Bryan Danielson Reveals Vince McMahon Asked Him If AEW Were Doing Anything Better Than WWE

While Vince McMahon has been less than kind about All Elite Wrestling in his few public comments about the promotion, comparing their product to "blood and guts" back in 2019, the WWE Executive Chairman did take an interest in AEW's product in early 2020.

AEW Dynamite had only been on TV for a few months at the time but a new Bloomberg piece on Tony Khan has revealed that WWE higher-ups were paying close attention to AEW TV. This prompted Vince McMahon to call Bryan Danielson while he was on paternity leave and ask, "Do you see anything that AEW's doing better than us?" 

Following the phone call, Danielson went over "every morsel of AEW programming" and determined AEW committed more time to and put more value on the action inside the squared circle. WWE's shows, on the other hand, were dominated by short matches and long talking segments.

Danielson told McMahon: "It feels like you're watching a wrestling show without any wrestling."

McMahon at the time was head of WWE creative along with his role as Chairman and CEO. He is no longer involved with creative following his retirement in July 2022 but McMahon has returned to WWE, being elected as Executive Chairman by a restructured board on January 10 after he forced his way back into the company. He is currently pursuing a sale of WWE.