Tony Khan wants to use The Final Countdown for Bryan Danielson more, but it’s not completely up to him.
Bryan Danielson and Tony Khan spoke last weekend during the AEW All Out Media Scrum. When asked about Danielson once again coming out to Europe’s The Final Countdown and if this might be a permanent thing going forward, Khan confessed it’s not all dependent on him.
“Well, it’s not all dependent on me like trades in sports,” Tony Khan admitted. “Sometimes, everything’s in two parties’ hands or multiple parties’ hands in this case. So, I would love to use Final Countdown again. Hopefully, we can keep working it out. I got it for two pay-per-views, and we were able to use it on these two great shows.
“And I think it was awesome to have that moment in Toronto at Forbidden Door and awesome to come back to Chicago for All Out and have Final Countdown here in Chicago. It means a lot to me personally because I’m such a huge fan of wrestling, and in particular, I’m a huge fan of Bryan Danielson, and to have Bryan come out to Final Countdown again.
“The first time I went, as he’ll attest, I went absolutely crazy. It meant a lot to me and a lot of people backstage. And then to do it again tonight and have the Chicago fans get that experience. I think everybody, you heard the crowd, they went nuts for it. I’d love to do it again.
“And I think it really is beneficial also to the band and to the rights holders because we’ve seen — I tracked the charts, and I haven’t been able to look tonight, but I did look around Forbidden Door, and Final Countdown moved way up in the iTunes charts up into like a high position and stayed there for a while after the Toronto Forbidden Door show and I’m sure tonight again, there’s going to be more downloads more streams of Final Countdown.
“So when artists work with us and let us license the music, and we use a lot of great music in AEW. I really believe it’s beneficial in multiple ways because I’ll pay a licensing fee gladly because we use great music, and I’m happy to pay for it. But also, it’s good because I think it gets more downloads and streams for them too. But definitely Final Countdown. I was excited to use it because, as far as I know, Forbidden Door in Toronto and All Out tonight in Chicago are the first two times in your career that the song has been used legally with permission.”
AEW All Out was Bryan Danielson’s first time competing in the United Center
Bryan Danielson laughed at Khan’s comment. The American Dragon went on to speak about how fun it is to use that song again for his entrance.
“[Laughs] And it’s really fun for me and also sometimes really frustrating. Because Final Countdown is one of those things that just gets stuck in your head,” Bryan Danielson said. “So, like I was just in the locker room before this, and there were multiple people going [hums the song]. And then it gets stuck in my head. I walk in, internally, I’m not actually humming it, but internally I’m going [hums the song].
“So yeah, also I’ve never wrestled in the United Center before. Yesterday was my first time in the United Center ever. Every time I see a Bulls jersey, I’m sorry, Chicago. I get a little bit bitter because of the 96 NBA Finals, I was a huge Supersonics fan. I wanted to tell Dennis Rodman that Shawn Kemp owns him in that series, but I did not.
“[laughs] You guys still won! You can’t boo me for trying to hold on to one little thing when at the time, no Seattle franchise had ever won any world championships since I had been alive. So, if I held onto a grudge for a little bit too long, you have to give me that. But yeah, it’s just really cool to hear it in the United Center when I did so many Ring of Honor shows here in Chicago with that.
“And it’s one of the this is one of the things that’s fascinating about wrestling and wrestling fans is you would think that people wouldn’t know about that. Because when I was at my most popular, I didn’t come out to that. I thought it was a niche thing. And then I knew maybe in Toronto and that sort of thing. Oh, maybe there’ll be some people who will be into it. But to have two shows like this where it came out and there’s so many people were into it was really cool.”
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What do you make of Tony Khan and Bryan Danielson’s comments? Would you like to see The Final Countdown used more in the future? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit the All Out Media Scrum with a link to this article for the transcription.
