During a recent appearance on the “Casual Conversations with The Classic” podcast, AEW Superstar Bryan Danielson commented on why he doesn’t have merchandise in AEW, how Hangman Page connects with the fans of AEW, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On his lack of merchandise in AEW and why he prefers it that way: “So AEW came up with a very nice ‘The American Dragon Is Back’ t-shirt. I think one of the things that has confused their merchandising people, and also confused the WWE merchandising people, is that I don’t wanna sell people things. So it’s a choice. It also makes my life simpler in the sense of I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to wear to tv right now. So it’s a white shirt and some joggers. There’s Steve Jobs who was infamous for, he would just do the black turtleneck and he didn’t have to worry. I don’t wanna waste my time thinking about what I’m going to wear.
“Anyways, there’s a certain aspect of that but part of my service is this idea of how do we benefit the planet and all that kind of stuff. One of the things that is hard for me is ‘okay, if I’m trying to sell people stuff, am I actually trying to help the issues that are facing the world today, especially from a climate/environment perspective?’ There are some places that need stuff, so it’s like when you say consume less it’s like ‘what about the people in the forest countries of the world? What about the bottom one billion?’ I’m not telling them to consume less. But I also don’t want to be pushing people to consume more. I don’t want to say ‘hey, buy my shirt!’ unless purchasing the shirt does more good than harm.”
On Hangman Page’s connection with AEW fans and a potential rematch with Kenny Omega: “I think Hangman Page is awesome. I think you know there’s when people connect like that with a crowd, it becomes magic. That’s what you want. I think one of the cool things about Hangman Page is that he’s not somebody, you know Kenny Omega had a name coming in. The previous champions, you look at Jericho, Moxley, and Kenny and although Kenny wasn’t in WWE, he had made a huge name for himself in Japan and all that kind of stuff. Hangman didn’t have that big of a name. And so I look at him as an AEW homegrown star. When he came out and won that ladder match, CM Punk and I were both on that show. But the loudest reaction of the show was Hangman Adam Page. To me, that’s super cool. I that speaks volumes of him as far as how he’s been able to progress.
“And it speaks volumes of AEW. They put him in a position where they trust somebody. In AEW, being the World Champion, it’s a big thing. Now, am I a bit disappointed (to not be facing Kenny Omega)? Yes. Part of that is kinda a story, I mentioned it last week on Dynamite that I was disappointed it wasn’t Kenny Omega standing across from me. But realistically, I’m thrilled that it’s Hangman. And I also feel like at some point Kenny and I are going to get a chance to do it again. He’s taking some time off right now, but I think, hopefully, we’re going to get a chance to do it again. That said, I was forced to retire before and you never want to take those things for granted. Like ‘hey, I’ll be able to do this match again’ or ‘I’ll be able to wrestle this guy again.’ You just don’t want to take that for granted.”
(h/t – Wrestling Inc)