
23:49Like they weren't Matt producers and all that kind of stuff. And it made them a bigger fan of it.
23:54So it, there could be that a greater appreciation of the work it takes to put on a wrestling TV show or, or it could just be like, you know, I don't think nobody thinks wrestling is MMA.
24:05What if I ask you, would you like to see pulling back the curtain a bit more in AEW, something like that for AEW?
24:11Uh, I, I don't think so. I mean, but that's my protective instinct.
24:16Mm-hmm.
24:17And that's, I don't know if that's necessarily the right move. Right. I think, you know, one of the things that AEW needs, um, is more exposure. Right.
24:27The likes of which, you know, as the challenger brand, you know, and, uh, you know, for a company that's only been around for six years, right.
24:37More awareness is going to, so if we can get more awareness by doing some of these other things, you know, maybe that's good.
24:45My instinct, and I'm not saying that it's right.
24:48Yeah.
24:49Would be to say no, but that, you know, there's, there's so many ways to look at this world.
24:55And so it's like, and I am, if there's one thing that I'm confident of is that I make stupid decisions all the time.
25:04Yeah. So we respect them because you're the American dragon. We respect them. Okay.
25:08No, that's a, that's a value point. But speaking of that being the challenger brand now, there's this narrative online that WWE is trying to counter program AEW.
25:17Which, which, I mean, is it, it's pretty obvious.
25:19Yeah. It looks like they're moving pay-per-views on the same dates as you guys.
25:23Yeah. Now, what's the reaction from the locker room backstage when they see that they're trying to be counter program?
25:29Is it motivating or how, how do the boys react?
25:31So, so I don't know because I, you know, I'm not there a ton and nobody really talks to me about that.
25:38Yeah.
25:38I just, you know, I just, I think of it and I wonder, right? Like, I'm just curious of like what the people who are making these decisions, what they're thinking, right?
25:50In the sense of like, oh, okay, this AEW thing, it's a real dangerous to our billion dollar business.
25:58Mm-hmm.
25:59That can't be it. The, because the one thing that it, it, I think is that AEW existing and being this challenger brand and being as successful as we've been has changed the landscape for wrestling for the wrestlers themselves.
26:19Yeah.
26:20So it's like wrestlers are being paid more now than ever. Right. Uh, from a sports, uh, rights perspective. So for example, most major sports in the United States, the, the players get anywhere between 40 to 50% of the revenue.
26:36Yeah. And WWE was paying their wrestlers nowhere close to that. So independent contractors. Yeah. Cause as independent contractors and now, and now keep in mind, they're still not paying anywhere close to that, but they do have to pay more because if they don't, the talent's going to leave and go to AEW.
26:53Yeah. AEW does pay that 40 to 50% of their revenue to their wrestlers, you know, despite making much less, much less money. I mean, we still, our TV rights deal was incredible, but we're, we're still the challenger brand catching up on however many years WWE has had.
27:09It almost shows that they respect how big of a threat you guys are in the industry.
27:13But so, but it's interesting because we're, we're not at the point of being a threat. It's, it's just a weird, it's one of the things that like people who really crave power and a lot of money play these weird games that I don't understand.
27:31So I mean, it's doing for the sake of doing it maybe.
27:33Well, and I, I don't, I don't, I don't understand. It's like, okay, we're going to run, we're going to run all the competitors that might be competitive with us out of this business. Why? It's good. It's good for the wrestlers. It's good for the wrestlers, both in AEW and in WWE. It's good for, it's been good for them. Like, okay, if AEW wouldn't have started, would Cody Rhodes be where he is right now?
27:57Very true. No, they have a megastar because AEW exists, right? Would CM Punk ever have come back? Probably not.
28:06Yeah. And so it's like, you know, there, there's all those things. So I like, I would be really interested and I'm not saying this in the sense of like, oh, those evil people. Cause I, I like, so when you think of corporations are not people, right?
28:21In the United States, I don't know if it's like this in Australia.
28:24Probably the same.
28:24But, uh, but corporations have been, have been determined as like legally as people, they have the same rights as people. And it's just like, wait, what? But they're not people. Right. So these corporations make these decisions, but like the people in WWE, like a lot of people I know are great people. Right. And so it's like, I, I'd be interested to know, okay, what's the decision making process in this? Why? You know, but you know, it's not my, not my monkeys, not my circus, whatever the word is for that. You know what I mean?
