Bryan Danielson Reportedly Motivated To Leave WWE To Improve The Whole Industry

WWE and All Elite Wrestling reportedly made very similar offers to Bryan Danielson, who made the decision based on what he thought would be best for the wrestling industry on the whole.

Danielson made his debut for AEW at All Out on Sunday, confronting World Champion Kenny Omega and The Elite. The American Dragon departed WWE in April, at the expiration of his contract.

According to Dave Meltzer, WWE and AEW made similar deals to the 40-year-old in term of financial package and permitting him to also wrestle in NJPW, but Danielson determined become All Elite as he believed it would be the biggest benefit to the wrestling industry.

Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio: "Both offers (from WWE and AEW) were money wise similar and both would have allowed him to do New Japan. WWE was going to allow him to do New Japan and he was trying to open the door for other people in WWE that wanted to go to New Japan to be able to do that but that seems to be a dead issue right now from a WWE standpoint. I haven’t heard anything about WWE guys going to New Japan.

"One of the things that he was talking about making his decision about was what would be the best thing for the industry as a whole as opposed what would be the best thing for him…perhaps, probably in looking at the picture, he may have felt like Mick Foley did many many years ago when he went to TNA, that the best thing for the industry is competition at a high level and Mick Foley went to TNA years ago for that reason...

“At the end of the day, I am sure that he probably got along really good with Tony Khan but he is a big Vince McMahon fan, more than people really understand. He’s a big fan of Vince McMahon as a person, so it was not an easy decision. His wife and his sister-in-law are probably gonna be back in WWE. They have said that. They are not going to AEW as far as I know. It was [John Laurinaitis’s] job to make sure that Bryan signed and did not go so that’s a tricky thing there but at the end of the day, he made the decision to go."

H/T WrestleNews.co