Bryan Danielson originally chose Europe’s “Final Countdown” as a joke.
The song has become synonymous with the American Dragon, going all the way back to his days in Ring of Honor.
While he never used it in WWE, Tony Khan originally bought the rights to the tune at Forbidden Door 2023. He has continued to use the song sparingly, including at AEW All In 2024 against Swerve Strickland.
Bryan Danielson spoke about using the song in the AEW All In post-show media scrum. He revealed that he picked the song after seeing it in a list of the worst songs ever.
The AEW Champion noted that he never expected the song to catch on. He especially didn’t expect to see over 50,000 fans singing it. He hopes his success can help Tony Khan get a better deal to play the song in the future.
“I chose it as a joke. I was going to Japan a lot and would pick up music magazines at the airport. They used to have all these lists of best songs or whatever. Well, they had the hundred worst songs of all time. I think number one was ‘Final Countdown.’
I was going through them and, I hate to say this, illegally downloading them on Napster. Like ‘Oh, I love this song! I haven’t heard this song in years!’ or whatever it is. ‘Final Countdown’ was—if it wasn’t number one, it was top 10. I was like, ‘Oh, this would be awesome entrance music.’
I do a lot of things to entertain myself. But I never once thought it would catch on in Ring of Honor. Let alone that 20 years later I would be doing it in front of 50-plus thousand people. So yeah, and with a whole 50,000 people singing along to ‘The Final Countdown.’ I don’t know if anybody’s shown this to Europe—if you could, maybe they might bring down the price. It might get us a couple more buys.”
Tony Khan Hopes Bryan Danielson’s Reaction Can Get Them A Better Deal For The Song
After Bryan Danielson’s comments, Tony Khan joked that the fan’s reaction could hopefully get them a better deal to use ‘Final Countdown’.
However, he noted that the company have a good deal with Europe already. The AEW President called it “one of the most iconic wrestling themes of all time”, so he likely wants to keep using it.
“Hopefully, they’ll give me a break, but yeah, we’ve locked in a great deal with Europe and are looking forward to more ‘Final Countdown’ plays. I hope, but that is yet to be seen. It’s been a very fortunate thing that they’ve been willing to work with us because, to Keith’s point and what Brian said, it’s added so much to the presentation. It’s one of the most iconic wrestling themes of all time and one of my favorite moments ever in the business.”
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