Bryan Danielson explains why Final Countdown did not become his theme song in AEW.
Upon hearing rumors that the former Daniel Bryan was coming to AEW, many fans flashed back to his independent days when he used to walk to the ring to the song Final Countdown by Europe. However, when he did make his debut at AEW All Out 2021, Bryan Danielson had original theme music in the form of a remix of Flight of the Valkyries with an old chant from the independent scene that used to be directed towards Danielson mixed in.
Speaking with Dr. Chris Mueller of Bleacher Report, Bryan Danielson explains that the right fees for the famous song by Europe were simply too much for a limited number of uses of the song and it simply couldn’t be justified.
“Tony and I talked about a couple of things. We had talked about ‘The Final Countdown,’ but that was way too expensive,” he said. “I hate talking business stuff when I don’t exactly know what it was, but it wasn’t just the amount of money. They would only let [AEW] play it like 20 times a year or something like that. For several $100,000 you can play ‘Final Countdown’ 20 times a year. That doesn’t work for us.
“I had kind of wanted something a bit different, so I reached out to my friend, Elliott Taylor, and said ‘Hey, here’s an idea. But I don’t know if it’s any good. Could you do something like this?’ He dropped everything. I think he’s done 72 hours in the studio and made the song that I come out to now, which I think he’s also going to do a full-length release because it actually has like two chorus lyrics.
“I really, really liked it. And it also incorporates a chant that people would do when I was on the independents. I kind of wanted to get it in there. I would love for people to start chanting it again.”
Danielson will make his wrestling debut in All Elite Wrestling in the grandest way possible. He will be facing Kenny Omega in a one-on-one match inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, in the main event of AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam.