28:53And so, so like, sometimes I just, I think about it and I'm like, oh, and then I think a little bit too much about it. I'm like, oh, not my monkeys, not my circus.
29:01Okay. Yeah. Stay out of it. Yeah, exactly. No need to. No need to. Now me and my brother and I, we made our wrestling debut on the Indies here in Melbourne.
29:09Oh, congratulations.
29:10MCW. Now I think we didn't look too bad in the ring. Okay. Okay. Now we, we didn't get the win. Okay. But we had a great showing, you know, and I want to get your thoughts. How can we be on AEW Grand Slam in Sydney? Ooh.
29:24We'd be some home crowd favorites. I think we'd be some good baby faces. Okay. So it's a tough ask. It's a tough ask because the, so we already have hometown people.
29:36Of course. Yeah. So I would have to see your skill level.
29:41Oh, okay. I'm going to send you a video. Okay. I'm going to send you a video. We're athletes. Okay. We're athletes. I'll preface by that.
29:46You look, you guys look athletes. Yeah. And I think we've got a pretty decent following here in Sydney. So we get a bit of a home crowd pop,
29:52but maybe we could accompany someone like a Buddy Matthews or a Kyle Fletcher. Okay.
29:57Work the crowd a little bit. Take a few, take a few bumps. I don't know. Okay. Maybe put a good word into Tony for us. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
30:05Possibility or not really? Uh, I would have, I would honestly have to see. Okay.
30:10Right. Because I never, you never discount because you guys look when I, when you guys walked in, I was like, oh, these are some athletic dudes.
30:21Yeah. Right. Rugby plays. Rugby. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I thought. I was, I was like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so these, these, these are athletic dudes and yeah, it's, it's all a matter of can,
30:34can, can these people bring something to the table? Okay. And that's all, that's always how I look at it. Yeah. Now I will, I will show you quickly our, uh,
30:44our quick highlights. All right.
30:49Obviously this is off a couple of days of training as well. Okay.
30:56See a nice little, uh, cushion shove and then into a spine buster here. Uh huh.
31:00Decent spine buster. Yeah. Decent spine buster.
31:063D. Okay.
31:11Nick copped a Superman punch there. Yeah.
31:13I was winded on that occasion. Okay.
31:18Yeah.
31:18Brad getting right into it here. Massive slap.
31:21Yeah. I just want you to watch Nick's bump here.
31:25Not scared to take risks. Go to the high flying mount.
31:27Yeah.
31:29Oh.
31:30That's me doing a bit of a white noise there. And then there's a,
31:33I'm not scared to take it to the top rope. Okay.
31:37And then taken there.
31:39And look, that, that was our first night out. Now I'm not saying we've got to put on a five star match like you have.
31:45Right.
31:45But I'm saying that we could potentially help out other Aussie stars on the card.
31:50Okay.
31:51So what are we going to do to speak to Tony Khan about getting on AW Grand Slam?
31:55So here's the thing you have to understand about talking to Tony Khan.
31:58The odds of you guys talking to Tony Khan are very slim.
32:01Okay.
32:01It's very difficult for me to talk to Tony Khan.
32:03Okay.
32:04We, he is right now in the middle of Jacksonville Jaguars football season.
32:08Very busy time.
32:09Yeah.
32:09Fulham soccer season and also producing AW shows.
32:13So it's like, so talking to Tony Khan is very difficult prospect right now that said, okay, what are like, if you are pitching a TV show, putting a deck together as far as like, okay, here's our social media following.
32:27Here's our, this, here's our, that, this is what we can bring to the table.
32:30If you, if you do this and then it's like putting that in front of, uh, people like QT Marshall and, uh, and Sanjay, Sanjay Dutt in the sense of like, okay.
32:43And then they look at it as like, okay, Sanjay is really great at seeing people for, oh, this would really help us.
32:49Or this, even if it's just local marketing or whatever it is.
32:53So.
32:53Okay.
32:53Yeah.
32:54I might have to get some contact information off you, but I'll message QT on Instagram, but look, uh, Brian Danielson, I want to thank you for your time.
33:00It's a pleasure to have you in Australia.
33:02We can't wait for AW Grand Slam.
33:04So make sure you tune it in.
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